Halesowen Self Drive Website Project

Project Overview

Halesowen Self Drive previously had an outdated website and branding, that was preventing them from creating a strong connection with users.

To tackle this, we created a strong brand identity to be used across their new website and van livery, and a new website. Initially just including functionality to enable users to get an instant quote and initiate contact, the site has since evolved through continued investment to incorporate live booking availability and online payment.

Who is Halesowen Self Drive?

Halesowen Self Drive is an established van hire company based in the West Midlands. Having started their business with just 5 vans they have grown steadily over the last decades to expand their fleet to over 20 transit vehicles, from small Ford Transit Connects to larger Luton vans. Whether you’re looking for some extra space for a big shopping trip or planning a house move, they’ve got options to suit every need.

Halesowen Self Drive initially approached Ballyhoo with the goal of establishing a strong brand for the company and launching a new, interactive website to make it as easy as possible for customers to obtain quotes and submit enquiries.

Brand Identity

Despite having no formal brand identity or logo, Halesowen Self Drive were using a strong colour palette of orange, white and black to differentiate their venture from the competition. These colours have been associated with the company for some years, predominately on their shop front and van livery, so it was important to Halesowen Self Drive to retain this element of their identity during our branding exercise. Using these colours as part of the new identity would also help to minimise costs when rolling out the new look.

With this in mind, and with otherwise free reign, we set about creating a number of logo concepts based on our research into their industry and target audience. We worked closely with the client to develop and refine the logo, which was then presented with formal brand guidelines.

The finished logo cleverly uses negative space to show three vans of different sizes, a feature that is retained whether the logo is being used in full colour or monochrome. The logo mark can also be used with or without text.

Web Design

With Halesowen Self Drive’s new brand identity in place, we set about crafting how their new website should look and behave. The striking imagery of the vans available, all featuring branded livery, has been used to offset the simple colour palette.

Effective elements including clean lines, attractive icons and subtle hover effects add the finishing touches for a fresh and appealing website.

Quick Booking

A prominent and intuitive booking form dominates the home page, allowing users to simply select the type of van they want to hire, select pick-up and drop-off dates and click Quote & Book. Contact details are prominently located at the head and foot of the website and other elements such as opening times and location have also been included. At all times the user’s primary needs (price, contact, location) have been considered to achieve a friendly and clear web design.

Van Information

On the Our Vans page, each type of van is clearly listed with a quality image allowing the user to choose the type of van they need at a glance. Each type of van has a dedicated page containing images, key features, dimensions and a quote calculator. Users can also initiate the booking process from anywhere within the Our Vans section of the website.

Small Print

There are a number of restrictions and rules governing van hire, so it was important to clearly list what is required of customers wishing to book vans (the “small print”) and also make it obvious during the booking process that van hire is only available to qualified, experienced drivers – this is achieved by requiring the user to tick a checkbox stating that they are over 25, have had a licence for 2 years and have no more than 3 penalty points.

Other pages include About Us, Latest News, Your Feedback and Contact Us. A Sitemap and Terms & Conditions and Privacy statements are located in the footer as common practice dictates.

Responsive Website Build

With mobile now dominating visitor statistics, we have reached a point where it is an absolute must that websites are built with the mobile device in mind. Not only do you risk losing customers and not creating conversions by not having a mobile-optimised website, but you also risk losing authority in search engines (take a look at Do I Need My Website to be Mobile Optimised? to find out more).

Around 65% of visitors to Halesowen Self Drive currently (2021 data) come from a mobile device. Taking this into consideration, halesowenselfdrive.co.uk has been built to operate responsively and therefore works seamlessly on any device regardless of manufacturer, operating system or screen resolution. All of the responsive sites that Ballyhoo create are put through rigorous testing on an array of desktop and mobile devices to ensure that they not only operate on current devices but older devices too. Furthermore, halesowenselfdrive.co.uk (and all responsive websites that we produce) should maintain its core visual and operational function on any future devices.

As halesowenselfdrive.co.uk responds to various screen resolutions the “Quote & Book” form remains dominant on the page, while the telephone number and email convert to easily tap-able buttons, thus making all the major call-to-actions easily accessible. The navigation of the website neatly folds into a drop-down menu which, again, can be easily selected on a touchscreen device.

Key Features

Online Booking

Users select the van type and the required hire period, including dates and times. Users must tick a checkbox to acknowledge that they agree to the basic hire terms and then must click Quote & Book to see pricing. Users are then directed to a page detailing the van type and have the ability to revise their quote before proceeding to online payment.

Search

A search field located in the header of the website allows users to enter search terms and find matching pages. Users only have to type a few characters to be presented with a list of results.

Google Maps

Interactive Google Maps of Halesowen Self Drive’s location can be found on the home and Contact Us page. Users can zoom in and out on the map, view satellite images and get directions to the location for van collection.

Contact Form

A contact form on the Contact Us page of the website allows users to instantly send email queries to Halesowen Self Drive.

Blog

Website administrators can add the latest company news and offers to the blog. Maintaining a healthy blog is recommended to engage users and increase the possibility of good search engine rankings.

Newsletter Subscription

A form in the footer of the website allows users to enter their email addresses and subscribe to the Halesowen Self Drive email newsletter for special offers and news. Email addresses are automatically stored on email campaign software for inclusion on future communications.

Hosting, Email & Support

In addition to the work outlined above, we also provide a hosting package for Halesowen Self Drive and have introduced them to G Suite. As a Google Partner, our service here included the setup and configuration of G Suite with their domain name as well as the migration of existing emails and contacts.

G Suite is a cloud office suite that allows you to access emails, calendars, contacts and important documents on the go with seamless syncing between devices. Powerful spam filters ensure you only see the messages that matter and if the browser-based email isn’t your thing, you can even use it with Outlook too.

As this website is a business-critical system, any disruption to service or user issues could have serious consequences. As such, Halesowen Self Drive takes advantage of a Service Level Agreement which gives them access to our expert support and troubleshooting within guaranteed timeframes.