While Blaylock Van is the oldest continuously operating African-American-owned investment bank in the United States, in the finance industry, it's crucial to never show your age. As such, Blaylock Van needed a fresh, modern-looking website to replace their existing one.
They approached CopyHouse not only to build a new website but also to ensure it was regularly populated with new, engaging content that would appeal to their audience and attract new clients. Read on to learn more about how we fulfilled Blaylock Van’s requirements and refreshed their entire online presence.
Blaylock Van had three key problems they wanted to address with their new website:
Once the CopyHouse team was briefed on what Blaylock Van wanted to change, we got to work.
For this project, we started with website structure, which is the very foundation of the site. By flattening the website structure (i.e., making everything accessible from the home page) and prioritising easy access to crucial pages like Blaylock Van’s services and contact details, we created an easily navigable structure that would eliminate the issue of having too many pages.
Next, we re-wrote the copy for key landing pages, reducing the jargon while still expressing Blaylock Van’s expertise and targeting their preferred audience. Crucially, we also wrote the webpage copy with SEO in mind, making sure key search terms were included where possible to generate more organic traffic.
The final step was design — in this stage, “modern” was our priority, so we eliminated some of the dated colours, fonts and design aspects of the older website in favour of a sleeker, streamlined look. The result was a far more visually appealing website with simplified, easily understood copy: a website that helps potential clients quickly understand what Blaylock Van does and makes it straightforward to contact them.
Statistically, the results speak for themselves:
While the completed website offers a far better first impression for online traffic to Blaylock Van, looks aren’t everything. A big part of the project was to give the site substance by continuously creating content for the website, such as blogs and company newsletters.
Writing relevant blogs is great for search engine optimisation, which is why most companies have a resource page full of educational content. Our new Blaylock Van site was no different, and we initially populated the resource page with thought leadership articles on topics relevant to anyone in the investment banking industry. For example, we looked at how one can navigate a career in financial sales and trading and discussed the different kinds of investment banks (while reinforcing Blaylock Van’s superiority in the industry).
For variety, we also helped create more design-focused copy, such as the Blaylock Van 2023 Retrospective, which was also sent to their clients to advertise the great successes the company has enjoyed over the last year. We reused a lot of the design aspects from the website in the Retrospective to help highlight Blaylock Van’s refreshed online branding.
Finally, we also populated the site with regular company updates. This primarily comes in the form of new posts on the website’s Transactions page which documents any deals that Blaylock Van has facilitated. As well as keeping existing clients up to date on Blaylock Van’s activities, these updates demonstrate exactly what the investment bank is capable of to new customers.
By carefully choosing relevant topics to populate the site, we’ve managed to double its authority score from 5 to 10, even with the new site being an entirely new domain. The authority score is a key indicator of a site's reliability, so a high authority score will help drive more organic traffic towards Blaylock Van.
Your brand’s website is the perfect opportunity for your brand to make a great first impression. If it’s complicated, visually unappealing, or difficult to navigate, you may lose out on important new customers. If you want to make the best impression possible, CopyHouse can help.
Our expert team of designers and copywriters can help you refresh your online presence with a modern-looking website and insightful new copy. Regardless of your goals — improved brand loyalty, more organic traffic, or even increased revenue — our team can offer ways to overcome your challenges and achieve your targets.
To get in contact with our team, click here.
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