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Company: Crafty Computer Paper Ltd
Project: Web site re-vamp

http://www.craftycomputerpaper.co.uk

Dates: Apr 2006 to Aug 2007

How did the project start?

We were given a significant investment in 2006. Charlotte Gaisford the managing director of the company had built and managed the original website. Charlotte felt that she could not cope with the advancing technology a modern website needed so she thought it was time to call in the professionals.

What options did you consider?

Before our investment we did originally use a company suggested by Business Link. This proved to be a disaster and it turned out the company was operated on all levels by a 21 year old student. We could not continue because we did not get the support and the system used was horrific and the database was all over the place. We quickly reverted back to our old system just before the web company we had been using went bust. After that experience we looked for a company with a good reputation and that wasn't a one man band.

What help and expertise did you receive?

We did not receive any expertise or help; it was up to us to find the best company for the job. Charlotte had a great deal of experience in marketing on the web and it was very useful when designing the new web site. We did employ a copywriter who was very helpful and she enjoyed working on our project.

Did you face any challenges or learn any lessons?

The biggest challenge was dealing with a company who had a great bespoke product but who had no customer service skills or time management plans. Although the project started in 2006 it to took until August 2007 to go on-line. Charlotte again had to implement her expertise in web developing and she had to input a great deal of work herself into the new website. The product of the company she used was great and it was easy to edit, they were in control of the back office functionally, the problems occurred when they did not answer emails and we very difficult to contact. Charlotte had to do the majority of the testing and many lists were written with problems and these took months to resolve. The web developers were having problems with staff at the time and they were made aware of the atmosphere they were creating. We think it is very important to have a basic knowledge of HTML when embarking on the creation of a new website, although this a very basic web language it can stand you in good stead when understanding what is happening to the project.

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

We eventually got the web site up and live in August 2007. A great sigh of relief all round. We had been working on two websites for 16 months; we had to update the old one which was still running and add the new content to the new one. One negative about having a new website and a new server is your search engine position. We were very conscious of this problem when we went live and did as much as we could to overcome the problem. Even with plans in place we dropped dramatically by at least 33%. We have managed to crawl our way back but with a great deal of hard work and determination. The main benefit of the new site is we get better conversions from our visitors which is great. We are still growing and when we get back to our original search placing we should be doing great.

What are your plans for the future?

We plan to sell more digital products on line, we have started to sell free downloadable graphics files which have proved popular. Our market craves inspiration and we have always delivered what the customer wants. Selling digital products is a great way forward, there is no shipping cost involved and the website does all the work for you. We plan to increase our product range and make it as easy as possible for the customer to buy. Hopefully we have built up a trustworthy reputation and we get 60% repeat customers, so that is good. We intend to carry on with using affiliates and web advertising. We have reduced our print advertising campaign because a great deal of our business comes from the web, word of mouth and repeat customers. We will concentrate on sending out press releases to magazines, we have done some initial press releases and this has proved very successful indeed. We hope to continue producing good and original products, good customer relations. We just hope the economy does not put a dampener on our development.