Case Study:
Gillies & Mackay

Cara Mackay is Managing Director of Gillies & Mackay – shed, summerhouse, garage and garden room manufacturers in Errol, Perthshire.

She knew that when she was in the market for a new website that there was only one company to turn to: Due North Creatives.

Here's the story...

Image

Gillies and Mackay approached Due North Creatives about a new website in March just before lockdown began.They had worked with Ross on a few video and design projects since 2016, and since then had also become a close friend.

Having previously worked with Ross they knew that he understood their brand inside out, and were confident that he would be able to transfer their vision for the new website into a reality. They’d also known Amanda for a number of years and liked her work ethic and life ethos, which is very similar to their own.

The business had effectively outgrown their previous website – it no longer provided the functionality that they needed it for, and had become clunky over time with various add-ons and plugins to get it to do what they needed it to do.

Over time, too much had been added and it had lost its original purpose, so it was clear that it needed to be stripped back and finessed.

“The thing about Due North is that they listen intently, and communicate clearly. You know that you can go to them with a million ideas, and they will take that madness and distill it down to something that works”

– Cara Mackay

G&M's Website Transformation
Before
Image
Image
Image
After
Image

When asked why they wanted to partner with Due North, Cara explained:

"The thing about Due North is that they listen intently, and communicate clearly. You know that you can go to them with a million ideas, and they will take that madness and distill it down to something that works; for your business and your customers.

Ross and the team can so easily put himself in the customer’s footsteps and translate that to what our sheddies are looking for. When people come onto our site they want to follow their sheddie dreams. That is the magic of what Due North does, and it’s very hard to find elsewhere.

We also knew that by contracting Due North to rebuild our website that that relationship doesn’t end the day the website goes live. We rely on them for troubleshooting, have continued to make further improvements on the website since it launched, and we work with them also on our wider PR strategy."

And what did they think when they saw the finished website...?

Cara retells her experience of seeing the new website for the first time – “I think my exact words were ‘Fck! This is beautiful’ and to be honest, I just got really emotional. I knew it was going to be good but I was amazed by how well Due North had taken the original brief and delivered something that I could only dream of."

Site performance since the launch of the new website has been really encouraging too. Nicola Crawford (Sales & Marketing Manager) spoke with customers using the site and had this to say:

"Customers love the design – it's really easy for them to use and we've had loads of praise from them and they've told us that it's great to be able to see our products in their full glory. We've seen a surge in business throughout the pandemic which is fantastic, but that means it's even more important that people can see our sheds and summerhouses clearly online. People haven't been able to visit our show area for a year, but they're still telling us 'It's clear you have a great product.'

Site performance stats
Oct – Apr 2019-20
Image
Oct – Apr 2020-21
Image

70% increase in visitors
92% increase in page views

On seeing the new website for the first time...

“I think my exact words were ‘Fck! This is beautiful’ and to be honest, I just got really emotional. I knew it was going to be good but I was amazed by how well Due North had taken the original brief and delivered something that I could only dream of. ”

– Cara Mackay


Feeling lost with your marketing?

We love working with businesses like yours to help find their right path.
Contact Us >