The Loft

The Loft is a creative space for hire in Folkestone with an eclectic audience and a growing range of offerings, including movement classes, a photography studio, corporate hire, and gigs. Shortly after unveling the venue to the public, it became clear to the founders that their Squarespace website, the endpoint of all their paid and organic marketing, wasn't serving its users. So I was hired me to help.

What was the problem

The initial user research I conducted showed two main problems: we were dealing with ambiguous messaging and a gap between the user understanding the offerings and taking action.

In terms of messaging, the site was failing to address visitors' pain points and offer them obvious solutions. Where depth was needed pages were thin, or inversely, they were front-loaded with disclaimers in places that should have been quick to move past. This created a conversion barrier at the narrowest part of the funnel: even if visitors found their way to the right part of the site, they would be taken straight to the booking process without knowing what exactly they were booking.

How we approached it

I developed a StoryBrand redesign that flipped the job of The Loft's website from purely transactional to something more nurturing. This change of direction also meant fixing the navigation, where I introduced a more restrained structure: from the homepage, you're presented with three possible paths—Ritual (their movement studio), Events, and Hire. Everything else got folded inside the flow of each page.

Take the "Ritual" page, for instance (Ritual is their yoga and movement studio slash sub-brand). This was built to be nine sections long, allowing The Loft to answer every possible question while explaining how their yoga and movement offer stacks up against local competition: the "why here and not somewhere else?" element that is so important to conversions. The other pages follow an arc that's much the same, walking the user from "I have questions" at the top to "I'm at peace, and I know what to do next" down at the end.

When it comes to how the brand spoke of itself, the original copy seemed to highlight the venue's challenges and limitations and barely touched on the unique things it has to offer. The rewrite fixes that, and wherever weaknesses have silver linings, I framed them as such. For example, The Loft is on the top floor of an old department store, right in the heart of Folkestone: there are no lifts, and guests really need to read the access instructions to find the venue. In return, that location lets them host classes and events with considerably louder music than most independent studios in town.

How it helped

Resolving key user friction points helped triple The Loft's overall YoY traffic and generate an additional 4K page views over a four-month period, laying the baseline foundation for steady and compounding traffic growth.

For a redesign to be successful, the client needs to trust what has been built, and must be able to maintain it without breaking anything. As such, I consulted closely with Cairo, one of the co-founders, throughout the entire process and familiarised him with the logic behind every decision. Finally, before handing over the keys, I supplied extensive documentation and training videos.

What the founders took ownership of was a refreshed visual identity with a new take on their original wordmark, and a four-page website—cut down from fourteen—that looks and feels more intuitive and youthful, and aims to make a stronger case for The Loft. In spite of the trimming and the limitations of Squarespace as a site builder, the full scope of the offer remains, only now we're telling a far more compelling story while guiding users to book or enquire directly without forcing their hand. The site stopped being something "to sort out at some point" and it now does the one job it was always meant to do: reassure people that The Loft is exactly where they want to be, and then get out of their way.

Visit theloftstudio.uk to learn more about The Loft.

Here's what Cairo, co-founder of The Loft, had to say:

"I have never worked with someone so deeply reliable, who has gone above and beyond my expectations. The sheer detail, diligence and attention Fran has to his work is worth its weight in gold, tenfold!

Fran managed to take a multipurpose, three tiered studio that was scattered across 14+ pages and amalgamate them smoothly, coherently and simply into just four. The creativity, design, the story, everything from start to finish has been so incredible Fran’s communication has always been warm, agreeable and forthcoming.

Do you know how good it feels to have someone you can deeply trust? Fran turned the weight on my shoulders into air."