Project Overview
- Tech Stack: Wordpress
- Duration: 10.5 months
- Team Size: 8
To better deliver on EAB's brand promise, we updated the site architecture to reflect the breadth of EAB's portfolio while accounting for intricate content-gating permissions. We also standardized an overgrown template and components library to create consistency in the user experience and better addressed cross-linking to related services and thought leadership.
The Challenge
There were many aspects of EAB’s existing CMS setup that needed to be preserved for this website refresh project. For one, user content permissions referenced both customer and services data managed in Salesforce. This meant that any site architecture updates we devised would not only need to account for multiple ‘states’ of user authentication but also be sure not to disrupt existing business logic unnecessarily. Gating content in this way also felt exclusionary and opaque, in direct opposition to the ethos of EAB’s thought leadership.
Second, EAB’s template and components library had become overgrown. Having adopted a Wordpress drag-and-drop page builder, Beaver Builder, to handle a growing amount of content types and audience personas, EAB’s brand identity had become diluted. This also made building content in Wordpress much more challenging than it need be.
The Solution
Site Architecture
We employed the site’s header navigation to make sense of its intricate business logic for prospective customers. Users could self-identify and explore all relevant solutions gear towards their needs. For users that prefer to explore a specific area of discipline, they have the option to do so and will be served relevant solutions that way. This provides EAB multiple pathways to demonstrates their expertise, promote relevant thought leadership, and present clear points of conversion.
Gated Content
When a user encounters gated content, the reasons for their level of access is now stated clearly and offers next steps, which is especially crucial for paying customers who may not understand what additional resources could be available to them by simply logging in or by contacting their account rep. This solution relies on programmatically creating CTA messages based on specific parameters related to the user’s Salesforce customer data and the content’s Wordpress tags.
Thought Leadership
EAB produces a prolific amount of thought leadership, in varying forms from traditional research to audio and video podcasts. Unifying all this content under a single resources site section makes it easier for prospective and existing customers explore information by overarching topics without confining their search to a single content format. With so much content to navigate, providing users with curated lists of featured and most recent content gives users an approachable starting point.
Design System
EAB needed to get back to embracing brand standards to provide consistency when communicating service offerings for prospective customers. To do so, we reduced the existing components library significantly and leveraged Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) to build reusable page blocks with a healthy amount of flexibility that still adhered to brand standards.
CMS Training
Using a train-the-trainer approach, we educated EAB’s Wordpress owners on the exact ways their new site architecture and redesigned page block library manifests in the Wordpress control panel. Due to the familiarity these website managers already had about Wordpress, we could dive deep into using field groups and content relationships. Using that foundation, we extrapolated key principles into easy to follow guidelines for website contributors and the specific content they are responsible for.
