CASE STUDY: Indiana Association for Education of Young Children (INAEYC)
OVERVIEW
As a state affiliate of the National Association for Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Indiana AEYC (INAEYC) is a statewide, nonprofit organization with 15 chapters and more than 2,000 members.
INAEYC’s mission for the past 54 years has been to promote high-quality learning for all children — birth through age 8 — by connecting practice, policy, and research. They work to advance a diverse, dynamic early childhood profession and support for all who care for, educate and work on behalf of young children. Their target market includes early childhood practitioners, families and potential sponsors and funders (including businesses, foundations and individual donors).
CHALLENGES
- The website was dense and difficult to navigate, making it hard for visitors to engage.
- In addition, the site was almost entirely designed for only Early Childhood practitioners, leaving out the other target markets.
- Another challenge was that 50 percent of INAEYC users reached the website on a mobile device, yet the site was not mobile friendly.
OUR GOAL
Tomato Fish suggested developing a new website that delivered better user experiences by delivering clear, concise, compelling messages that conveyed value and the impact the organization had on diverse audiences. The site needed to serve as their primary membership, marketing and fundraising tool.
Ultimately, we aimed to strategically position the organization to better serve and engage their customers.
OUR APPROACH
Through a comprehensive set of questions and thought exercises, we evaluated the organization’s internal situation, including a SWOT analysis and brand audit. We also provided a baseline audit of the website’s SEO.
Next, we focused on taking the information we learned about the internal challenges and opportunities of INAEYC and partnered with Fred Bingle at the Bingle Research Group to put together an external situational analysis. From there, we were able to create a comprehensive marketing strategic plan including the following:
- External Situational Analysis
- Internal Situational Analysis
- Strategy Recommendations (1 year)
- KPIs to Track and Next Steps
Once we had the roadmap, we needed to redesign the entire layout of the site and reorganize the content to better serve their audiences. The web development portion of the project included both a homepage and secondary page redesign that were easy to navigate and professional in appearance with clear calls-to-action.
RESULTS
- User friendly website with portals for for each audience type:
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- Parents/Caregivers/Families
- Early Childhood Educators (ECEs)
- ECE Centers
- Public Policy / Advocacy (Government)
- A mobile-friendly website that allowed users to view easily from any device
- Refreshed web style guide to allow INAEYC to maintain the new look and feel across all platforms
“We established a great working relationship with Tomato Fish Marketing. Their dedication to discovering our organizational purpose is apparent in the layout of our new website. We appreciate the time and creative approach they took to establish a better navigation for our users.”
⏤ Kristin Lackey, INAEYC Business Systems & Quality Assurance Manager
