Bullards
Bullards Gin
Background
If Norwich was a cocktail, Bullards would be one of the many ingredients to contribute to its delightful flavour. The brand is synonymous with the city’s history and has been since 1837, so we couldn’t wait to work with them!
The Bullards name was revived and its offering refreshed with the launch of a selection of award-winning, handcrafted gins. Alongside this came a new e-commerce website and a hardworking digital marketing strategy courtesy of OneAgency – which as of April 2020 has resulted in an impressive 469% percent upturn in sales.
The brief
Bullards needed a website that not only performed better in terms of user experience and conversion rates, but also reflected the brand’s story and personality. OneAgency worked closely with the Bullards team to lay the groundwork required – pinning down the brand positioning and finessing the brand’s aesthetic.
The spirit of digital design
With a clear idea of messaging and Bullard’s unique position in a crowded marketplace, we set to work designing a brand new website. The agency’s creative team and UX experts joined forces to ensure that the results would not only look beautiful, but deliver a great user experience. The SEO team was also on hand to advise on search performance.
The finished Bullards website harnesses the power of WordPress with an integrated WooCommerce system, all built in-house by OneAgency’s development team. Mobile-friendly and completely responsive, it has been designed with the user at its centre.
The benefits of the new platform have also been felt by staff. Now, all orders are managed online, creating a streamlined sales process while increasing customer touchpoints.
History updated
Spanning six generations, Bullards recently found a new home in an architectural icon of Norwich – Crystal House – a stunning industrial-era building with its distinctive ‘wall of windows.’ A huge inspiration to our creative team, the building’s textures and materials have been woven into the look and feel of the website design, evoking the brand’s Victorian roots and sense of place with a contemporary twist.
The client fell in love with the website visuals instantly: updated and beautifully styled pages filled with great content with an improved customer journey. Transformed from a basic, self-built template into a slick, fully functioning, high-end ecommerce website, the new online platform has proved itself to be a winner with customers, achieving huge growth traffic, conversion rates and – ultimately – sales.
Every picture…
Our creatives planned and directed a number of photoshoots to capture the essence of the brand. The beautiful Bullards gin bottles, surrounded by fruit and botanicals, were photographed in-situ at Crystal House during the evening for an evocative atmosphere. Incidental shots of the crafting process, the Bullards team and the raw ingredients are now used across multiple platforms to help tell the brand’s story.
Driving conversions
Bullards wanted to drive sales and show return on investment. Our strategy included both ‘push’ and ‘pull’ tactics, including PPC and tailored landing pages containing tempting offers for the recently launched letterbox friendly eco-refill pouches. The Digital Marketing Team constantly monitored ads to make sure they were performing, with budget being reallocated to deliver the best performance. This ensures the most cost-effective ROI.
Weekly updates keep everyone in the loop, in which we share results and the plan for the upcoming week.
The team also used search data and insights to define and create on-site content that would drive both informational and commercial traffic.
The new website and supporting marketing activity helped to increase sales significantly and deliver industry-beating conversion rates of 4.33% (the average for ecomm sites is 2.86%). The Bullards project is a fantastic example of where PPC can really drive ROI, quickly sending traffic to a tailored landing page for maximum conversion.
