LilyArtistry

Transforming a bridal artist business to be as beautiful as their brides.

BACKGROUND

LilyArtistry is a fast-growing Bridal beauty service in Sydney and has been operating since 2019. Specialising in hair and make-up with a small dedicated team, together, they are booked year on year by young women across NSW.

Initially, leads were acquired through Instagram, engaging potential clients via direct messaging before directing them to the LilyArtistry website. Lily, the founder, requested a rebrand and re-design of the website to help her move into the new year to accompany updated pricing and a refresh that positioned her competitively amongst other artist services.

PROBLEM

Inclusion of Multiple Artists

All touchpoints heavily focused on Lily as the key service provider and team members and their specialties were undefined, making the choice for other artists difficult.

Marketing Education Services

Poor proposition for students and examples of results/lessons, inhibiting potential students to enquire.

Raising Pricing Structures

Brand, website, and overall digital presence do not justify a premium or price increase. Current brand positioning signifies a low to mid tier pricing.

OPPORTUNITY

Bridal Experience

Brides and their Mothers need to easily discover and compare Bridal beauty services to identify a suitable Bridal Artist that can accommodate their needs in a once-in-a-lifetime moment. We achieve this through positioning LilyArtistry as the highest value, with trust, competence, and options at the forefront of its brand and web design.

Service expansion

Aspiring Bridal Artists that follow LilyArtistry’s work need to be able to easily connect and learn from a one-on-one class with Lily. The Information Architecture and User Journey must be seamless for a student to access, understand, and action a class booking.

Bookings & Price Increase

LilyArtistry and its team need to diversify the bookings across all team members with the Senior Artists taking more clients to relieve the Lead Artist of the majority of bookings, whilst increasing the Lead Artist's pricing.

By showcasing the other Artists’ work and presenting their competitive pricing in an easy-to-understand interface, potential Brides are led through distinctive services and pricing options.

PROCESS

Research & Understanding

I conducted an interview with Lily in a Brand Discovery call to determine the history, the what, why, how, her values, her primary audience, and vision for the brand. Additionally, metrics of success such as conversions were determined and plans for integrating new web content were made.

Afterwards, I completed a competitor analysis of local and international brands within the industry, not limited to only bridal artists, but with wedding planners, photographers, and hair and make-up retailers to immerse myself in the world of brides. A key decision was made to stray away from the standard beige and pink visual language.

Auditing & Defining

Reviewing the website and brand visual language, I outlined all required changes and major friction points in the user journey, from legibility, to page sections, colours, and messaging, concluding the ineffectiveness for capturing attention and communicating the premium quality desired. 

The sitemap was relatively simple, but required restructuring to future-proof and accommodate new information expansions in other services.

Brand & Web Development

With a clear direction in positioning for the brand, I developed an identity iteratively to portray a premium Bridal Artist collective based on the brand values of Reliability, Professionalism, and Elegance. This included brand colours, a tone of voice matrix, key messaging, and collateral. 

For the website, all pages were restructured via a revised information architecture, wire-framing, prototype landing pages, and copywriting. Initial designs were all done in Illustrator (I’m shocked too), and then built in Webflow using a template and customising it extensively to speed the process.

CHALLENGES & LEARNINGS

Empathy, but with bias

A brand and website for women needs a woman’s touch. At the end of the day, as much as you intend to look through another lens, we as individuals are limited in our own habits, thinking, and taste. In response, I hired another designer I studied with and collaborated on developing the typography to truly suit the brand.

The right tool for the job

Major delays in design and development occurred due to designing in Illustrator and then building in Webflow for the first time. As such, a template was chosen to be a foundation to build off, which presented its own pros and cons. Now, I'd suggest against templates for extensive customisation as it got incredibly messy with existing classes, new sections, animations, and undesired functions.

Good ideas, for another time

Initial features of designing a native form portal was agreed, and prototypes of the multi-paged form system were impressive. It walked users through each question, but unfortunately ideas like these had to be removed as existing CRM and lead capture systems required to remain in the business. It’s a shame this effort did not make it in the final build, but it was nonetheless valuable in developing and led to a final product beneficial for the business overall.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS

Increased pricing

All prices were increased substantially and met without resistance.

Booked out

Enquiries increased and booked weddings jumped from 54 to over 70 in the next comparative year.

New products

Group workshops, digital products, and an online education were introduced and actively purchased, becoming a key revenue stream for the business.

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