M&T Haylage is an international supplier of hay and haylage, specializing in top-quality products for the equine industry. M&T Haylage came to work with Hydra Creative back in 2017 when they were MS&TJ Haylage. M&T started out as a small family business providing horse hay and haylage to customers in South Yorkshire.
M&T selected Hydra as their graphic design provider, and Hydra Creative created their pull-up banners, flyers, booklets, and posters for local exhibitions. With a strong working relationship established, M&T came back to them and asked how Hydra Creative could help them grow their audience in Newmarket, as this was where a lot of their target audience was situated and it represented an opportunity to grow their reach.
Hydra Creative started working on their SEO, looked at the content, digital PR, and online presence, and within six months they were appearing on the first page for key search terms ‘hay supplier Newmarket’ and ‘haylage supplier Newmarket’. A few months after that, they hit position one, where they remain three years later.
Once the SEO started driving targeted traffic to the website, Hydra Creative found there was potential for overseas expansion of the brand. This is when Hydra Creative worked collaboratively to refine the brand, futureproofing it, and making it simpler to read and say. They worked together and dropped the S and the J out of the name to streamline the brand to M&T Haylage.
The current website worked well, but it didn’t showcase M&T Haylage as the global leader it was becoming. M&T Haylage required an impactful new website that would speak effectively to their target audience, presenting the company as professional and knowledgeable, and instill trust in potential new customers.
M&T Haylage enlisted the help of Hydra Creative’s website development team here at Hydra Creative. Hydra Creative designed and created a bespoke and responsive website that would demonstrate the extent of their expertise and specialist knowledge, and which would help users select the correct product for their needs.
The primary focus of the website was for it to be an information hub for both current and prospective customers. It needed to include information about the business, as well as being a platform from which to inform their audience about their products. The biggest task when designing the site was coming up with something timeless but modern to appeal to an audience of all ages.
Another area of interest was the ‘request a sample’ section. Hydra Creative wanted to ensure that this wasn’t the main focus on the page, but that it was still easily accessible for website users at all times. The information hub was to be another major focal point. Hydra Creative designed icons that open up a pop-up, along with additional information for the user to read. This allowed the user to find the information they needed very easily and without being overwhelmed.
Hydra Creative built-in some useful website functionality that collects data based on what users are clicking on and searching for within the FAQs to allow M&T Haylage to tailor content and prioritize answering the most frequently asked questions.
Hydra Creative carried out extensive competitor research of not only national and global competitors, but they also looked at global leaders both in their field and in other industries.
Hydra Creative included features such as ways to get in touch via WhatsApp, and a stockists’ area to promote current stockists and drive potential stockists to get in touch, whilst building up a sector area to allow M&T to diversify the business as it grows further. The website also integrates with platforms like Mailgun, Google Maps, Google reCaptcha, YouTube, and Mailchimp.
The new website has been hugely successful since it launched, with website traffic continuously growing. Key national search terms ‘hay supplier’ and ‘haylage supplier’ are now in the top two positions, which have resulted in:
- Increase in users year on year: +89.54%
- Increase in international traffic visiting the website: +800%
About Hydra Creative
Hydra Creative is a full-service digital agency based in Sheffield, UK, committed to client collaboration and success. The agency started in 2009, employs 19 experts in-house in their offices in South Yorkshire.
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