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Company: The Best of Northumberland Ltd
Project: thebestofnorthumberland

http://www.thebestof.co.uk/northumberland

Dates: Jan 2008 to Mar 2008

How did the project start?

I'd been running thebestofmorpeth for 15 months - a franchise of thebestof - promoting and championing local businesses. The business had been growing well, though I was picking up a greater potential demand for marketing across Northumberland. I bought out the existing franchisee for thebestofhexham, and negotiated with thebestof to run as the only county-based site in England. The rationale being that Northumberland is the most sparsely populated, and yet has a strong positive identity.

What options did you consider?

I considered running as separate sites for the major towns in Northumberland.
However, by combining as one site, it gave my existing clients a far better exposure, and also provided an immediate viable and attractive site.

What help and expertise did you receive?

The franchisor, thebestof, technically combined the sites together, maintaining search links etc.

Did you face any challenges or learn any lessons?

1. Finance - after exploring BusinessLink and One North East funding, I raised the finance privately.
2. Re-branding was costly and time-consuming.
3. New business took a back seat whilst ensuring a smooth transition of existing clients.

What are the outcomes and how has it improved your business?

1. A tremendous amount of interest in the new propostion.
2. Receiving many more queries and requests to join thebestofnorthumberland direct from the web site
3. Going forward, it provides a very strong and viable platform

What are your plans for the future?

1. Now it's a case of identifying the best services and businesses in Northumberland, and asking if they would like to join thebestofnorthumberland
2. Expanding the service to include networking meetings
3. Increasing awareness of the site and service offering - through PR, award schemes, and other marketing initiatives
4. Utilising local expertise (mainly from my clients) to help grow and support the business
5. A small imminent visual change is using the major sponsorship banners on the site to show a "passionate about Northumberland" logo

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