Illustrative New Website Goes Live For Acquire Business Sales
Acquire specialise in the sale of privately owned business to UK and International acquirers, representing companies positioned in the £500,000 to £20m turnover range.
Acquire came to us with a desperate desire to update their very dark looking website, as they felt it no longer reflected their business.
When Acquire first approached us, their website was non-responsive and not mobile-friendly at all! Website branding and customer first impressions aside, this in itself reduced the customer footfall to the site given Google's mobile-friendly search result criteria laid out in April 2015, stating that:
Google Search will be expanding its use of mobile friendliness as a ranking signal. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have a significant impact on Google Search results.
Whilst this would not impact desktop search results, given that mobile browsing has now overtaken desktop, it was time to change!
- 80% of internet users own a smartphone
- 48% of consumers start mobile research with a search engine
- 33% of consumers start mobile research with a branded website
- 88% of consumers who search for a type of local business on a mobile device call or go to that business within 24 hours
- Google says 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing and 40% visit a competitor's website instead
- 57% of users say they won't recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site
So, out challenge was to design and build a visually engaging site that would be found by search engines on all devices. The site was to inform customers about the services which Acquire offer and list the businesses they have for sale - allowing customers to browse and make online enquiries. Likewise, it was to prompt businesses to consider selling their own business through Acquire with the provision of customer testimonials and case studies showcasing their professionalism and confidentiality.
On top of this, the client wanted 100% control over the content and enquiries made via the website.
No problem! As experts in Content Management Systems (CMS) and firm believers in being CMS-Neutral (meaning we have a number of CMS options available to meet requirements and budgets of all levels), we did our research on the client's long term needs and decided upon Umbraco.
Umbraco CMS is a fully-featured open source content management system with the flexibility to run anything form small campaign or brochure sites right through to complex applications for Fortune 500's and some of the largest media sites in the world. To date there are over 375,000 Umbraco installations (not all ours of course!) providing a divers and innovative environment that ensures Umbraco stays cutting edge and at the same time, stays professional, secure and relevant. The client-side control panel is super user-friendly and intuitive, enabling anyone with or without coding and design knowledge to be able to manage their own website - it really is a piece of cake!
Content management aside, there is no point in having a website with great content and the ability to be manage content on the fly if the design isn't engaging enough or if the messages are not well conveyed.
A website's average page visit lasts a little less than a minute and as little as 15 seconds!
As users click through multiple web pages listed in a search result they can become site blind, seeing and reading the same messages and imagery again and again. At some point they will come across a message or a stunning visual that makes them stop for just that little bit longer. This is now the crucial time to engage with them, but they're still rushing, they have time to scan read less than 25% of the text on the pages they visit (let alone all those they don't!). So, unless the messages are extraordinarily clear and focused, little of what you say on your website will get through to customers.
With this in mind, our next challenge was to turn Acquire into a true brand and give them an identity beyond just their existing logo (which they wanted to retain from previous agency design). We created some engaging and stunning illustrations to support the key messages and services which Acquire offer, providing stand-out customer focus.
Visit the Acquire Business Sales web page at www.acquirebusinesssales.co.uk. If you like what you see and you think that your own website might be in need of a makeover, or even if you're starting from scratch, please don't hesitate to give us a call, email or send some smoke signals to see how we can help you!