I was recently working on understanding the member (customer) experience and how it might be impacting brand equity at a large nonprofit professional association. The association is considering whether to undertake a major website redesign. I was brought in as an outside consultant, so this mini case study is not about any past employer.

Building a Quick & Dirty Framework for Analysis

My initial work focused on building a business case for (or against) this expense, which could range from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. After some work with the association to determine the reasons for the proposed redesign I wanted to uncover some hard evidence as well as begin to map a path forward.

One of my strategies was to create customer journey maps for key personas, walking through the existing website with staff and select customers. (Boy, were those sessions, conducted as 30-minute guided “think aloud” usability sessions, revealing!)

The Customer Journey Map

To me, customer journey mapping is about taking on the persona of a target audience and following their path through the sales funnel – essentially, discovery, preference, engagement, and selection. There are a lot of methodologies for mapping (as well as for envisioning a sales funnel) but we kept it fairly simple and high-level, looking at the website path only, for a few critical personas.

To further keep it simple, for the “discovery” phase of our customer journey I focused on the web (excluding, for now, paid search, content marketing, and other inbound/outbound tactics).

What the Data Shows

SEMRush data showed that searches on the association’s credential were down over 60% since 2004 and Google Analytics data showed that online engagement (number of unique visitors, time on page, and bounce rates) were going in the wrong direction. Absent other data points, that would indicate to me a lot of room for improving the association and product (the credential) brand, since the web is where the vast majority of members and prospective members find and access their professional association benefits.

There are many possible explanations for the precipitous decline in searches, from macro environment trends in consumer preference (maybe fewer people seek professional accreditation in general, for instance) to issues with the credential itself. As the focus for this inquiry was the website question, I wanted to dig a little further into the impact of the website in this matter.

Subsequent (initial) customer journey mapping I did using a small organization with a specific member type as a persona shows that the association is likely losing brand equity due in part to its web structure and content. I haven’t yet looked at product evaluations or other data points to validate this hypothesis.

Evaluating Brand Equity

To evaluate brand equity I look at four components and measures: perception, interaction behavior, purchase behavior, and the brand’s impact on the bottom line. My initial research showed some great opportunities for the association since this preliminary work on a business case suggests that perceptual and behavioral indicators are lagging behind where they could be.

I’m working to quantify the results and my next steps will be to conduct a full analysis and complete customer journey maps alongside brand, membership, and product value perception studies and customer service and satisfaction data related to the credential to determine a path forward. This data will help guide the redesign as well as inform overall marketing and product strategies.

My Questions to You

I’m curious about what other marketing executives think, especially those in nonprofit associations. Did you or would you follow a similar path? In what ways would you progress from here?

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