When lockdown-induced DIY made B&Q’s online sales leap by more than 200%, we also put our hard hats on and decided to rebuild our website. Lockdown presented the perfect opportunity for a project. Some of our clients had paused to take stock, so we did too. For us, that meant looking to the future and creating a slick new website.
With Pantone’s instead of paintbrushes, we got straight to it – and learned a thing or two along the way…
Lesson one – Be your own best client
As a digital copywriting agency, delivering new sites is a huge part of our day-to-day work. We’ve got this in the bag, we thought. Wrong. Turns out we needed to go the extra mile for our new website, just as we would for a client.
We discovered that working remotely on our own projects needed even more structure than usual. So, we put a strict timeline in place and followed the same reviewing process as we would for client work.
Learning to take away: Working on your own website can be just as valuable (likely more so) than a client project. So carve out dedicated time in the schedule just like you do for clients.
Lesson two – Play to your strengths
When we’re assigning writers to client projects, we put the best people on the team for the job. And we quickly learned that we needed to do the same for our own website refresh – a project that was too important to let slip.
As we got into the flow of balancing client work with internal work, we nailed putting the right writer, proofreader and project manager on each task, so the website got the attention it deserved.
Learning to take away: Your website is absolutely key to your business success, so invest in the best.
Lesson three – Bring in the experts
Great minds don’t always think alike. That’s why we worked closely with our brilliant web agency, Rebel & Slaughter. They shared our vision and mirrored our level of ambition, making the process smooth and constructive. They also brought the technical insights we needed to make our copy stand up to the test of the online world. All the insights we garnered meant we could be critical and decisive about our own work.
Learning to take away: Invest in a great partnership. One that brings you loads of expertise, takes tricky tasks off your desk and helps you stick to those all-important deadlines.
Lesson four – Never stand still
After four months of work, the new site launched fully last week, and we couldn’t be more pleased. We’ve already seen a 31% increase in traffic and a 133% increase in leads, month-on-month.
To keep those figures moving in the right direction, we need to maintain momentum with new blogs and regularly refreshed content. Like many of our clients, our capabilities, services and team members change, and our web copy needs to reflect the way we evolve while stamping out any inconsistencies.
Learning to take away: Keep scheduling in new content to continue bringing in new business.
We know the decision to invest in our business, instead of battening down the hatches, was the right one. Thanks to good old-fashioned elbow grease, project management and teamwork, we made the most of the opportunity lockdown presented to us.
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