1. The proposal
DSG is one of the North West’s leading independent accountancy and advisory firms. They work primarily with small and medium businesses, private clients who serve the not-for-profit sector, and professional practices.
Headquartered in Liverpool, DSG have almost 100 staff working across two offices in Liverpool City Centre and North Wales. DSG’s focus is neither national nor international, which presented new challenges for Castle’s team, who are more familiar with organisations who have a larger scope.
“Rebrand first” was the message we got from DSG. The company, by its own admission, had not given much thought to branding, and the website they were using was outdated and blocky, a fairly typical example of ‘home-build’ construction.
To this end, Castle was asked to design and create a bespoke website that would highlight DSG’s services and generate leads, as well as increase conversion rates for existing clients and promote the notion of the company as the market leader in the North West of England and North Wales.
On the marketing side, Castle was asked to take control of the organisation’s LinkedIn management and proposed both SEO and PPC strategies as well as a targeted e-mail marketing campaign.
2. The process
The rebrand itself consisted of a range of drafts created in agreement with the client and Castle’s design team, which refined colour schemes and logos and created new corporate materials, business cards and brochures for the partners and the sales and administration teams. As a guide, Castle offers 8-10 concept designs with unlimited revisions.
We then produced a Brand Guidelines document, presenting real-world examples and visual concepts of all the artwork, font sizes and designs necessary to begin the next phase of Castle and DSG’s strategy.
One of the main strategies for increasing leads and conversion rates was to trade resources for data. This was achieved by creating a “News and Guides” section on the website, where prospective clients would be encouraged to leave an email address in exchange for a helpful guide on tax management or ISAs, etc.
Castle also focused on crafting localised landing pages using terms such as ‘Liverpool tax planning consultants’ with the specific aim of driving traffic on local search terms to these pages. On the marketing side, Castle utilised SEO strategies to optimise the website for the highest Google rankings, in tandem with a PPC campaign that brought immediate revenue increases.
We also took control of the management of DSG’s LinkedIn account, strategizing posts around thought leadership content with the specific aim of boosting networks and connections. This was a PR exercise not aimed at lead generation but rather used as a marketing tool. The intention was to garner relevant audience profiles in order to target existing customers, rather than sending direct messages to potential clients.
