New website – with ease & expertise

About Martin Personnel

Martin Personnel is a well-established recruitment agency founded in 1987. They have carved out a solid reputation in the manufacturing and logistics sectors for providing reliable temps and are proud that many placed in roles such as forklift operators, pick packers and administrators go on to secure permanent employment. Some Martin Personnel recruits then move into supervisory and leadership roles – demonstrating that the agency has an awesome ability to spot the qualities in candidates that are necessary for them to grow into their potential.

A values driven company, with offices in Auckland and Christchurch, Martin Personnel has gained loyalty amongst clients and candidates because of its commitment to put people at the heart of operations and treat them like family. 

The situation and challenges – in need of modernisation to better showcase the business for future franchisees

In 2023 owner Mark Douglas achieved his vision of turning the business into a franchise model when the Auckland office manager became the first Martin Personnel franchisee. Reaching a stage where Mark wants to take a step back from the day-to-day operations of the business, it is now important to grow the franchise network so that other people passionate about recruitment can kick-start their own careers as business owners with a ‘ready-to-go’ business, leveraging sophisticated software, great systems and a reputable brand.

Part of having a reputable brand is ensuring it remains ‘current’ in various aspects of marketing. One area that needed attention was the website. The website was well overdue for a refresh and was built on a platform that was primarily intended for ecommerce businesses. It was chosen for its integration abilities, which were necessary at the time, but no longer needed. The style of websites had moved on and the templates used were inflexible for the level of modernisation required and not as responsive to mobile devices as the design was meant to be. There were also untapped opportunities around SEO.

The solution – website project management that lifted client workload

Flex Marketing sourced a reliable web development partner to design a customised Wordpress website on behalf of Martin Personnel based on the brief they prepared for the client. Mark was clear that he wanted a simple website published without too much time or expense. “I was happy to get a site up without too many bells and whistles initially, knowing that it could be added to and improved over time” said Mark. “The whole process was super easy from my perspective. Andie took the weight off my shoulders so that I could rely on her expertise to get it done. She kept me in the loop along the way and checked in with myself and other stakeholders for all the appropriate decisions, but otherwise just got on with it.”

Andie from Flex Marketing not only managed the process by working closely with the web developer to ensure the brief was fully met and anticipated timescales achieved – she also looked after all of the content. The website shell was handed over from the developer to Andie after it had progressed through the design and development stages so that it could be populated. 

Andie utilised time from an outsource marketing package and an extra boost of hours to transition and enhance the copywriting used on the previous website that she had re-written a while back. Some new web pages also saw her write the copy from scratch and many of the headings needed to be changed to fit the underlying marketing messages that have become important for the brand to emphasise. New imagery was also required throughout the majority of the site to provide a more photographic, human touch than the previous vector-based imagery.

After full back and front end SEO efforts and significant testing, the site was transitioned to live with a new web host very seamlessly.

The outcome – a dynamic, modernised website ready for further evolution

Ultimately the new website meets the goals it set out to achieve:

• A more professional online representation of the brand that is a leader in the temp recruitment space and more appeal to attract future franchisees
• Modernised in style, format and functionality with the introduction of the brand’s secondary colour palette to inject more personality and signposting to messaging
• Improved marketing messaging woven through both headings and body copy on the site and stronger calls to action
• Playing to strengths in the logistics and manufacturing sectors, the imagery was selected to reinforce the target audiences and communicate capability is these areas
• More dynamic site through the use of customised blog sections to highlight relevant articles and posts to different parts of the website and a more flexible content management system to make future changes and improvements, including the growth of the franchise network
• Significant improvement in search optimisation through research, strategy and implementation that will continue to be actively managed – online presence has already improved

What does Mark think of the outcome? “It was great that we could rely on Andie’s professional connections in sourcing a developer. She combined her marketing and design skills with those of another small business owner to develop the site. They worked well together and it felt good to be supporting small businesses” comments Mark. He adds, “I couldn’t be happier with how this project was managed and know that Andie will continue to make improvements to the website over the coming months that should take it to the next level and beyond. If you want to avoid the headaches that are often involved in managing such projects, I highly recommended using Flex Marketing’s services to manage a website build or re-build.” 

If your website could do with an overhaul, get in touch with Andie at Flex Marketing to explore how our project management services could be a great option for you.