I recently had the opportunity to do a website audit and consult for a local Portland non-profit that produces holiday performances. They wanted some feedback on their existing website, which had been build a few years ago. They had the ability to update the website, but it was time consuming and not consistent. It was the opposite of using a Content Management System like Wordpress.

The process I walked them through involved investigating their use of marketing and the different channels such as social media, email newsletters, paper newsletters, print advertising, etc. I was impressed how much exposure they were getting through these techniques. We came to the conclusion that Facebook would be their best use of a social media tool because they could share so much about their productions and performances through video, photos, feedback. Twitter, on the flip slide, just didn’t fit the right age range of who they attract.

After marketing, we dove into the the performance and effectiveness of their website. It’s fascinating how each of us doesn’t really see our website like the rest of the world. Over time, it just looks the same and it’s really amazing when you bring in a pair of fresh eyes to see where improvements could be made.

We reviewed simple things such as the placement of signing up for the newsletter. On their current site, a customer would need to click twice to find it. Ideally it would be best to have it on the homepage sidebar and make it so simple you have your customers simply enter their email address and click submit.

Other items were acknowledging that their current design content section was really narrow, not allowing items to be “above the fold”.  This also caused it difficult to manage upcoming news that should be posted on the homepage. I was eager to demostrate how Wordpress would be a great solution for their website content management . A blog could be created to for the non-profit to post news, have it displayed to their front page, be dated and be archived. A very simple way to keep customers and members to keep in the know about upcoming changes. A great win-win!

Over all, I know the client gained a lot of feedback and suggestions for improvement they could act upon on their own and also receive assistance for bigger tasks such as installing and customizing a Wordpress site  from my business and referred colleagues. It was a great feeling to help my client learn what current actions are helping them move toward their marketing goals and what they can do to improve it.

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