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MPI





About MPI


         

Meeting Professionals International (MPI), the largest meeting and event industry association in the world, provides educational, networking and business development opportunities to 60k+ members.

Objective

         

Facing declining membership, MPI wanted to overhaul their value proposition and invest the lion’s share of cash reserves in a new website that appeals to/recruits young professionals, without alienating veteran members.

My Role (UX & Content Strategy Lead)

         

Devise a content strategy that scaffolds content to accommodate users who want different levels of information 

Devise content and UX workstreams to support a new content ecosystem⏤repeatable processes MPI can scale/manage in-house

Create a new component-based design system 
Facilitate value-proposition workshops to translate the meaning of professional development into straightforward messaging

Results

         

Increases compared to previous year:
  • 10.4% in online membership purchases

  • 8% in total revenue 

  • 23.5% in pageviews




DISCOVERY

        

Content Audit
Conducted a no-stone-left-unturned audit of MPI’s original site, documenting every piece of content in a master inventory document.

Interviews

Interviewed MPI stakeholders and members to learn what they think is most rewarding about being a member of MPI, which site features they use most and how the site could be more useful.

Competitive / Industry Research
Studied how professional membership organizations are successfully (and unsuccessfully) adapting their business models to sustain a pipeline of new members and avoid being displaced by social platforms.

Analytics Review
Tracked referral sources and search terms that drive site traffic to understand how users land on the site and what they're looking for. Focused on category landing pageviews and bounce rates to surface missing, confusing or underperforming content categories.
CONTENT AUDIT
         

Dissecting the Original Website


Poor category taxonomies and content scaffolding impede findability 

Related content was scattered across the site, insufficient in some areas and duplicative in others.

Since there were no intermediary landing pages, users must slog through entire site to find what they need.








PLAN OF ACTION
         

Content Choreography

Rather than migrate all existing text and imagery from the old site, I worked with MPI’s marketing team to develop a content strategy for the new site that aligns with audience and business needs while adhering to technical limitations of the new CMS.

After reading every word and clicking every link on the original website, I audited the master content inventory document to establish existing content that should be migrated to the new site, existing content to be discarded and new content needed for go-live.

Our next step—organize and present the content in an understandable and engaging way that accommodates users who want different levels of information.

Content Modeling

         
Led content-modeling workshops to establish types of content that will live on the new site, constituting elements of each and how they link together

Exposes the landscape of content types
e.g., pathway pages, destination pages, forms



Mapping Content to Pages

         
Outlined each page of new site in a schematic, assigning a 'job' and content type to each 

e.g., pathway pages visitors are on a hunt so marketing messages likely ignored


Categorized each page into tiers (1-4) based on level of importance to the user

Tier assignments informed level of effort/attention allocated to the design/build of each page














Modernizing the Message
         
Extracting benefits from features

To complement MPI’s digital transformation, we needed a new narrative to demonstrate MPI’s value and resonate with a millennial workforce. I led a value-proposition workshop with MPI’s marketing team to establish key messaging that would permeate all pages of the new site.

To pinpoint the most compelling case for becoming a member, I prepared group and independent brainstorming exercises in which participants compiled all possible benefits of MPI membership.

Leveraging insights from analytics, clickstreams, search terms and discovery interviews, we winnowed the advantages down to the most meaningful. Ultimately, we landed on professional development as the most powerful benefit of MPI membership.



But what exactly is professional development?
         

We translated the meaning into straightforward messaging:

  • It’s the perfect resource for the job you have — or the job you want.
  • Networking that actually works.
  • Opportunity to advance, grow and lead in ways that your job might not provide.





RE-DESIGN
         

Modular Templates


Designed 12 pages (tiers 1-2) of new site using a Bootstrap framework in Sitefinity (CMS)

Templates are designed to support the type of content, messages and actions established in content modeling sessions 

Layouts accommodate multiple formats of advertising on a variety of key pages to support continued growth of revenue

Templates are easy to update, facilitating a flexible content structure MPI can easily manage and scale in-house














DESIGN
         

Enhanced Findability 


Analytics and tree testing of old site revealed users were having trouble finding what they were looking for. 


Traffic on mission-critical pages was low, but volume of search queries was high and pogo-stick clicking was rampant.

Related content was scattered across the site, insufficient in some areas and duplicative in others.

The same CTAs and set of articles (Related Links) were displayed across most pages, undermining the usefulness and training people to ignore swaths of site real estate.

To promote both precise findability and intuitive discovery, I implemented a new information architecture and category taxonomy, which included the use of intermediary landing pages. 

















DESIGN
         

New Homepage: Now for Newcomers 


Landing on MPI’s original homepage felt like you started watching a movie halfway through. The narrow scope of content promoted upcoming MPI initiatives using MPI-specific lingo and acronyms unknown to non-members.

Old design alienated prospective members

Membership benefits now immediately clear/obvious

New homepage is self-evident,  designed to make potential members feel welcome, communicate MPI’s value proposition and represents the content and features users can expect to find on the site 









RESULTS
         

1 Year Later


10.4% increase in Web Membership Purchases
 
8% increase in Total Revenue

23.5% increase in Pageviews




Blog: The Runaway Hit
           

Analytics tracking the rate and frequency of return visits to the revamped blog shows that MPI has cultivated a loyal following of blog readers. The grueling task of digitizing MPI’s magazine archives paid off, creating a stream of valuable content that has optimized long-term user engagement. Plus, the explosion of pageviews is generating increased advertising revenue.