Case Study - Ilex Associates
A fresh start in financial services
Redesigning Ilex Associates' Digital Presence from Scratch
Ilex Associates needed a professional website to help establish their presence in the rapidly transforming asset and wealth management sectors. As seasoned financial services professionals, they understood the importance of a strong digital platform. Our primary focus was creating a website that would showcase their expertise and forward-thinking approach, but we quickly realised they needed more than just web design—they needed a complete brand identity to underpin their digital presence.
To ensure the website had a strong foundation, we redeveloped the business’s entire visual identity from scratch. This included creating a comprehensive style guide with carefully selected colours and fonts, plus transforming an outdated logo into something sleek and modern. One particularly interesting challenge was finding the perfect serif font where the capital 'I' was distinctly different from the lowercase 'l' in Ilex—a detail that would be crucial across both their logo and website typography.
Professional design meets financial expertise
Bringing Their Vision Online
With the brand elements in place, we turned our full attention to the website itself. We started with detailed mockups in Figma, experimenting with layouts that would feel right for a financial services firm—professional but approachable, sophisticated but not intimidating. Once we'd perfected the design, we built everything in Webflow, which gave us the flexibility and control to bring our vision to life exactly as planned.
The site structure was carefully architected to serve different visitor needs. We built a compelling homepage, an about us page that establishes credibility, a capabilities page showcasing their expertise, and a streamlined contact page. To help position them as thought leaders, we also created 'Opinions'—a blog platform where they could share insights on industry developments. Every page was designed to work together, creating a cohesive digital experience that reflects their professional standards.
Key features
Building a complete digital foundation
Content Strategy & Digital Optimisation
A professional website needs more than great design—it needs compelling content and the right technical foundations. We worked closely with Ilex Associates on every piece of website copy, from the homepage messaging to the thought leadership articles in their Opinions section. Beyond content, we ensured their site had all the digital tools necessary for long-term success in the competitive financial services landscape.
Website Copy
We collaborated with Ilex Associates to craft all their website content, ensuring each page served its specific purpose whilst maintaining a consistent voice. The homepage needed to make an immediate professional impact, the about us page had to build trust and credibility, and the capabilities section needed to demonstrate expertise without overwhelming visitors with too much detail. For their Opinions blog, we established a tone that positions them as thoughtful industry leaders. The result is copy that's authoritative enough to inspire confidence yet accessible enough to engage their target audience.
SEO Implementation
We implemented comprehensive SEO across every page to ensure maximum visibility in search results. This meant researching relevant keywords for the financial services sector, writing optimised meta descriptions, and structuring content for both search engines and user experience. We paid particular attention to their Opinions blog, knowing that thought leadership content could drive significant organic traffic.
Analytics
Finally, we set up Google Analytics to give Ilex Associates full visibility into their website performance. They can now track visitor behaviour, popular content, traffic sources, and engagement metrics. Whether visitors are reading thought leadership pieces or exploring service pages, these insights help them understand what resonates with their audience. In the ever-changing financial services sector, this data enables them to make informed decisions about their digital strategy and continuously improve their online presence.
What Ilex Associates said about the project
We wanted to revamp our online presence and also upgrade the functionality of our site in order to get more visibility and data. We selected Tidal Wave Digital to help us with this, as Ross was very collaborative from the outset of our discussions, fully understood our objectives, and had some great ideas to help shape the new look and functionality of our site. This included modernising our logo, whilst retaining our heritage.
It was important that our new site was mobile friendly and worked seamlessly across all types of media. Ross took the time to gain a good understanding of our business and industry, and focussed on creating a design that was clear, easy to navigate, and also created the right professional image for our business. Tidal Wave Digital have been great to work with and ensured that our site was ready to go live within the timescales agreed, ahead of a key industry conference.
Many existing clients have commented on how great and professional our new site is, and I am sure that we will win new clients as a result! Tidal Wave Digital were proactive when needed to ensure that agreed deadlines were met and also extremely responsive to any questions we had, or support when we needed it.We would happily recommend Tidal Wave Digital to any business looking to improve its online presence.
Antony John – CEO, Ilex Associates
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