Selina Cresswell, Marketing and Admin Executive at Our Colchester, shares her experiences of creating a new brand and website and her top tips for ensuring a website's success.
In August 2019, Our Colchester Business Improvement District (BID) launched a new consumer brand and website designed to represent our town centre and the BID businesses within it. We’d like to share the story of how we worked in partnership with the team at Jacob Bailey and DestinationCore to bring a new energy to Colchester town centre.
We worked with Jacob Bailey to develop the new In Colchester consumer brand, which was designed to be our key communicator for consumers visiting the town centre. The brand was realised by working collaboratively though a series of workshops which helped us understand the style, tone of voice, attributes and values we wanted our brand to have. This then gave us a platform for our new website.
Colchester town centre is renowned for its rich history. However, the workshops helped us understand that our consumer audience and stakeholders wanted to celebrate the modern and to encourage investment across the town and demonstrate how Colchester is continually growing and adapting.
The website was an essential tool in positioning Colchester as a forward thinking destination, allowing us to provide the town with a unique and authentic identity as well as offer a platform for consumers which would become the “go-to” for events, offers and campaigns across the whole town centre.
Having the ability to add on different features to the website allows us to constantly grow and build on a site that is forever looking to adapt to its town centre
DestinationCore proved to be the perfect platform to help us deliver this and we believe it will continue to do so over the coming years. Having the ability to add on different features to the website allows us to constantly grow and build on a site that is forever looking to adapt to its town centre.
Now, after 6 months, In Colchester has built a reputation in the town centre and starting to become recognised by many. Receiving over 20,000 unique sessions to our website since launch, we’ve seen how our new brand and website has encouraged increased footfall and engagement in the town, but more importantly how it has benefitted the businesses we represent. One of our recently opened businesses has already gained over 250 views on its directory page - demonstrating how our site has become a trustworthy source of information for the town centre.
We’ve seen first-hand how a town centre website can provide a community hub for not only the consumers of the town but for businesses too. With budget being tight for some of the smaller independent businesses the incolchester.co.uk/ website provides a vital online presence, making these business visible to a wider online audience where they don’t have the opportunity or resource to do so otherwise. Our platform provides a highly visible and real benefit to these businesses.
Blogs, attractive imagery and a variety of filtering options create a website which feels welcoming
Town centres are evolving and increasingly moving towards entertainment spaces rather than being places to just shop, eat or drink. We’ve used blogs, attractive imagery and a variety of filtering options to create a website which feels welcoming and encourages user to come and experience everything that the town has to offer.
The intelligence provided through the DestinationScore Insights Dashboard allows us to understand what areas of our site are performing well and which could be refined to provide greater value to our users. We’ll continue to work with the team at Jacob Bailey and DestinationCore to get the best possible results from the investment we’ve made in our website.
Epsom is an historic market town nestled between London and The Surrey Hills. Epsom is more than just home to The Derby. It’s famous for Epsom Salts and has an abundance of history and heritage. The challenge was to showcase everything that Epsom has to offer without blowing the budget - enter DC One!
VISIT WEBSITEThe team at Uxbridge BID wanted to upgrade their website in order to offer greater value to their levy payers. DC One was the ideal solution to meet their needs as the automation offered through the combination of Business Login and Automated Subscriber Emails gave them incredible value on a tight budget.
VISIT WEBSITEWith the shopping centre having moved away from the ownership of the intu Group the client was looking for outstanding value for money and lots of built-in automation in order to stretch marketing budget as far as possible. They love the simplicity of DC One, with the structure making it easy for users to find what they are looking for.
VISIT WEBSITEThe NewcastleGateshead Initiative is the DMO representing Newcastle, Gateshead and the surrounding areas. They came to us frustrated with their existing website solution – feeling that their current provider was offering poor value for money. Our solution has helped transform their online presence by improving the user experience and offering greater value for their members.
VISIT WEBSITESouthampton BID had just gone through a brand refresh and were looking to help bring that brand to life with a powerful online experience. They wanted visitsouthampton.co.uk to be the go-to website for users to find out about what to do and what's on in Southampton. They chose the Pro core package and The List Events Feed module to power their website.
VISIT WEBSITEAll About Ipswich is a DMO for Ipswich and the surrounding area. The website showcases events and offers, and also includes a business directory. It provides easy access to a huge range of content, with the Journey Planner and Itinerary Builder modules enriching the user experience. The Campaign Section module provides a hub for the client's numerous marketing initiatives.
VISIT WEBSITEAs a BID in their first term The Junction BID needed to make an impact. Attracting visitors to Clapham Junction by showcasing what’s on offer and demonstrating value to the businesses they represent was essential. They chose the Offers and Events progressive web app alongside the Pro core package to encourage people who work within the BID area to spend more time at The Junction.
VISIT WEBSITEIn Colchester is the consumer website for the Colchester BID. We helped them create a new consumer facing brand, and then applied that brand to the DestinationCore platform to create a stunning looking website. Launched in August 2019 the feedback for this site has been superb.
VISIT WEBSITEWe’ve created a demo site for our fantasy town of Melchester. It’s an idyllic location by the sea, with an abundance of independent retailers and fair number of local characters too. Be sure to check out the blog about a true local hero - Admiral Standfast. Go on. Take a trip to Melchester!
VISIT WEBSITEWant to know more about DestinationCore? Call, email or fill in the form.
Tel: 01473 215656
Email: info@destinationcore.com