Love Bedford
Promoting a town properly takes more than a pretty website. For over a decade, we’ve helped Love Bedford build one of the most advanced destination platforms out there. A smart, powerful system that champions 600+ businesses, promotes thousands of events, drives voucher sales and keeps operations running smoothly behind the scenes.
Sector
Destination Marketing
Our Team
- AM
- BH
- RH
Deliverables
- Website
- WordPress Development
- Marketing Consultancy
- Bespoke CRM
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The Challenge
The Challenge
Love Bedford is the promotional brand for BedfordBID, the Business Improvement District working to champion Bedford town centre since 2005. They support over 600 businesses, promote events and offers, and run campaigns that bring people into town. We've been right there with them for over a decade, helping shape a digital platform that does it all.
Our Approach
We didn’t just build a website – we created a full digital ecosystem. A public-facing platform for locals and visitors. A back-office CRM to keep data clean and centralised. Strategic consultancy to make it all work together and digital marketing to bring people in.
The Details
A Website Built for Bedford
This is one of the most advanced WordPress platforms we’ve ever built. It handles hundreds of thousands of visits a year and supports over 600 local businesses.
Business Directory
600+ businesses. Over 200,000 data points. Every listing tagged, categorised, and GPS-located. The whole town, mapped and searchable. With smart suggestions that surface hidden gems and similar spots nearby, this isn’t just a directory, it’s discovery on autopilot.
What's On Listings
20,000+ events promoted and counting. Filtered by time, place, theme, audience all linked to the businesses behind them. From big weekends to one-off pop-ups, the engine keeps Bedford buzzing and gets people back into town.
Voucher eCommerce
We made it easy to buy Love Bedford vouchers online. Checkout, delivery, admin management for the operations team, it’s all handled. Over £1 million vouchers purchased and fed back into the local economy through the scheme.
Seasonal Landing Pages
Big campaigns built around big moments. From Valentine’s to Christmas, each page pulls together relevant events, offers and businesses, giving the town a boost when it matters most.
SEO and Search Strategy
We wanted Love Bedford to rank for everything. So we built landing pages for the lot; "What’s on in Bedford," "Rainy day ideas," "Dog friendly cafes,", "Pubs with gardens" and so many more. 200,000+ data points power some seriously smart content that drives traffic and fuels discovery.
Built-in Business Tools
The public-facing site is just one side of the system. Behind it sits a fully bespoke CRM built to support the BID’s operations day-to-day.
We worked closely with the team to map out exactly what they needed - no off-the-shelf tools, no clunky workarounds. Just a smart, custom platform that fits the way they actually work.
Mobile-friendly forms let staff collect data from businesses out in the field. New businesses, event info, scheme signups, changes of ownership - it all gets logged in real time and synced directly into the CRM.
That data powers everything. It keeps the website fresh. It feeds segmented email marketing lists. And it gives the BID a clean, central source of truth. What used to be scattered across spreadsheets and inboxes is now fast, reliable and always in sync.
Strategy & Marketing Support
This partnership goes way beyond a website. We’ve acted as digital consultants from the start - shaping the platform, designing smarter workflows, and helping the BID make better use of their time and data.
When decisions needed to be made, we were in the room. From automation and SEO to landing page strategy and platform planning, we’ve helped guide it all.
We’ve also been hands-on with marketing. Full social management when the team needed backup. Campaigns, newsletters, graphics, videos all built to get people into town and businesses noticed.
Behind the scenes, we’ve kept things sharp. Regular reporting, performance insights and board-level analysis for BID directors. No fluff, just clear numbers that help guide strategy and prove what’s working.
With over 2 million site visits, 25,000 followers and 6,000+ email subscribers, the numbers speak for themselves.
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Facts & Stats
Events Promoted
Site Visitors
of Partnership
Client Feedback
The Dream Digital team have been working with the Business Improvement District (BID) for over a decade. They're well-informed, experienced, innovative and highly creative. The team successfully manage the day-to-day operation of our site designed to attract both B2B and B2C audiences and maximise SEO so that our businesses have optimum exposure.
Christina Director of Operations
Looking Back
This one’s personal. Our founders are from Bedford. We’ve grown up here, built our agency here, and we care about the town’s future. That’s why this project has always mattered.
The Love Bedford platform is a flagship for what we do; sophisticated, intelligent, and designed to make a difference. It’s powered a decade-long partnership with the BID and has always to evolved with their needs. A site we’re proud of. For a place we care about.
