Transforming a website with a small team and a tight budget
Success achieved
How the ISM transformed their website with the help of its small team and a tight budget, making it easy to navigate, user-friendly and engaging.- Website
- https://www.ism.org
- Project dates
- July 2015 - March 2016
Project team
- Rebecca Gleave, Marketing Manager (project lead)
- Francesca Treadaway, Communications Manager
- Simon Leadbetter, website designer at ThoughtfulWeb
Introduction
As a result of user feedback (members and non-members), a prolonged period of low website traffic and a lack of engagement, we carried out a comprehensive review of the ISM website including a membership survey.
This review resulted in us identifying a number of serious problems with our website which we felt could be tackled as part of a website revitalisation project. We identified major problems with navigation, content placement, menus, content grouping, CMS, SEO, look and feel, and responsiveness for mobile.
The objectives for this project were to address these problems with the aim of improving the user experience for our members and prospective members, improving online recruitment and helping improve member retention.
We achieved this by working with our web designer, to draw up a new navigation structure and improve overall design based on our member’s feedback and our research, clean and re-tag all website content with SEO in mind, migrate to a new CMS which offered more flexibility and reliability, add new content including video and images, and train staff in basic SEO to enable continued improvement in this crucial area.
Discovery
Our aims as an organisation are to offer a gold standard service to our members while growing
our membership and influence. With this project we wanted to improve our online services for our members, increase recruitment and increase retention.
We were getting worrying feedback from our members regarding the usability of the website, particularly around navigation and finding key information. Our membership survey found that 50% of the 774 respondents were using the website less than once a month even though it housed key membership services and self-service member account areas.
By analysing the behaviour of our website traffic it was clear that we had a problem with engagement across the board with only 28.5% of visits lasting more than 10 seconds. From January to July 2014, our ‘join us’ section had 5,915 unique pageviews but only approximately 410 new members had actually joined the ISM online during that period. The website was not fulfilling its role as a member recruitment tool or succeeding in engaging members and enhancing their membership experience.
Further surveys, user feedback, reviews and analysis identified a number of problems with our website which could be addressed with a re-vitalisation project prioritising drastic improvements to navigation, usability, SEO and the placing and grouping of content. Addressing these problems would enhance the user experience for our members and make joining online a smoother and more appealing process for musicians wishing to join the Society therefore having a positive effect on recruitment and retention.
Objectives
- Improve navigation and usability so that our members and prospective members get an excellent user experience
- Improve and modernise the ‘look and feel’ with the aim of increasing engagement
- Move to a CMS which allows us more flexibility and creativity
- Improve SEO
- Improve recruitment and retention rates as a result of the above
Activities
In order to maximise the success of the project and get the most from our budget and resources, we carried out extensive research before we drew up the final brief and navigation re-structure plans for our designer. We used data from a recent membership survey, launched a specific website survey for all users, carried out detailed analysis using Google analytics, reviewed member feedback, consulted with the whole of the ISM staff team and called on the expertise of our website designer. We also researched the approaches other membership bodies had taken with their websites and learnt about current website best practice and design trends.
To sum up, our preparation included:
- Asking the user what they wanted - user surveys, creation of a website working group made up of members who we consulted from the outset;
- Listening to unprompted member feedback;
- Gathering insight using google analytics;
- Working with the whole ISM staff team to gather further insight and ideas - staff consultations and brainstorming sessions;
- Researching best practice in our field and current design trends;
- Consulting with and utilising the expertise of our website designer;
- Consulting with ISM senior management;
- Drawing up a proposal and brief;
- Taking the proposed project out to tender;
- Drawing up a navigation plan and project schedule.
We also undertook a comprehensive review of the website and carefully considered the user experience. Our review and the other preparation we did uncovered the following major problems with the website:
- Complicated navigation, hidden key content, unhelpful static menus
- Content grouped in a way that was not intuitive for the user
- Restrictive, inflexible CMS
- Cluttered, text-heavy pages with little visual stimulation
- Poor search engine optimisation (SEO)
- Limited responsiveness for mobile
- Out of date ‘look and feel’ that did not capitalise on the latest website design trends suitable for our users
- No e-newsletter sign-up or means to capture the email addresses of users who were downloading our resources
The activities we undertook to overcome these problems were as follows:
- Worked with Simon, our website designer, to draw up a new navigation structure and improve overall design based on our member’s feedback and our research. This included the introduction of drop-down menus and re-vitalisation of the members’ area
- Introduction of more intuitive categorisation and content grouping, particularly in the advice centre’
- Worked with our website designer to come up with ideas for new page template layouts, all responsive and optimised for mobile
- Kept users involved by consulting our Website Working Group, involving them in design decisions and testing
- Kept our whole staff team involved by presenting stages of design and involving them in testing
- Undertook a large-scale project to review and clean all website content including images
- Re-tagged content, including all images, for SEO
- Migrated our website to a new CMS, Craft, which gives us greater flexibility in terms of design, editing and ability to adapt in the future
- Added new content, e.g. videos and images, to increase engagement
- Introduced e-newsletter sign-up and data capture forms for downloads
- Trained staff in basic SEO to enable continued improvement in this area
- Allowed a two-week period for extensive testing
Some major improvements in more detail
We moved to a new CMS which allows us greater flexibility in terms of design, editing and functionality. Our new CMS also enables better SEO which we increased further by ensuring each page is search engine friendly and that images are labelled intelligently.
