Makers

A Strategically-Driven Website Revamp

Before Axon Garside

An Inaccessible Website, Lacking a B2B Focus

Makers are a disruptive technical education and talent organisation with a mission to change the face of the tech industry. Makers help talented individuals switch to a career in the tech industry.

They provide apprenticeships and software bootcamps in software engineering, cloud engineering, data engineering, and quality engineering

Before we redesigned their website, Makers had already reaped the benefits of our CRM expertise, as outlined by Haylee Potts, the company’s Head of B2C Marketing.

“Axon Garside streamlined and cleaned our CRM and customer data so it’s now far more useful and easy to interpret.”

While their CRM had improved, their website needed to be drastically improved; it was simplistic and wasn’t easy to use.

Perhaps most importantly, the website was predominantly B2C focused. With the company setting its sights on the B2B market, the sole emphasis on B2C didn’t reflect its revised branding and messaging.

From start to finish, [Axon Garside] were consummate professionals and a pleasure to work with. The team conducted a MOSCOW analysis to help us prioritise key pages and content for the initial website launch. This allowed us to thoughtfully roll out the site in phases, reviewing and drawing from our old content where helpful and creating new SEO-optimised copy across the site. Their strategic approach ensured the new site balanced the needs of both our B2B and B2C customers right from the start.

Haylee Potts
Head of B2C Marketing at Makers

What we did

A Revised Website, Inspired by Collaboration

Our website team, SEO Consultant, and Copywriter met with the client to discuss the existing site, Makers’ business objectives, and to understand how to approach the user journey, SEO strategy, and messaging.

Our Website Consultant completed user journey research and proposed a plan for the user journey and the sitemap. Similarly, our SEO expert researched suitable keywords.

Then, a site map was created, including all relevant pages. These aligned with keywords identified in the competitor research process.

COPYWRITING

We held sessions with the client to understand what needed to be written and briefed our in-house Copywriter, who liaised with an external design agency.

Our collaborative approach was well received by Haylee:

“Axon Garside's communication was excellent. Project Manager, Will, felt like part of our team, with open and honest discussions about timelines, capabilities, and budget.

“He went above and beyond to understand our business needs and incorporate our feedback and requests. The result is an intuitive, easy-to-navigate website that already shows signs of increased conversions across the customer base.”

The homepage was the first port of call. Once the client signed off the design and copy, we progressed to the rest of the web pages. We drip-fed content, welcoming feedback on whether it matched user intent.

A template was designed for each service page. The colour scheme changed, depending on whether the focus was B2B or B2C.

TEMPLATES OPTIMISED FOR CONVERSION

Previously, Makers didn’t have a suitable landing page template. Therefore, we added conversion points, CTAs, and optimised for B2B conversions, whilst a blog listing and blog template were also developed.

With the template design and copy finalised, the site was built. Testing was completed to ensure that it worked properly and aligned it with the specification document to guarantee key features were included in the final build.

A FLEXIBLE APPROACH

Ordinarily, we present the homepage first. Once the entire pages are signed off, a specification document is created outlining site objectives and planned modules and templates.

In this instance, Makers needed material to support a B2B-driven campaign before the launch of the website.

Our Website Consultant established their goals for this campaign and identified modules that’d been factored into the new website. These were front-loaded and built before anything else and launched before the main site as a landing page.

Whilst this deviated from our normal process, HubSpot’s flexibility meant Makers got their new branded landing page out in time for their B2B campaign.

DEDICATED TRAINING SESSIONS

Members of the Makers team were given tutorials on how the new modules worked.

We developed a test version so they could familiarise themselves with how to edit content, modules, and revised features.

This paved the way for feedback and asking any questions before we populated the final site. Optimised images, terms and conditions, and GDPR information were then added.

FINAL REVIEW

A final review, link checking, and proofing were completed in a resting environment, and a usable test link was shared with the client’s tech team for a mock analysis.

GROWTH-DRIVEN DESIGN (GDD)

Post-launch, we began the Growth-Driven Design (GDD) process and considered how the site could be iterated to align with Makers’s business goals.

A MoSCoW document outlined key action points. This was based on recommendations from our Website Consultant, and input received from Makers during the design process.

The prioritisation of these elements was based on their significance to both the client and the site user, laying the groundwork for our upcoming strategy.

What were the results?

A Redesigned Website Guided by a Strategic Approach

Previously, the Makers website was inaccessible and didn’t lend itself to a business with aspirations of serving both B2B and B2C markets.

However, following the redesign of the site and its subsequent launch, the feedback has been extremely positive. The client now has a website that’s reflective of who they are. They’re proud of the makeover and wasted no time in sharing it with their network on social media.

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