DFK Laurence Varnay (DFKLV) is a leading accountancy and business advisory firm in the Sydney CBD. They approached Method+Marketing to help redesign their website with goals to improve the general visual appeal, enhance content for search engine optimisation (SEO), gain a more intuitive user experience and increase online lead generation for their services. It was also important that the new design incorporated their branding in a way that aligned to their parent brand – DFK ANZ, yet set DFK Laurence Varnay a bit apart in a unique way. 

The Problem

It had been several years since the website was originally built and it was starting to look outdated. The design, content and imagery on the site did not properly reflect the DFKLV brand and the types of customers they service. Additionally, their website content did not reflect the services they offered and wanted to be generating leads for. The content was short and did not go into enough detail to properly outline DFKLV’s expertise and the value they could bring to their clients. The site also did not have any call-to-actions throughout the web content to encourage leads to convert.               

The Process 

We decided to redesign the website on their existing platform: WordPress. WordPress would enable them to update the website on their own, track and manage leads and place call-to-actions when and where they needed.

After our project kickoff meeting and project timeline was completed, the next step was the design of a new sitemap. This is where we outline the information hierarchy, map a more efficient navigation structure and ensure that the service offering is clear and simple to understand from the user’s perspective. 

The next step was to deliver wireframes of the desktop and mobile designs. Wireframes are basically the skeleton or prototype of the website. With a wireframe, we can easily outline the website layout and where specific elements will be placed. It helps demonstrate how the end-product will look, and behave, before imagery and content is populated on the site.

Once the wireframes were approved, we began the content creation process. This involved a photoshoot with the DFKLV team in their Sydney office, before we got started with the copywriting process. “It was really important that we elevated the perception of the DFKLV brand through imagery and tone of voice,” said Angela Henderson, Director of Client Services at Method+Marketing. “We really wanted to highlight their approachability and professionalism while also focussing on the fact that they are located right in the Sydney CBD.” 

As part of the copywriting process, it was really important that we made it clear what types of businesses DFKLV works with and what services they offer. On the previous website, it appeared as though DFKLV really only worked with small and micro businesses, but this simply was not the case. In fact, they work with many large businesses in Australia and internationally. Likewise, when we asked DFKLV what some of their main services were they highlighted their Outsourced CFO Service and International Business Support service, both of which were not mentioned on their previous website. 

Once the web content was finalised, we contacted some of DFKLV’s clients to prepare testimonials to place on the new website. Testimonials are very important in building trust and earning respect from your web visitors. 

While the content and testimonials were being finalised, we also began mocking up the complete responsive website designs based on the wireframes with imagery from the photoshoot, new content and improved graphic brand elements.