Strategy, Brand, Creative and Development

Our Approach.

To correct these inconsistencies and improve Investment Metrics’ online presence, SmartAcre compiled a plan for the design, development, and roll-out of a new web property. The focus of this plan was to improve user-experience, design, technology, and messaging that supported lead generation, engagement, and a more accurate representation of the brand across mobile and desktop.

SmartAcre initially created a web strategy document, which provided clear requirements and recommendations for the entirety of the project. These were determined based on the findings accumulated through research, evaluation of existing analytics, and installed technologies, client interviews, and competition review. During this process, SmartAcre simultaneously developed updated target personas. By doing this, SmartAcre created guidelines for the updated branding and content for the website that would attract ideal customers.

Using findings from the web strategy document, SmartAcre determined how users will interact with the website, identified user flows, and laid out the foundation for how the website would convey the client’s brand messaging, marketing, and business objectives.

This process aided in the creation of the information architecture document and wireframes for unique page templates. These deliverables allowed SmartAcre to:

• Visually plan the flow of the website, marketing-to-sales process
• Determine if content/messaging is being presented appropriately
• Identify placement of navigation and buttons, calls to action, and key features and functionality

Once the wires were created and approved, SmartAcre began to work on creative comps for the home page and secondary pages that appropriately reflected branding, marketing, and business objectives while using UX and IA documents, as well as input from the client. As a part of SmartAcre’s process, mood boards were first compiled that consisted of creative elements to inspire the new design. After the client approved the different visual elements, the SmartAcre design team put together comps for the homepage as well as secondary pages.

With these approved designs, information architecture, and wireframes, SmartAcre’s development team began to program and develop the front-end templates and back-end customization to bring the new website to life.

The Results.

SmartAcre accelerated the website redesign process to hit specific due dates set internally by Investment Metrics in order to hit a launch date in the new year. Within almost two months, SmartAcre was able to provide the following for Investment Metrics, which aided in current and future lead and demand generation initiatives:

1. There is now a clear value prop and messaging aligned to who the client helps and their differentiators. Examples include a concise and simplified navigation, as well as an updated homepage Aspot.
2. Due to how the content is presented, both pageviews and new users on the website increased, allowing leads to get the information they need to make an informed decision
3. The mobile-friendly update, as well as general optimizations, lead to a significant increase in page speeds. For example, the homepage went from a score of 1 to 69 according to Google’s PageSpeed Insights.
4. According to Moz, crawl errors dropped from 325 prior to launch to 41 as of June 27, 2019.