Crowd Media’s website design and development project for The Beaufort Group, has been cited as the number one industry site by Professional Adviser Magazine
Crowd have a bit of a reputation for building excellent relationships with their clients, and UK based financial services company, The Beaufort Group, were no exception.
Our introduction to the business was originally via Twitter.
I had the pleasure of talking about financial services businesses directly with their CEO, Alan Easter (@notthatgrumpy on Twitter if you fancy a chat with him).
He was on a cruise at the time, just offshore from Guernsey, and we held long talks about the importance of relationships, people and ethics being at the forefront of business. It was clear we immediately had an affinity for doing business in a similar way, and his sense of humour and “not-afraid-to-be-different” attitude shone out amongst a sea of very traditional financial services approaches.
It wasn’t long before we took the conversation off Twitter alone; meeting with Alan in Guernsey on several occasions. Proof indeed that real and lasting relationships are often formed via social media! He retained Crowd Media to design and develop The Beaufort Group website. We worked hard to interpret the brief so that it was reflective of Alan’s vision for the business, their unique ethics, and so that it wasn’t just another generic IFA website.
The result is something we are very proud of, and we were delighted that after many months the site brought to life Alan’s thinking and vision, and enabled to credibly reflect the very real personality of the business.
You can take a look at the site here: www.thebeaufortgroup.co.uk
We were then told that the website had been named the Number One IFA web design in the UK, by industry expert publication, Professional Adviser. They had conducted an industry review of client-facing adviser websites, managed by advisers, designers and marketing experts. 50 websites were reviewed in total and awarded points across multiple criteria. The Beaufort Group were awarded first place, with a fantastic 47/50 points.
“This site from the Beaufort Group is slick and contemporary. It was designed by Guernsey based Crowd Media. The site benefits from vertical and horizontal navigation and it is divided into columns with drop down and retractable menus. Navigation of the site is exceptionally easy. In terms of additional content, the group produces a weekly newsletter, Windy. It is also currently working on ‘how to’ animations that will appear on the site. The contacts section is extensive with pictures and contact details of all staff, from directors to administrators.” Professional Adviser Magazine
You can read the full editorial from Professional Adviser Magazine here (Pages 18-20)
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/e97893bc#/e97893bc/18
We were delighted our client’s site was placed in first position, in a very competitive IFA marketplace.
We asked Alan, Beaufort Group CEO, if he could put into words his experience of working with Crowd Media; as we believe we are only as good as our clients say we are. Alan was kind enough to provide us with the following testimonial:
“Anyone can build a website, I could have done it myself. It would have been brilliant, it would have been delivered on time, and on budget, and I would have patted myself on the back having saved some money by not engaging experts.
Have you ever read such rubbish before?
Reality is, anyone can build one, there are lots of people who can build a good one, but there are very few people who can build a great one.
I believe we have a great website and we wouldn’t have been recognised by our peers if it wasn’t for Crowd and how they dealt with us, more importantly, how they dealt with me!
I am what you would call a ‘pain in the backside’ client.
I am clear in my own mind what I want, but I struggle to articulate it, preferring instead to take the negative approach of pointing out what I don’t like, I am not very helpful at all.
The bit you see with Crowd is changing a font, adding a navigation bar, designing a layout and any good web person can do that.
The skill you get with Crowd is an uncanny (almost scarily unbelievable) ability to get under your skin and offer you things that you know deep down you want, but had never thought of and just make you say ‘wow’…its unseen, I’m not sure it can be taught, and I am glad it wasn’t on their invoice.
They understand the pulse of your business and support its development; they get the mood, and they take the passion of the business and touch it with their wand so it suddenly appears as a site, a marketing plan, a flag to wave.
Only great businesses have it, Crowd have it in abundance.”
We will continue to support The Beaufort Group and their team as they move forward and flourish, and we’re very happy that we’ve already been approached by several other London based financial services firms as a result of this project.