October’s Website of the Month contest saw two joint winners for the first time. We caught up with one of them, Kingairloch, to find out more about their website, business and what they wanted to achieve.

Tell us a bit about Kingairloch (both website and business) and its history.

Kingairloch is a 14,000 acre estate located on the Morvern peninsula on the West Coast of Scotland. The estate is home to a range of self catering properties, a lochside restaurant as well as offering a range of traditional sporting activities. The estate has been in the current ownership for the past 20 years, previously it was owned by the Strutt family, the cotton magnates of Belper. Within the Larson ownership the estate has been developed into a remote yet accessible haven for guests to come and relax and enjoy the Scottish Highlands, with great emphasis on sustainability for future generations.

Over the past 10 years the estate has had a representative web presence (just a shop window feel) but this year it was felt the estate needed to have a stronger presence in terms of really promoting what is available and also allowing customers to book their holidays online on our website. With the economic climate still not showing much signs of a recovery, it is hoped that people who wish to holiday will consider staying in the UK and that is one of the reasons why we wanted to have a high quality website that really illustrated the merits of not having to go zillions of miles for rest and relaxation.

What attracts people to Kingairloch, and what are the advantages of staying in the area?

It is mostly our rugged landscapes, wonderful wildlife and our delightful properties that are a real home from home for guests plus the fact we are under a three hours’ drive from Glasgow. The Boathouse restaurant is also drawing in visitors from far and wide, due to the merits of our fantastic larder.With so much press about localism, the restaurant is leagues ahead of other establishments, for example there’s home grown vegetables, salads, fruit and herbs from the estate’s walled garden, venison from the surrounding hills own reared porkand lamb plus seafood from local waters.

Kingairloch.co.uk is a beautiful website. How did you come up with the idea for the design, and what did you want to achieve with it?

I’ve asked Edward Lopez, senior designer at Hotscot who designed the site to answer this one…..

“To get a better feel for Kingairloch we decided to pay them a visit. We were amazed at the size of the place and the lasting impression it gave us. Everything on the estate integrates so well yet manages to retain its own individual feel. We felt it was important to reflect this in the website.

Rob and Katrina (our clients) had done a great job with their own research and they were able to give us a strong steer on the kind of site that they wanted us to create for the estate.

To do the estate justice we wanted to create a unique user experience that would be easy to navigate without compromising on style or interactivity. With this in mind, the whole thing came together in a very organic way. The client was very open-minded and allowed us space to play with ideas as well as giving constructive feedback at every mile stone.

There were two areas in the site where no photo alone could give an accurate reflection so we decided to create a couple of bespoke elements to demonstrate this. The first was the ‘digital painting’ created for the dining page which helps illustrate how the majority of the ingredients in the restaurant are sourced locally. The second item was the interactive map on the Activities section. It worked really well and helped us package the whole Kingairloch experience in the way we had hoped.

Our aim from the beginning was to provide a classy looking site that took full advantage of up to the minute design techniques but would still pay homage to the past. We wanted each section to have its own character that kept true to the estate and it’s fair to say that we are very proud of how the site turned out!

How did you go about marketing Kingairloch.co.uk?

We use a broad range of marketing techniques. First and foremost using WordPress as the CMS means that the site is built in an SEO friendly manner as well as giving us complete control over the content. Our social media channels are also an important way for driving traffic into the site with a growing number of followers on Twitter and Facebook. In addition to tie in with the launch of the new site we commissioned a promotional film which has been uploaded to YouTube and Vimeo and gets great feedback from our guests. Last but not least our website address is promoted heavily in all our offline marketing materials.

The website has a very atmospheric blog. Why did you decide to incorporate a blog and what advantages does it bring?

As mentioned the estate has several representations on social networks, but it was felt that a blog entry could be used to focus on the important things happening on the estate. Kingairloch continues to evolve and there is always a range of projects that I feel our customers like to see how they are progressing. Also living in such wonderful surroundings, you can forget that holiday makers are here for only a week or two at a time so it is very important to not let them forget we are here!

Why did you choose Heart Internet as your host?

We read reviews of many hosting companies, with so many out there it was difficult to know which one to choose. Heart Internet were consistently recommend for their high level of service and quality customer support, coupled with attractive pricing they seemed like a good choice. I’m pleased to say this was a great decision and we are very happy with the results!

How did you go about asking people to vote for you in the Website of the Month contest?

We used a variety of techniques including making use of Facebook and Twitter, blogging, adding news items and your own badge graphics to our website, adding links to email signatures, word of mouth – you name it we did it!

What are your future plans for Kingairloch (both website and business)?

In business terms the estate is looking into more renewable energy projects, such as micro-hydroelectric schemes, after all we have a lot of rain! The self catering properties continue to be well maintained, with a few being aimed at higher Scottish Tourist Board grading because of improvements being made. We hope to attract the wedding market and family celebrations through our new website, it is now a lot clearer on how our functions can work providing potential guests with a lot clearer information. We also hope that our booking procedures for the holiday cottages makes it a lot easier for customers to decide what property suits them and also that the process of booking is as stress free as possible.In terms of plans for the website, it’s only just been launched so nothing mega just yet!