Umbraco
Case Study

Shawbrook Bank

Building a stronger brand and a more effective digital experience

Shawbrook Bank is a UK saving and lending company that wanted to update their brand and transform the digital experience they offer customers. This would mean refreshing all their brand assets and redesigning their site to make it more appealing and easier to use for customers of all backgrounds. Their new Umbraco-based website was indeed a transformation; 41% of increased organic traffic alone is a hardcore post-launch result. Equator is the digital transformation agency behind the Shawbrook's new website and they will tell you all about how they did it:

Look at the post-launch performance numbers 🤩

70%
Increase in mobile traffic
371%
Increase of engagement with business contact no. pages
41%
Increase in total organic traffic

The case

Shawbrook Bank was set up in 2011 with the aim to serve the needs of individuals and SMEs (small and medium enterprises), especially those who cannot obtain finance from the main commercial banks. The bank was founded by Pollen Street Capital, formerly a part of Royal Bank of Scotland, before being floated on the stock market in 2015.

Mission: complete rebrand and rebuild

Shawbrook was primarily an intermediary driven bank and the old website was built without the need for large amounts of direct traffic. Today, Shawbrook is more evenly split between B2C and B2B sales with the ambition to significantly increase direct website sales and leads.

This formed the need for a redesigned website, as well as a complete rebrand. The ambition was to provide a platform to increase website sales across Shawbrook’s consumer range of savings and loan products and to advertise and promote their business products.

The frontpage of Shawbrook Bank's website shown on a mobile, laptop, and tablet screen
Shawbrook Bank's website displayed on three mobile screens

Setting out to work: mobile first

We implemented a modular mobile-first solution following best practices and aligning with a design system that had a distinguished approach to leading the customer through key steps towards their goals.

The design approach was unique in that we were concurrently rebranding the business during the early stages of the project. We, therefore, were required to work iteratively to make sure the emerging brand thinking was expressed in the new digital experience.

Our analytics team ensured that data-led insights were woven into the project from measurement to optimisation and evolution. By enhancing the analytics set up we delivered the critical element of data reliability to better meet Shawbrook’s measurement and analysis needs.

 

The journey: how we did it

Our collaborative team included UX design, engineering and writing to present the content in the best way possible and fulfill the various objectives of the new Umbraco site. Development of considered micro-interactions and transparent/positive copywriting, all contributes to an intuitive and engaging user experience.

Key journeys on the website were user-tested to verify the design and strategic thinking.



This provided an understanding of what information and features different users were looking for at each stage of their journey - from first impressions and common actions, through to their desired outcomes.This ultimately allowed us to identify any areas for improvement early in the project.

During the build, technical SEO best practice was followed and we conducted an in-depth Search Trend Analysis to ensure the content on the website was optimised for launch.

Shawbrook now stands proudly tall

Since launch Shawbrook’s new website has resulted in a 70% increase in mobile traffic and a 41% increase in total organic traffic. We have significantly increased awareness and user engagement, and the growth in mobile traffic clarifies our mobile-first design approach.

But that’s not even all. Thanks to the new Umbraco-based website there was:

 

👉 39% increase of sessions;

👉 28% increase of PDF downloads;

👉 371% increase of engagement with business contact no. pages;

👉 -27% bounce rate drop (indicating stickiness of site).

 

Shawbrook now stands proudly tall in a concentrated market of specialist banking and remains an authority in business, intermediary and personal banking.

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