The Calm Gut Dietitian: Levelling up a personal brand

The expert whose online presence wasn't keeping pace

Chloe Hall is a registered dietitian, consultant, and the UK's leading expert in Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) and histamine intolerance. She's written evidence-based articles for high-profile publications, is frequently recommended by doctors, and has helped hundreds of clients navigate the debilitating symptoms of MCAS through dietary guidance.

She had been highly successful and busy as a private dietitian for several years, and was building a name for herself as The Calm Gut Dietitian. But her website and brand identity wasn’t keeping pace with any of it.

Chloe had built her original site in the early days of her practice, before the referrals started snowballing and her time became scarce. By the time she came to us, there was a significant mismatch between the calibre of her work and what someone encountered when they looked her up. For a practitioner whose clients find her primarily through organic search and doctor recommendations, that gap mattered. She needed a website and visual identity that would instantly build the trust and credibility her reputation deserved.

What we built

We worked with Chloe on brand strategy, a completely new visual identity, website copy, and a fully redesigned and rebuilt website.

Tara designed a new visual identity to replace branding that had become outdated and no longer reflected Chloe's level of expertise. The new identity - logo suite, colour palette, and typography - was compiled into a brand guidelines document so Chloe could maintain consistency across everything she creates going forward.

Colour palette and typography

Tara designed a new colour palette as part of Chloe’s new visual identity design.

After I had worked with Chloe to pinpoint her brand message and positioning, Hannah interviewed her to capture the nuances of her tone of voice, and the details of her background and services. She then rewrote the copy across the whole site, moving away from long lists of clinical symptoms and towards language that speaks directly to the reader, making them feel understood without losing the authority and expertise that sets Chloe apart. The new copy guides visitors naturally towards booking an appointment.

Previous homepage hero section:

New homepage hero section:

“Hannah and Tara were great. They really listened to what I wanted, and got to understand my business and how I work.”

- Chloe

The redesigned site restructured the user journey so that visitors can navigate easily to the right appointment type without being overwhelmed by options (a particular challenge given the complexity of Chloe's specialisms). Trust signals were placed strategically throughout, and on the homepage ‘hero section’ we displayed the logos of high-profile publications Chloe has been featured in, to instantly position her as an authoritative voice in the industry.

We also used Chloe’s professionally taken brand photos across the website, to replace the old photos from the previous site. As Chloe’s professional photo shoot had been on the coast, with plenty of photos of her standing on the beach, we used calming beach imagery throughout the rest of the site. This is in keeping with her brand ‘The Calm Gut Dietitian’, whilst steering clear of overused stock imagery of food, which is often found on dietitian websites.

The new visual identity, wording, messaging and website build were all designed to firmly position Chloe as the leader in her industry, so that when someone looks her up, her online presence matches her glowing reputation.

SEO and website traffic considerations

Chloe was already getting quite a lot of traffic to her website via a couple of key pages on the original site. As they weren’t exactly service pages and didn’t really fit in the main navigation, we turned them into blog posts on the new website instead, keeping the same wording, and optimising them even more for the keyphrases they were being found for.

We then designed a blog post template, with a strong ‘call to action’ that stays permanently at the side of the screen, inviting blog readers to book an appointment.

This means that Chloe will continue to pull in the high-quality traffic via those pages, without cluttering up the main navigation. That traffic will also have a high chance of converting into bookings.

What changed

Six weeks after launch, Chloe was getting new client bookings every single day and was booked up well into the coming months. But the outcome that stood out most wasn't the volume - it was the quality of what people were booking.

"Before, I felt a bit embarrassed by my website and didn't really have a consistent brand. Pie Heart Studio changed that completely - I'm now proud of my website and really happy to signpost people to it.The website redesign has streamlined the information so well and made it much clearer. This has increased the number of packages I've been selling (instead of one off appointments) which has significantly increased my income."

- Chloe

Chloe also mentioned a concern we often hear from experts who have ‘DIYed’ it up until this point - the reluctance to let go of everything they've built themselves and hand it over to a team:

“I was a bit nervous about handing my website over, but I really didn't need to be as Beth was brilliant from start to finish. I couldn't fault anything about the process and am really pleased with my website. Would recommend Pie Heart studio to anyone!”

- Chloe

---