Haydn Grey
Case Study

Shepherd Offshore

Intro

Quaysides, cranes, and catenaries on the North Banks of the Tyne

Client: Shepherd Offshore
Sector: Shipping | Offshore | Oil & gas | Energy | Marine | Renewable energy
Website: https://shepherdoffshore.com/

Shepherd Offshore delivers critical support services to the offshore, oil & gas, energy, marine, power and renewable energy industries from the Offshore Technology Park and Neptune Energy Park on the banks of the River Tyne.
In spring 2018, Managing Director, Charles Shepherd, led a project to redevelop the company website.

 

“We wanted to tell our clients about the full range of support we offer. When the office is busy with the arrival of a vessel or a load out, we needed to make sure that our prospective clients can find all the information they need about our company at-a-glance online.”

Charles Shepherd, Managing Director

Shepherd Offshore Logo

How we worked

  • Research stage
  • Tone of voice development
  • Website copywriting
  • Case studies

Research stage

A tour of the Offshore Technology Park and Neptune Energy Park, and a series of meetings with team members revealed how Shepherd Offshore’s different business service offerings fit together.

Tone of voice development

Since the 1940s, the Shepherd family has worked to create employment and to regenerate the Tyneside region. Today, their close-knit team works together to deliver excellent customer service to organisations in the offshore, oil & gas, energy, marine, power and renewable energy industries .

To demonstrate the expertise within Shepherd Offshore and bring the different voices of the business to life, we wove direct quotes from team members throughout the services pages.

Copywriting production

Shepherd Offshore’s customers are often under cost and time-restraints when looking for reliable providers to support their needs. It was important that the language of the website’s service pages was easy-to-read – with compelling calls to action.

Each page offers an explanation of the particular service offering, within the context of the business as a whole. This detail-rich copy was produced to answer prospective customer’s questions – and help the website rank well in search engines.

Case study development

Working from existing case studies, we shaped the stories to demonstrate Shepherd Offshore’s experience, expertise, and ever-growing capacity.

 

“Our focus is on meeting our clients’ needs, delivering relevant, timely and transparent communications to remove the traditional stress and ‘bluff’ from the planning and operations stages.

We want our clients to enjoy working with us, we want to remove the friction that we know can hamper the speed of projects, and we want to deliver added value with every interaction.”

Charles Shepherd, Managing Director

The Challenge

The extensive marine and manufacturing facilities at the Offshore Technology Park and Neptune Energy Park currently handle over 150 vessels a year, transferring over 133 reels by road between facilities. Services are available 24-hours a day and seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The company website needed to present information to prospective customers that would answer all their questions and demonstrate the company’s expertise and growing capacity – especially when on-site staff were busy supporting visiting vessels.

The services pages needed to:

  1. Ensure prospective clients could explore the full range of offshore services across Shepherd Offshore’s sites on the North Bank of the River Tyne with ease
  2. Promote Shepherd Offshore’s available commercial and industrial property development opportunities along the River Tyne – and at additional locations across the UK

The Response

“Your work on the copy sections made them engaging and very user-friendly, while successfully conveying what the company stands for; your writing style clarified the essence of each sentence without being distracting.

One of the best aspects of working with you was your warm approach to customer service and your can-do attitude.

We would highly recommend your service to others, as you’re able to work across industries and deal with any challenges.

Your “service with a smile” style makes you very pleasant to work with and we would not hesitate to seek out your services in the future.”

Shepherd Offshore Team

The Results

More people are visiting the site – and staying for longer when they find it. We’ve had a lot of feedback from prospective employees and clients saying that the new website communicated all our services a lot more clearly and in greater detail. 

We’ve seen an increase in enquiries since the new website went live.

Natalia Bogiatzoglou,
Marketing Coordinator & General Administrator | Shepherd Offshore