We worked with Herd to redesign our website, set up Shopify and start our online marketing from scratch. Their attention to detail has been amazing, and their overall support in all aspects of this has always been honest and flexible to suit our needs
B2C Shopify multichannel pivot launching Newhay direct to consumer with subscription service


Project Overview
In 2021 Newhay wanted to launch their own brand of premium feeding hay for small pets selling direct to consumer straight from their farm.
Herd proposed an innovative plan including high performance Shopify build and multi-channel strategy including ongoing SEO, paid advertising, social media management, digital PR, content, and email marketing.
Visit websiteResults
A selection of key statistics from this project:
- +245% Traffic increase
- +287% Sales increase
- +127% Ranking keywords
- x3 Keywords on 1st page of Google

The Brief
Newhay wanted to develop and grow a new B2C channel evolving the business from their existing B2B wholesale / white label model of selling their premium feeding hay to retailers.
Our aim was to help Newhay launch their own brand of feeding hay targeting small pet owners nationwide, and provide the highest quality feeding hay to UK pets within 48 hours of cutting.
Objectives
- Launch Newhay to sell D2C on a new domain and offer a hay subscription service
- Build and grow brand awareness of their new own brand of Premium quality hay online
- Increase business through the site long term
- Develop a multi-channel performance marketing strategy and ongoing support
Our digital audit and competitor analysis highlighted key areas for development:
Technical Issues - Leading the integration of Shopify with the fulfilment and the product centre to work in real time, using our very own “herd skeleton framework” which provides the building blocks to deliver a high performance Shopify website.
Brand development - Ensure the brand was communicated consistently across channels and critically for the website to represent the brand.
Competing with established brands Grow visibility in organic and paid search for Newhay brand and non-brand terms online to compete with similar products and categories on established domains that ranked well.
Multi-channel digital strategy - across all online channels whether delivered by Herd or by Newhay in-house.
Newhay sales team support - Focusing on brand exposure and high-quality coverage based upon competitor link analysis to identify opportunities to grow online and offline brand visibility.

How we did it
We created a multi-channel digital strategy to inform the design, build and content of the new website, and to use as a roadmap for marketing post launch.
We developed a content rich site and robust branding to stand up to competitors and position Newhay as an authority in hay for small pets, whilst communicating the values of a family-based farm.
We developed an SEO friendly site structure, identified content priorities and informational hierarchy for pages to inform design. We then created content to suit the design adopting SEO best practices.
Core category pages for small pets had to be competitive e.g. ‘hay for rabbits’. With just 3 products, we designed product lister pages to display much more on-page content, to be more ‘guide like’ to compete in organic search and tell a detailed story around the product benefits.
The blog focuses on ‘pet care’ guides for each small pet category and News from the farm. Publishing regular articles positions Newhay as a knowledge authority, as well as engaging with small pet owners and their needs. Social media and content is a key component in the strategy.
With small pet owners requiring feed regularly, we built in a flexible hay subscription model with multiple frequency of delivery options and discount incentives to encourage sign-up.
We developed paid advertising campaigns (Google Ads and Facebook Ads) to reach new audiences and drive traffic to the new site with outstanding results.
Our partnership also includes an important aspect of consultancy - we make recommendations for business development and growth across all channels from expansion of product ranges to PR campaigns and collaborations.
We have already seen some outstanding results since launch, and continue to drive brand awareness and uplift in ROI, driving D2C sales to the next level.