Waitakere Enterprise: Creating Strategic Web Channel Solutions

The Project

Waitakere Enterprise drives business development in the Waitakere region by providing services that range from business information, to business workshops and training, to business awards. As an independent trust Waitakere Enterprise is working to strengthen the region by strengthening businesses and keeping a greater percentage of the workforce in Waitakere City.

As a strategic partner The Web Company is working alongside Waitakere Enterprise to achieve their purpose by strengthening the effectiveness of their web channel as a marketing tool and resource centre.

The Waitakere Enterprise website project is part of a strategic long-term solution for the business. The project includes the website strategy, design, development, search engine opitmisation and consultancy.

The Challenge

The biggest challenge with Waitakere Enterprise was how the content of the site would be organised to encompass all of the areas of service and offerings. The original website was content rich but the navigation and structure needed to be improved in order to improve the performance of the site.

The new website structure needed to cater to and for a range of visitors and drive those visitors to the area most relevant to them. As well as delivering static content such as resources, templates, and business information, the site also needed to deliver dynamic content in a myriad of ways.

Long term the site needed to foster a sense of community and create more interactive relationships. In areas where there was a participation factor, such as trainings and awards, the website really needed to improve on those figures and attract a higher rate of participation.

The Process

Based on an extensive review of their previous website statistics, Waitakere Enterprise had a good idea of where they needed to improve and what they wanted their website to become. In conjunction with The Web Company’s team, which included a website designer/developer, online marketing consultant, and a project manager, a strategy was put in place for the structure, design and functionality of the new Waitakere Enterprise site.

The new site was built in a phased approach, with each milestone’s deliverables completed to specification before moving on the next phase of work. Ensuring the content structure was right was paramount to keeping the momentum going throughout the entire project; this approach also guaranteed that the site was launched on time.

The Result

The new Waitakere Enterprise website is a vast improvement on their former website. The structure allows users to easily explore the website’s content and to interact with the community in new ways. The various levels of content are delivered to the audiences effectively to promote greater participation both on the site and across events run by Waitakere Enterprise and the larger community.

When a visitor arrives on the website, they know where to go to view content that is relevant to them. The website now acts as an all-encompassing resource for businesses for news, information, events, awards and training.

The Web Company’s Online Marketing Manager, Phil Shacklady, said that “the impact that the new site had on the user experience was immediately clear from the web analytics with a lowered bounce rate, increase in time spent on the website, and the number of pages viewed per visitor.”

http://www.waitakereenterprise.co.nz