Lort Smith

Challenges

Lort Smith, Australia’s largest not-for-profit animal hospital, engaged Grindstone to develop a new website to help showcase its world-class services.

The brand felt that the existing website had too many conflicting messages, lacked clear direction and wasn’t achieving high-enough traffic to their donations page.

In addition to the website, Grindstone developed a comprehensive content strategy as an overarching project for the brand to develop consistent, well considered messaging and dispel misconceptions of the animal hospital.

Strategy

For the content strategy it was paramount to reinforce core messages and champion their core values of the human-animal bond, world-class veterinary care and serving the community. Messaging was developed to position Lort Smith as more than "just a vet" or "just an adoption centre" and instead established as a "trusted voice" in the field of animal health and wellbeing.

In the same way that Lort Smith is an interface between animals and humans and animals and the best of care, Lort Smith’s website is the interface between its services and the community. The quality of the interface would have a direct bearing on the success of the interaction between Lort Smith and its target audiences.

Outcomes

The process of developing a content strategy has proven hugely valuable for Lort Smith: both for the development of the website and to confidently reinforce its bold vision to be word-class; underpinned by its mission to improve the health and happiness of animals and the people who care for them.

The new website has provided a new era of communication excellence for the organisation, and Lort Smith’s objectives were achieved through creating improved user experience and functionality.

"In the first month alone, we have seen a nine per cent increase in website users, and more than 500 people have subscribed to our newsletter online."

- Shannon Stacey, Senior Communications & Media Specialist, Lort Smith