Robson Laidler

Unique customised texted for each client/project.

 

Fresh from a full rebrand, Robson Laidler agreed that their website was long overdue a redo. Their old site was tired and wasn’t showcasing the elegance of their new brand.

Robson Laidler already had a firm footing in their space. Established for nearly 100 years, their brand now portrayed a sense of understated confidence. The new brand was bold, and when we visited their offices, they had the entire building on brand! Parking signs, directions, door labels, toilets – even the meeting room chairs were the brand colour!

It was clear that Robson Laidler needed a website that was a true representation of them and their belief that knowledge is at the heart of what they have to offer, with their “We know” tagline prevalent throughout to highlight their can-do service ethos.

“Having gone through the Accelerator programme, I realised that Robson Laidler’s current website didn’t reflect the future of where our businesses was heading.

 

We needed a platform to attract tech-savvy clients to fit in line with our objectives to migrate accounts to cloud based software, increase our business advisory offering and demonstrate how technology can drive efficiency into businesses.”

With an existing WordPress website, it made sense for them to continue with WordPress, and with that in mind, the first stop was strategy.

 

Defining the target audience & messaging: Who are they? What are their ideal qualities? What’s the message?

One of the challenges of the old Robson Laidler site was that it didn’t highlight their niche areas very well. They had pages for individual niche industries, but not enough detail around the type of business they want to work with.

So, it was time to iron that out. In their initial strategy session, it was a priority to identify which niche areas they wanted to focus on. Lots of factors were taken into consideration – industry, business size, experience, number of case studies, and so on.

What became apparent that, whilst they had some niche industries they wanted to specialise in, they were more attracted to a type of individual with a specific set of qualities. They wanted more clients who wanted more than just an end-of-year accountant, clients who recognised the importance of preparing for the rest of their life.

With these ideal qualities identified, we set about crafting a homepage message that highlighted this. Initially, we tried “Accounting for businesses with entrepreneurial spirit” but what we found was this didn’t encapsulate the goals of their prospective clients.

In the end, we agreed “Accounting for businesses with big ideas” captured everything they wanted to portray: Ambition, goals, the need for advice, long-term planning. It was agreed that this was the main homepage message and we strategised this in more detail for their About page.

 

A new spin on the Services page: Crafting the Robson Laidler journey

Once we had identified the ideal client qualities, it was time to address services. With an array of sub-brands, Robson Laidler knew they were uniquely position to offer services outside the accounting norm, such as wealth management, will writing and probate, but they wanted to move away from the typical “page-per-service” style the industry is known for.

During the strategy session, one thing that kept coming up is the idea of a journey. The team demonstrated how their clients start with regular accountancy and tax, then go on a journey where they’re adding more services, like advisory, apps, wealth management and so on.

This was something unique for Robson Laidler, and we were all agreement that a page highlighting the Robson Laidler journey was to be their new services page.

“We want clients to feel that we are part of their business journey. The new website demonstrates this beautifully with the ‘Your Journey’ step by step layout to show how we are with them every step of the way and can get all their business support with us under one roof.”

Another example of the putting their spin on a page was case studies and testimonials – This ended up being called Impact, a phrase that came up time and time again in their strategy session when describing the work they do for their clients.

 

Niche focuses and sub-brands: How do they fit in?

In our initial strategy session, it was initially agreed that their site would have a page for the Wealth department, one of their sub-brands, with a view to adding more pages for the various other sub-brands post launch.

Once this was delivered, it became quickly apparent that the page didn’t showcase the sub-brand enough. The message was there, but the Robson Laidler team wanted the sub-brand page to fully encapsulate the idea that Wealth was a separate arm and entity, with individual colours, tone of voice and so on.

To deliver this, we redesigned the Wealth page so that when you visit, you’re greeted by the purple Wealth brand rather than the general accountancy green brand, giving the look and feel of a micro-site and continuing the individual identity of the Wealth team.

 

Additional pages: Meet the team, Capitalise, Careers

As the site developed, the Robson Laidler team agreed that they needed additional pages. With a 90+ strong team, they wanted an area to highlight every team member and also a space to recruit even more.

The team quickly bolted-on 3 additional pages to accommodate this, with one page highlighting their partnership with Capitalise to secure business funding for their client-base.

 

Preparing for launch: Adding the final Robson Laidler touch

With the site nearly ready, the homepage was missing one final ingredient – Video. The Robson Laidler team wanted to showcase their history and presence in the local area, so they worked with a local video team to produce a custom video showcasing the area, their offices and what they do – a video which sits in the background of their homepage. Watch it here!

The result? A homepage that truly encapsulates the Robson Laidler brand and vision for providing a knowledgeable and rich service, one that boasts history and experience with plenty of space for their resources, blogs and more.

Post-launch, Robson Laidler are gearing up for their 100-year anniversary, one they plan to celebrate with case studies from every year of their service. We can’t wait to see what’s in store!

We feel that the new website does a great job of the above by being a virtual hub of knowledge for business owners and entrepreneurial thinkers, where they can gain useful resources and toolkits, read thought-leading blog posts and download business guides.

 

I particularly like the clever use of wording with the ‘Start Here’ icon taking the client on a business diagnostic, so before we even meet we know where they are on their journey and can prepare ideas to help them succeed.

 

The new site has encouraged more and more staff to write their own blog posts as they can now see the impact this has and how visually appealing it looks. Staff now feel like their very own authors of knowledge as its given them their own platform to share their skills and expertise. The sharable icons are perfect for escalating this content into the wider community and staff have been sharing their work with their social media friends and family.

 

The new site also does a great job of reflecting our brand ethics and it’s great to see our community and charity projects finally get some recognition on its own area.

 

The Profitable Firm has helped us go from a tired accounting site to a fresh, bold and vibrant custom look. I was hoping the website was going to be awesome – and it is!