Sector
Professional Services

Location
Essex

Website
reemandansie.com

Auctioneers and valuers Reeman Dansie was established in 1881 in the heart of Colchester and has built an excellent reputation in its sector. They are recognised as leading auctioneers and valuers in the region and royalty experts. James Grinter is a regular visitor to Buckingham Palace as the Queen is offered options on all royal items as a matter of courtesy prior to any sale. In November 2003 as part of their growth the company moved to a spacious modern saleroom on the outskirts of Colchester, within five minutes drive of the A12 and easy rail links to London.

Reeman Dansie approached Mackman with the desire for the design and construction of a new website. It was also clear that their branding and marketing material needed to evolve in order to meet and exceed the benchmark set by their competitors.

Brand Facts

  • Over 137 years, Reeman Dansie has grown from a small regional auction house with a local audience to one with a global outlook and international reputation.
  • In 2003 the firm moved from Headgate to their current location on Severalls Business Park.
  • Their specialist sales now consistently attract between 1000 and 1500 registered bidders from around the globe.

Project Facts

  • Reeman Dansie approached Mackman to improve their existing website and resolve technical issues.
  • The new website needed to set Reeman Dansie apart from their competiton.

The Client

Using technology to sell artefacts & heirlooms

During 2009, Reeman Dansie became aware that the poor performance of their existing website was having a detrimental effect upon the performance of the business and also upon the reputation of their brand. As they approached the end of the year, the service levels from their website provider were unacceptably poor and they were experiencing an alarming volume of issues with their website.

This was key to creating a high perception and presenting a professional and credible image. The website needed to be equipped to capture visitor information, encourage enquiries, sustain website traffic and rank highly within the natural search listings.

The project also included the design of a new logo and branding, which was developed and applied to:

  • Email footers
  • Business cards (design & print)
  • Letterheads (design & print)
  • Compliments slips (design & print)
  • External building signage (design, supply & fit)
  • Internal building signage (design, supply & fit)
  • Bidding slips (design)
  • Fax sheets (design)
  • Catalogue cover and template (design)
  • Calendar template (design)
  • Photography (development of a new marketing image library)
  • Sophisticated content managed website that integrates with back office system and email marketing module. Highly search engine friendly and robust enough to handle a high volume of images

The Challenge

It became evident that we had an opportunity to create an online presence to exceed that of Reeman Dansie’s competitors. In order to do so it was important that the design and navigation was functional, clean and uncluttered and set Reeman Dansie apart from competition.

We had an important deadline that it was imperative that we keep to in order to maximise sales. This was our largest fine art auction at the end of February. Thanks to all the hard work of everyone at Mackman who was involved in the project; we were delighted to achieve our goal of having the site live in time. The numbers of registered on-line bidders more than doubled in the sale immediately following the website relaunch. The increased business has continued to grow in our antiques and collectors’ sales this year and we are confident that it will continue.

Since the launch of our new website our Specialist Fine Art and Collectors’ Sales have performed well resulting in higher lot values and a decrease in unsold lots. On-line bidders now represent on average 1/3rd of the customer base each sale and purchase 25% of the lots whilst underbidding may others. Our international customer base has expanded in the USA, Europe and the Far East whilst our regular buyers can view our catalogue and bid on-line even if they are travelling on business.