New website - navigation structure
Navigation was optimised by implementing drop-down menus, (informed by member research and feedback from our website working group of members) particularly in the ‘advice centre’ area, tying and linking content together more effectively using ‘related products’ and multi-media contents pages in each category within the ‘advice centre’, signposting popular and new content on the homepage, providing buttons linking to key content at the bottom of every page of the website, cleaning current content and weeding out out-of-date or unhelpful content.
We created a new members’ area which not only puts vital membership information in one place but also highlights pages we know are popular with our members including interactive areas where they can edit their listings information, update their contact details, renew their membership, pay by direct debit or change their password. Again we made sure this area was highly visual whilst keeping it clean, functional and modern looking.
We changed our main menu structure to improve navigability and added drop-down sub categories to reduce the amount of clicks members and prospective members would need to make before getting to the information they needed. Facilities to enable video embedding on the site were added and we created a video gallery for webinar recordings, interviews and conference footage.
Text-heavy contents pages and articles in the ‘advice centre’ area of the website were replaced with highly visual menu pages showcasing articles, videos, professional development opportunities and related links all in one place. Our impenetrable advice articles were edited down and the font placement and sizing was improved to benefit members with visual impairments and those viewing the site via mobile devices.
The project started in July 2015 but was put on hold after the Summer due to the team being needed for other priority projects. Work started again at the beginning of 2016 and the website was launched in the first week of March 2016.
[CHALLENGES]
The project was undertaken by a very small team who had their usual workload to handle on top
of this project. The ISM website project team included just two team members - Rebecca Gleave, the Society’s Marketing Manager, and Francesca Treadaway, the Society’s Communications Manager. The ThoughtfulWeb development/design team consisted of one website designer, Simon Leadbetter. The budget was just £12,000.
Achievements
The project was delivered to budget and within a reasonable timeframe. It fulfilled its objectives and the revitalised website is proving very popular with our members. The user experience is dramatically improved and we can see from our analytics that engagement has increased. The website is now a vibrant, busy hub for our members and attracts new members to the Society on a daily basis.
We have had very positive feedback from our members regarding the refreshed website as well as from our staff team including our Chief Executive. Members are finding it easier to get to the information they need and we are getting less frustrated calls from members struggling to find what they need.
Targets & Statistics
In the six months since the refreshed website was launched, pages per session increased from 2.11 to 2.72 showing greater engagement. The average session duration has increased by 52% and the bounce rate has fallen by 12.5%.
Average length of visit has improved from 1’13” in the six months before the launch of the refreshed website to 1’51” in the six months post-launch. Member engagement has improved dramatically - in the six months before launch only 20.5% (25,047 sessions) of our visitors were returning visitors. In the sixth months post-launch this has increased to 32.4% (27,174 sessions).
Visits from members and non-members to the ‘advice centre’ area of the website have increased from 31,436 (six months pre-launch) to 32,910 (six months post- launch). Members are utilising the members’ area much more - 14,564 visits (six months pre-launch) to 32,524 visits (six months post-launch).
The website is now fully responsive for mobile devices. In the six months since the launch of the new website our bounce rate for mobile devices has fallen by 7%. Member recruitment is at its best rate ever and retention looks set to follow.
What would we do differently?
- Weekly / twice monthly Skype meetings to bring teams together (ISM website team, ThoughtfulWeb, 3si, LoopoHost) could have helped avoid more unforeseen issues and kept everyone reassured and in the loop
- Weekly scheduled telephone chats with the ISM website team and our designer could have provided more structure to the project, allowed more conversation and collaborative problems solving, and provided an improved sense of orientation and direction
- Scheduled more time for the project to avoid unplanned overtime
