Core Problem: Audience penetration and awareness had hit a plateau because the site had become a reference point, not a destination.
Other Issues: The new CMS's structure had been built for stability instead of flexibility, it was seen as a platform for other programs rather than a platform for itself internally and externally, and wasn't a part of most alumni's lives.
Solution: A more flexible format for the CMS that allowed for faster development and turnaround combined with a marketing plan that played on people’s desire to be connected to their alma mater.
The WAA is a 501(c)3 non-profit that operates in conjunction with, but not as a part of, the University of Wisconsin. Its core audience is the 376,000 living alumni, a number which will only grow slowly as the university has capped admission to a level slightly higher than the mortality rate of current alumni. Thus, there is not a lot of change in audience size on the horizon.
To that end, the goals of the organization have been to increase influence, increase revenue, and most importantly, to increase engagement. The web site’s goal was to increase engagement, which would in turn, increase revenue and influence.
To increase engagement, we needed to do three things: raise awareness of the site (as well as everything inside it), get people to want to engage with us, and to be able to measure that engagement. To do all that, we restructured the foundation of the CMS, putting more control into the web manager’s hands without making it harder for content experts to add content.
We wrapped all that up into a campaign called “It’s your web site!” By focusing on what a user could do on the site (upload photos, comment on photos and pages, get RSS feeds, play games, take a quiz), we gave them a reason to visit and learn more about what the organization could do to connect them with other Badgers and nourish the Badger spirit.
On a parallel path, we worked on putting our face on existing popular social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, which gave us a lot of exposure to people who might never have thought to stop by the web site. The broad strategy was to become part of the conversation online. We didn't want to control the conversation or direct it, but simply be part of it. By being a part of it, we could increase our awareness and allow people who were interested in what they heard to come back to the site.