Offering customers a content-led website design to inspire everlasting experiences

The tale of how Coombe Abbey offered customers a complete brand experience, bringing together both hotel and grounds into one online destination.

Who

The historic four-star hotel Coombe Abbey, located in a 500-acre park, is home to beautiful bedchambers, restaurants, cafes, Go Ape and many mediaeval themed events through the year.

Why

Coombe Abbey wanted to reposition the brand as a ‘destination’ for everyone, promoting the wide variety of things to do. From the historic hotel, to the 500-acre country park and the new Go Ape tree tops adventure, the website needed to encompass all activities and experiences available for visitors at Coombe Abbey.

What

To ensure visitors to the website were able to quickly find relevant information, we created a bespoke Inspire Me tool to allow users to tailor their perfect visit to their own interests. Whether they were looking for inspiration for a romantic weekend away for two or a family experience that’s a little bit different. Within the first month after the new website launched, thousands of users have used the Inspire Me tool to discover their perfect Coombe Abbey experience.

The new website design from Rawww is content-led, easy to navigate and focused on satisfying user intent. It offers a more modern, open and holistic approach in presenting everything there is to do at Coombe Abbey, putting the venue on the map nationally as a standout destination. We also delivered a detailed SEO strategy for the new website, and ensured all copy was optimised for search engines whilst still sounding natural and relevant to the reader.

To encourage more direct bookings and as part of the website redesign, multiple booking engines were integrated to make the online booking experience seamless, consistent and easy to follow. The Coombe Abbey shop was also updated, offering customers the chance to purchase merchandise, gift vouchers, event tickets and the on-site florist products in one centralised place without leaving the website.

Coombe Abbey also asked for Rawww’s help with a photoshoot to capture Coombe Abbey Hotel and park in its best light. This also provided the marketing department with a bank of good quality images that they have been able to use across a variety of other platforms, such as social media.

To ensure both the Rawww team and Coombe Abbey’s in-house marketing department could continue to work cohesively moving forward, we developed a detailed set of brand guidelines and a tone of voice guide. This provides consistency for customers when interacting with the brand. The copywriting TOV guide was also a good opportunity to reanalyse the Coombe Abbey brand and define its personality, positioning and purpose.

To attract more families to the hotel, Coombe Abbey had developed new family-orientated packages. We offered the team branding support for the new sub-brand ‘Coombe Families’ and created a ‘Coombe Family Magic’ style guide, informing how to consistently use the new sub-brand digital assets on the website and social media.
We look forward to continuing supporting the Coombe Abbey team with inspiring, engaging and creative digital marketing support.