The Challenge
A redesign that required more than just a website reskin in order to meet the expectations of the marketplace.
What was our role?
Who are Carolina Blinds?
Carolina Blinds and Curtains provide a full range of window dressings for their customers. Unlike their competitors, they don’t operate out of a traditional shop; they visit their customers’ homes and provide a bespoke measuring and fitting service.
They are dedicated to helping the customer make the best choice given their personal style and the space available to them.
“You weren’t telling me what you were going to do for me, you were asking what I needed. I felt I was going to be looked after through the process.”
Penny Comley-Ross
Director, Carolina Blinds
Director Penny felt that the well-known national agency she initially chose weren’t listening when she told them what she needed from a company website.
This resulted in a disappointing experience and a site which crammed all of the company’s services into a few pages of bullet points. Carolina had also paid extra for SEO work yet were not receiving any customer enquiries.
Vu Online helped to turn things around by creating a new website for Carolina Blinds and Curtains. We focused both on optimising the site for each of the company’s separate product lines and reworking the company’s brand for a high-end appeal.
We Measured Up
Following a disappointing experience with their existing developers, Carolina Blinds and Curtains needed a more personal service from a company focused on their priorities.
Vu worked collaboratively with Carolina and our creative partners, adding value throughout the website development process.
The Solution
This project was about much more than just building a website.
There were a lot of things we had to break apart, review and rebuild to make the new site a success.
“I continue to get good reports and so do the guys when they go out to do quotes. At least two dozen jobs have come from the web contact.”
Penny Comley-Ross
Director, Carolina Blinds
Much More Than Window Dressing
As with all of our clients, we began by talking Penny through our website development process.
To help Carolina drive up enquiries by ranking for important keywords, we needed to treat each of the company’s services as a separate entity. This involved detailed SEO research and adding quality copy to the web pages.
Some before shots of a busy website and ineffective brand
We also showed Penny our design concepts which helped her visualise that her brand and logo needed reworking to fit into the new look of her website.
We suggested using some illustrations to tie the copy and design together and highlight the company’s home visit, measuring and fitting process: their USP.
At the same time, we recommended adding some video content and worked closely with Sam Hatton-Brown to ensure the videos accurately told the company’s story and tied in with the developing brand.
A day of filming got a promo video as well as a testimonial reel and banner shots
It was also important for us to support Carolina in moving their website domain and otherwise ensure a smooth transition from their previous agency.
Despite a lack of cooperation from the agency, we went above and beyond to mount a successful salvage operation.
Results
11
New Leads in the First 3 Months
35%
Increase in Visitors
27%
More Mobile Users
6%
Higher Average Sale Value & Web Sales
The Carolina Blinds and Curtains website now clearly explains their novel home measuring and fitting service. It also has a high-end design in keeping with major competitors such as Hillarys.
Penny used to dread speaking to her previous website developers. In contrast, she has found the Vu website process a delight and has enjoyed coming in for website meetings. We broke the process down nicely for her which meant she never felt overwhelmed.
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