what’s trending in association websites @ a glance
what we’ve done
five key pages reviewed per association
why ?
• thousands of pages, not a web page• device friendly responsibility• content arms race• lead generation promise and pressures• sophisticated CMS tools and integration
with your marketing ecosystem
today’s realities
caveat:with all the fervor about digital technology, marketers often forget visitors don’t read code
some balance best of breed,
design, content and technology
methodology?
which sites we touched
•50 of the largest US Associations•AMLAW Global 100•Accounting Today 50•Vault 50 consulting firms by prestige•all organized by headcount …
criteria for our comments
mom’s rule
you know how it goes:if you don’t have something nice to say …
about those ribbons
observation one:clear and pervasive brand promises
are lacking on many sites
consistent and impressive branding
going deep with a brand promiseone example …
observation two:responsive design is becoming the standard
observation three:sites still dominated by words v. visual content
when designing content:visit the entire salad bar
rethink content as a salad bar
observation four:publications and news pages lack editorial simplicity
(and with so many sources of information, they need it)
v
observation five:associations are people driven organization, yet sites too often lack the human element
observation six:adoption of visual content, video and moving
elements to engage visitors is trending
observation seven:this old template is still too common, there is a visual
and verbal vocabulary that dominates, causing a sea of sameness
notable exceptions
observation eight:clever branded imagery is rare, associations hue toward
the literal … with some pleasant exceptions
wrapping up