how to build a website - coast & country housing's digital journey

Coast & Country Housing’s digital journey

Esme Flounders // Marketing and Communications Director // Press Ahead

Creative | PR | Research | Marketing

HiEsme Flounders Marketing & Communications Director

In April 2013...


I joined Coast & Country Housing as Head of Communications with a broad remit..

➜ Fix the team

➜ Fix the brand

➜ Fix media relations

➜ Fix social media

➜ Fix internal communications and staff engagement

and...

You’ve guessed it…


Fix the website...

You can see why…


High level analytics


➜ Approx. 24,000 hits per month

➜ Bounce rate approx. 71%

➜ Length of time on site approx. 38 seconds

➜ New versus returning visitors approx. 24%

So, lots of work to do then!

Mrs Fix It…


➜ By June, a new team of 10 had been recruited and were all in post by September.

➜ Press Ahead appointed in July following competitive tender process to service all creative design and print needs.

➜ Web and intranet spec developed, potential suppliers researched and tender put out in early August.

Then I went on holiday


(thus avoiding the inevitable nervous breakdown)

Between August and October…


Worked with Press Ahead to re-brand (in the truest sense of the word)

Which meant doing all of this….


Brand evaluation and assessmentBoard

Team

Current franchisees

Current and potential users service

THERULES

Brand workshop and research

Brand framework production

Naming and slogan development Identity

development

Testing

Brand Book production

Marketing collateral

Brand introduction and training

YOU

I’m not really here to talk about brand, but…


Has relevance because in doing such a thorough job on brand we answered a lot of questions around:

➜ Our various audiences and their preferences, needs and requirements

➜ Visual markers, messaging and tone of voice

As such, we more or less knew what our content strategy was going to look like.

And that’s one of my top tips!


➜ Develop a coherent, comprehensive content strategy.

➜ Content is king!

But more on that later…

By October…


➜ Re-brand well underway

➜ Time to get web out to tender!

➜ Following very competitive tender process, Verse One appointed

Between appointment and project start


➜ Staff consultation

➜ Tenant consultation!

➜ Stakeholder consultation

➜ Identified specific wants, needs and desires in terms of content and layout.

➜ Began developing copy, playing with page layouts and sourcing photographic support.

In January 2014…


Project launch!Verse One site visits:➜ Four site visits from James and Andrew

➜ Consultation on style sheets with Leadership Team and Board, Senior Management, Management Team, staff body, and involved tenants

➜ Survey monkey to all in the CRM system

➜ Style decided upon

➜ Information architecture arranged to fit needs – got rid of the noise and went back to basics

Next up…


Once layout confirmed

➜ I wrote all of the copy (yep, every last word!) Really important in terms of consistent tone of voice.

➜ Images sourced and video content developed (also really important)

➜ Press Ahead supplied brand guidelines and worked with Verse One to develop the look and feel (really important to join all of the dots!)

We had a site!!

Test, test, test


Once layout confirmed

➜ User testing with sample of all our audiences

➜ Not many changes (phew!)

➜ Minor tweaks to navigation and content following feedback

➜

Test again!

April 11th 2014…


A date forever etched in my mind!

We worked through the night, made final amends first thing on the morning before pressing the button and going live.

“In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.” Deepak Chopra

“So foul and fair a day I have not seen” Shakespeare

Yeah, right!

We had a website!


An instant hit!


Old Site New Site

24,000

71%

38 seconds

24%

51,000

24%

154 seconds

72%

Hits per month

Bounce rate

Length of time on site

New versus returning visitors

And holding steady!

Great customer feedback…


➜ David Orr and other NHF personalities

➜ CIPR big wigs

➜ Other web designers and technology companies

➜ Stakeholders and business partners

➜ Staff and Board

And most importantly, customers.

Driving traffic to the site…


At long last we weren’t terribly embarrassed by the state of our website. So, we hit the button and drove traffic to the site:

➜ Hit social media in a big way. Social share buttons and social feeds really helped

➜ E-card to those in CRM just after launch

➜ B2B e-zine driving traffic to news stories

➜ E-cards to tenants

➜ Articles in tenant magazine

➜ Media relations

But, the website does the talking…


➜ Great sites speak for themselves

➜ People use it because it’s useful, it’s easy and it meets their needs

➜ With digital inclusion high on your agenda, you need to make it easy. Make people want to transact online

Top tips…


➜ Know your audience(s.) You can never do enough research. Plus, research process helps secure buy in

➜ Develop a content strategy (planning and developing good content that attracts and engages with your target audience)

➜ Content: This includes good photography and videos. Video more than anything else will drive traffic to your site and engage with your audience

➜ Keep it accessible

➜ Don’t be scared to get your design agency on board. They know your brand as well as you do and have the skills to apply it in a creatively expert way

kieron

Typewritten Text

kieron

Typewritten Text

More Top tips…


➜ Test, test, test and take feedback on the chin

➜ Get social to drive traffic to your site. You have a great site – tell the world!

➜ Don’t forget SEO. If you need a bit of help, it’s worth investing!

➜ Set KPIS early on based on what you want to achieve. Then, monitor and tweak to improve performance

➜ Never forget - you can always improve. Digital doesn’t stand still, so neither should your site

If I was doing it again…


➜ Be aware that everyone wants a piece of the website and thinks they are qualified to comment. They’re not. In a big operation, with lots of key messages to disseminate one person needs to decide what takes priority. Stand firm! You know best!

➜ Make sure IT are on board and are aware of where you are in the process!

Thank you

how to build a website - coast & country housing's digital journey

Marketing

creative design

brand fix media relations

management team

new team

terms of content

competitive tender process

head of communications

andrew consultation