Jon Davis is owner of Architectural Designs, a one-time print magazine that has grown from digital upstart to market leader in house plans sold online. (House plans are designs for homes that can be built by contractors.) Jon and his team deal in dreams, and they’ve been on a remarkable run, building out a lead in the market – Jon calls it his “moat” – with HFC as a partner for over five years. Jon’s other half in the office, Kitty Connor, joined the company in 2012 and puts AD’s success this way, “every year I have been at AD has been better than the last one.” This is a bit of an understatement.
Here are some highlights
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AD’s Alexa rank, a measure of overall popularity, was once well below the former house plans leader, but AD now has a commanding lead in 1st place among the competition.
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They average millions of visitors per month, with a commanding presence on social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram
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They’ve grown their email list deep into six figures.
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2020 was AD’s biggest year on record, +70% revenue YoY.
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January 2021 was the biggest month on record for AD, more than doubling sales from the January before and nearly tripling the January before that.
AD’s revenue growth has consistently outpaced housing starts over the years, including 2020 when COVID-19 gave the industry a bit of a boost. Remarkably, through all of the growth the AD team has remained nearly the same size. Jon attributes this to his team’s can-do culture and focus on work/life balance that mirrors HFC’s – “You [can do more with the same people when] you have the right people ... who understand that, hey, 9:00 to 5:00 is for work.” The team’s success wouldn’t be possible without drive and a tight-knit culture, the latter evidenced by their daily group lunches. HFC has also helped to supercharge this winning combination with wide-ranging automation.
AD’s relationship with HFC has evolved from a one-off redesign project into a powerhouse partnership that has helped the company take the lead in their industry through a transformative redesign, innovative tooling to streamline operations, and a comprehensive marketing strategy tailored to the unique research habits and purchasing cycle of AD’s customers.
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