People will drive past two supermarkets to come to us. They just have to know we are here, and know why we are worth the drive.

A third-generation butcher, on why he finally got a website

For butchers

Everything the supermarket cannot say about its meat, you can say about yours.

Which farm. Which breed. How long it was hung. Who cut it. That is not marketing, it is the actual difference between your counter and theirs — and it is invisible unless somebody walks in. A website is where it stops being invisible.

Written for your businessPage count follows the briefPreview before launch

Christmas is not a busy fortnight. It is a booking system you do not have.

Every butcher knows the December pattern. The orders start in November, they come in by phone, they go in a book, and somebody has to read the handwriting on the twenty-third. Turkeys, ribs of beef, pigs in blankets, collection slots, deposits. It is the most profitable three weeks of the year and it runs on paper and memory.

A website will not take the orders for you, and we are not going to pretend otherwise — this is a business website, not a shop system. What it will do is take the pressure off the counter. Weights and prices published, so nobody rings to ask. Order deadlines stated, so you stop taking a turkey order on the twenty-second. A form that gathers the name, the joint, the weight and the collection day in writing rather than shouted over a queue.

Butchers who do this tell us the same thing every January: the same volume of orders, half the phone calls, and nothing lost in translation.

What you sell

The lines worth their own space

Dry-aged beef

Breed, farm and hanging time. The detail that justifies the price.

Barbecue boxes

Warm weather turns this into the biggest search of the summer, overnight.

Christmas orders

Deadlines, weights, deposits and collection days, published rather than repeated.

Local sourcing

Named farms and named suppliers. This is the whole argument for shopping with you.

Trade and catering supply

Pubs and restaurants looking for a local butcher search for exactly this.

Home delivery

If you deliver, how far, on which days, and what the minimum is.

Two customers a butcher's website has to convince

The one who has never used a butcher

There are a lot of them, and the barrier is not price — it is not knowing how it works. Do you have to order in advance. Is it rude to ask for two chops. Will they be judged for not knowing what a chuck steak is. Do they need cash.

A page that quietly answers all of that removes more hesitation than any amount of talk about quality. Say that you will cut anything to any size, that there is no minimum, that you are happy to explain what to do with it. That sentence alone brings people through the door who have been walking past for years.

The one who knows exactly what they want

The other half already cooks seriously and is looking for something specific — a côte de boeuf, a proper lamb shoulder for eight, ox cheek, bones for stock, a whole rare-breed pork loin.

They are searching by the exact cut, and they will drive to whoever obviously has it. So the site names the breeds you carry, says how long the beef hangs, lists the less common cuts you can get with a day’s notice, and makes it clear you will order in. That reader becomes a weekly customer, and they tell people.

The things a careful shopper is looking for

Five star hygiene ratingNamed local farmsRed Tractor assuredDry-aged on the premisesFree-range and outdoor-rearedHome delivery available

Straight answers

What butchers ask before starting

Our customers are older. Do they even look online?

Their children do, and increasingly they do too. But the bigger point is the customers you do not have yet — the family that moved into the village last year and has been going to the supermarket because they never knew you were there.

Do we have to publish prices?

No, and many butchers do not because they move weekly. Publishing the Christmas price list is different, and worth it — it is the one time of year people plan and compare.

Can you put our hygiene rating on?

Yes, and you should. A five is a genuine selling point and it costs nothing to display.

What about recipes?

They work well and they bring in searches you would never otherwise get. If you want a page on how to cook a rib of beef properly, we will write it with you.

Give people a reason to drive past the supermarket

£47 a month, everything included. One conversation to get started and no contract to sign.