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Evolve Accounting's Fresh New Look
We've recently had the pleasure of working with our very good friends Evolve Accounting on their new website!
Why?
They've been doing their own marketing and design in-house for years, and it's always worked really well for them. They're a modern, quirky and friendly business who want to get away from the 'scary accountants' image, and their marketing reflected this. However, over the COVID-19 pandemic they decided the time was right to upgrade slightly while keeping their original look and feel.
We were very happy to help them appear slightly more professional and (as they called it) 'grown up', while not over-writing all the hard work the team have put into their image.
It's part of a bigger re-launch, having previously been called Accounts by Emma. The Emma in question wants a bigger focus on the team in general rather than herself, and hopefully this re-brand and new website will encourage that to happen.
Freshening up
After a few Zoom sessions brainstorming ideas, the first thing we suggested was that they strip back a lot of their website and make it more minimalist and approachable. Their previous colour scheme was black, but we went out on a limb and completely flipped it, switching the background themes to white and bringing their green in as a heavily-used accent colour. We were worried it would be too much of a change, but the team were open to it so we rolled with it.
Making it quicker for potential clients
An issue we'd identified with their previous website was that it took a while for clients to figure out the services actually on offer. Like most industries, accounting has many different parts to it and Evolve offer a whole variety of services. We simplified the services page, dividing the sections into boxes rather than a block of text, making it quick and easy for the eye to search for the required service.
Getting enquiries
A new website may look lovely, but what is the actual end goal? This varies for every client, but for Evolve, they wanted enquiries via the contact form. Their old site didn't have a very clear call to action, falling into the trap of just being an information hub and not guiding clients through a process. We added clear buttons to each section, guiding new clients through a journey which should end in filling in a form. We also installed a Chat bot for quick enquiries.
Saving Evolve's time
When the client made an enquiry on Evolve's old site, it relied on Emma or Simon reading the enquiry and going back with a whole range of questions in order to provide a quote. We realised they could benefit from a more in-depth contact form, so we created a Get A Quote page which asks all of the questions they'd have gone back with. They've admitted this has already saved them loads of emails back and forth!
Working with the new branding & marketing plans
We're always happy to work with third party designers, marketing companies and branding experts, and this was a good example. Evolve contracted a marketing expert to help bring their branding up to date and run some newsletters and blogs for them. This was a really great move, and we were very happy to work with Michelle and the team to co-ordinate the marketing efforts. Hearing what the marketing team were hoping to achieve meant we could adjust the website and call to actions accordingly, and the new branding gave us the fonts and colours to work with, meaning all their channels look the same.
Making the right impression
One of the hardest parts of a new website is choosing images - especially if you're a service and don't sell a specific product. It can be very hard to fall into the trap of selecting the wrong type of images. I very strongly suggested against using pictures of a calculator or a desk, and instead showing pictures of what the outcome of the service is - in this case, a happy, local business person. This gives a much nicer impression and gives the client a view of the positive outcome of their accounting service rather than what could be seen as the scary process.
Not just a nice website
There are so many aspects that go into what makes a website work. It's not all about how it looks - although obviously that's as important as everything else. Knowing what a client wants to achieve - the 'end goal' as such, is incredibly important in guiding the audience into the correct action.
"Kat and Shaun really guided us through the process helping us to understand a fresher look website could improve our brand image. They also made brilliantly helpful suggestions that we hadn't thought of such as to have a contact form - this has made such a difference to how new clients engage with us. We hadn't appreciated quite how important getting not only the look but also the functionality of a website right and just how powerful that can be for pushing your business forward until we met Kat and Shaun." - Emma, Evolve Accounting