This week, I was invited to speak at an event at which I described the monumental journey that I undertook during my time as Head of Communications at Coast & Country Housing. From recruiting a team and re-branding to fixing the intranet and website. My fabulous team and I did it all - in less than 12 months. Thanks to the support of Press Ahead and VerseOne, this presentation focusses on Coast & Country's digital journey.

1. Coast & Country Housing’s
digital journey
Esme Flounders // Marketing and Communications Director // Press Ahead

2. Creative | PR | Research | Marketing
Hi
Esme Flounders
Marketing & Communications Director

3. In April 2013...
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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...

4. You’ve guessed it…
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Fix the website...

5. You can see why…
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6. High level analytics
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➜ 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!

7. Mrs Fix It…
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➜ 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.

8. Then I went on holiday
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(thus avoiding the inevitable nervous breakdown)

9. Between August and October…
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Worked with Press Ahead to re-brand
(in the truest sense of the word)

10. Which meant doing all of this….
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Brand evaluation and assessment
Board
Team
Current franchisees
Current and potential users service
THE
RULES
Brand workshop and research
Brand framework production
Naming and slogan development
Identity development
Testing
Brand Book production
Marketing collateral
Brand introduction and training
YOU

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

12. And that’s one of my top tips!
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➜ Develop a coherent, comprehensive content strategy.
➜ Content is king!
But more on that later…

13. By October…
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➜ Re-brand well underway
➜ Time to get web out to tender!
➜ Following very competitive tender process,
Verse One appointed

14. Between appointment and project start
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➜ 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.

15. In January 2014…
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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

16. Next up…
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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!!

17. Test, test, test
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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!

18. April 11th 2014…
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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!

19. We had a website!
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20. Creative | PR | Research | Marketing

21. An instant hit!
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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!

22. Great customer feedback…
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➜ 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.

23. Driving traffic to the site…
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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

24. But, the website does the talking…
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➜ 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

25. Top tips…
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➜ 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

26. More Top tips…
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➜ 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

27. If I was doing it again…
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➜ 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!

28. Thank you