Brand Strategy for Matthews of Chester

History

We have been working with Matthews of Chester Chester’s biggest and most successful Estate Agent for over 9 years, building a website for them in conjunction with a leading Chester design agency back in 2015. As with all Estate Agency Websites, we built their website in WordPress and link to their Property Management system, originally CFP.

Bespoke Website Design and Build

The size and range of services that Matthews offer the market – Property Sales, Rental, Block Management, Student Property Rental – meant that an off the shelf website theme would not work for them. We specialise in bespoke website design meaning that we work with you to agree all the pages and features needed, and then design each page type to your specification. With Estate Agency Websites, this also means designing bespoke Property listing layouts and linking to your chosen property software. With Matthews we initially linked to CFP and then changed the feed to Reapit writing an App for upload to the Foundations Developer Portal and AppMarket. 

SEO and Marketing

We continued to work with Matthews to optimise their website for Google search and helped on ad-hoc development projects. We had however, long been keen to help them more with their marketing so worked with Matthews, putting together a more structured Digital Marketing and content plan. 

Key messaging Workshops

Towards the end of 2019 our discussions with Matthews turned to branding. Their messaging and branding had become confused over time. What did Matthews stand for? Where did they fit in the local market? What made their business so special? We felt that if we could answer these questions and distil them into messages to the market, it would move their marketing forward hugely. We already had a great understanding of the business but suggested running a number of Branding Workshops.

We organised a workshop, inviting all of the senior team at Matthews. We ran a number of exercises with the team designed to brainstorm what Matthews offer to the market. Our aim here was to document all of the outcomes and distil these down into the most valuable and powerful differentiators Matthews deliver every day.  

We are Chester

Intimate local knowledge. Infinite property experience.

Chester’s Estate Agent

Known for our experience. Trusted for our knowledge.

We are Chester

Known for our experience. Trusted for our knowledge.

We’ve been matching people and property in Chester for over 30 years.

We value property for those who value experience.

We know Chester.

A proven combination of tradition and expertise practiced for over 30 years.

Made in Chester in 1986

Designed for those who value experience.

YOUR property in OUR safe hands.

The Matthews team thoroughly enjoyed the experienced and were thrilled with the results. A set of messages that truly encapsulated what the Matthews of Chester business was all about.

Branding

With a full Branding and Messaging strategy document, our Design Director was able to design a number brand ideas that reflected all of the messaging. Matthews chose their brand ideas and the work began to create a new website and all marketing collateral. We continue our work with Matthews growing their website traffic and solidifying their position as Chester’s premium estate agency.

Content Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation

During the re-branding project we continued working with Matthews on a structured Content plan designed to attract traffic to their website for their wide range of services. This ongoing work has led to almost doubling their website traffic and enquiries. 

The Sale of Matthews of Chester

Having invested in their Re-Brand and focussed time on their messaging, it cane as no surprise that Matthews began getting an increase in interest to buy their business. In 2023 they were bought out by the Thornley Groves/ The Lomond Group. They have of course kept the Branding and messaging loved by the people of Chester and Thornley Groves alike.