Following an internal and external brand audit, Core rolled out a rebrand strategy that required the design and build of a new interactive company website.

To support the rebrand and to encourage the ‘inclusive’ ethos behind the new brand, the Core website was entirely recreated using Web 2.0 technology that allows the team to constantly update, personalise and engage with its online audience.

Highly interactive new media strategy

The brand experience was followed through with a new media strategy. Core’s online activity is continual and highly interactive, involving regular team blogs, Twitter updates to promote the company’s personality. The company’s creativity is showcased through regular posts illustrating new projects and company news.

A content driven website

It was widely recognised by Core that the new website needed to keep pace with the development and large use of social media, and move to a more content driven, rather than design driven website. Recent enquiries had proven to Core that the website is the number one way for the target audience to source new suppliers and so creating a site that was search engine (SEO) friendly was paramount.

Other important objects that were considered when creating the new website were:

A site that is easy for the team to update This was achieved through the use of an industry standard open source content managed system as a basis for the site. This means that the team can now easily and instantly upload its own SEO friendly content that is regularly updated to heighten the search engine rankings.

In constantly monitoring the effectiveness of the website, changes have been implemented to ensure it ranks high in popular searches.

For example, Core was not initially registering in searches for ‘graphic design Birmingham’, so the word ‘creative’ has been substituted with ‘design’ throughout the website in order to make sure the website promotes this key service offering.

A site that is social media enabled

With the rapid growth of social media, Core understood the importance of embracing this new digital world and integrating social media activity throughout the new website. This includes sending daily informative and interesting Tweets, with a live rolling Twitter feed on the website homepage to keep content fresh.

The team also implemented a schedule of informative blogs that are uploaded at least every two weeks to keep content fresh and, are peppered with key words to enhance SEO.

Core recognised that the way its clients and prospects interact with websites is changing, visitors like to engage with brands and organisations. With this in mind, each new post on the website is followed with an option to leave a comment, which is then approved by the Core team before it goes live. This encourages two way interaction with the online audience without running the risk of abuse or spam being directly posted to the site.

Adding value to our existing clients through the new website

This was achieved through creating a press centre where all of our client press releases are uploaded once covered by the media.

This provides another channel for client’s news to be picked up and the team also adds its client’s latest marketing collateral and campaigns to the ‘Our Work’ section to further enhance profile.

Accessible through a number of platforms

The way that people access information online is also changing, particularly with the growth of the smart phone and in particular the iPhone. The Core website has been designed to be easily viewed on a number of mobile devices, creating a more portable source of information and therefore more chance of repeat visits. The content is also DDA compliant and created with the highest accessibility standards in mind.

Results

After the first three months following the launch of the new website, social media and SEO strategy, the unique visitors to the site doubled and continue to grow month on month with the average time on site consistently totalling over 2.30 minutes.