As an expanding provider of executive search and selection services to financial firms, primarily in the City, Laz Partners‘ founder Alex Lazaridis was looking to build on the online presence of his business.

Referred to Saint Digital by one of our previous clients in the recruitment space, Alex told us that he felt his website wasn’t quite conveying what was unique about Laz Partners to his global network. Nor, if truth be told, was it really matching the professionalism he maintained in his dealings with candidates and clients. Plus, his old website was clunky and difficult both to maintain and update. He needed something that was going to be much easier to add new content to, and make small tweaks where necessary.

In our initial discussions about the project, we reviewed the site we’d built for our previous recruitment client. Alex said that he would like similar functionality on his own site, a professional look and feel, and, if possible, a way to directly integrate the website with the CRM system, so that clients who provided their details on the website would immediately be added to the dashboard Laz Partners use in their day-to-day recruitment activity.

Working closely with Alex, who was always available to discuss the requirements of the new sites and answer questions along the way (a great help!) we were able to discern some key priorities for the new website.

Lead generation would naturally be one of these – while the old site had a button which directed the user from the homepage to the ‘Contact’ details, it wasn’t very prominent, and didn’t get much use. We agreed that it would be very important that both candidates and clients (the two separate audiences of Laz Partners’ site) would need to be able to find what they needed right from the homepage, and that clear CTAs (Calls to Action) would help achieve this. Candidates would thus be able to upload their details from the homepage, while clients could find contact details to post their vacancies without delay.

It was also agreed that a lighter colour scheme and imagery that properly reflected both the professionalism of the sector and of Laz Partners’ diligent approach to recruitment (the team use a thorough 12-step process in every search!) would make a big difference in the presentation of the new site.

We knew imagery was important, but agreed that it would be important to strike a balance between iconography and stock photos, and it was important to avoid those photos being too stuffy, corporate, or stale (smiling office workers, handshakes, and the like have had their day in 2020 – if you ask Saint Digital, anyhow…). Early on, Alex picked out some stunning skyline imagery of the major cities in which his candidates and clients tend to operate (London and New York both featuring prominently on the new site). 

To begin to target more niche keyterms in SEO, we agreed that the new site would need some new content. The most important of these would be the dedicated Practice Areas page, which contains blurb on each of the varied areas of focus that Laz Partners cover. Having dedicated content areas on each individual service means Laz Partners have a much better chance of ranking for non-branded search terms. For example, if someone searches ‘macro and multi-asset executive search’, there’s now a fair bit of content along those lines on the new site, allowing Laz Partners to begin ranking!

Finally, we agreed we would feature many more of the great testimonials Laz Partners have received on the new site. There’s only so much that your own copy can get across, after all – the words of your clients and candidates matter more! We decided we would feature a testimonial slider to allow the user to browse these at their leisure.

Although we went for a very professional tone, using the smart blue colours featured prominently in Laz Partners’ logo (there are 3 cool shades to play with in the ‘arrow’ icon, alone!), we were sure to feature some more modern web features. Sections have angular edges (as you can see above left), fitting with the style of Laz Partners’ arrow logo – and of course, we incorporated slider functionality for company testimonials and ‘recent placements’.

Users can scroll through the testimonials on the site from the homepage slider, or click to view a dedicated page for all previous case studies.

The same applies for the recent placements Laz Partners have made, allowing interested clients to see the business’ track record of success before making their enquiry.

Furthermore, we were able to integrate Vincere’s CRM functionality into the new website via API connection. Now, users can get an accurate picture of current vacancies and upload their data directly into Vincere – all without leaving the website.

Building on the angular style of the website, which matches the sharp arrow effect in Laz Partners’ logo, the page is bookended by a footer which places the company’s contact and social media details within easy access for clients and candidates alike to get in touch. Alex’s is a people business, so it was very important that we made contact with the company a cinch, from the moment users land on the website and following any content they might engage with as well. 

The site footer

The site is fully equipped with blogging functionality for the future as well as the capacity to add new live job roles to the site. We’re excited to see what content marketing Laz Partners will put out in the near future, now they’ve switched over to WordPress, a much more flexible and comprehensive Content Management System.

Saint Digital performed a full site speed and performance audit before official ‘hand over’, ensuring the site loads quickly on all devices. We’re confident that the site should be ready to grow along with what (we hope) will be increased traffic figures for the business!

All in all, this was a great challenge and thoroughly enjoyable project for us to take on, and we’re delighted that the team at Laz Partners are happy with their new site and confident in its ability to generate online leads. We hope to continue work with Alex on future online marketing campaigns, as we continue to grow our expertise in recruitment website designs.