TSSA
Partnering with the transport-focused union to improve engagement with its members from its digital transformation Digital / Brand / SEO Strategy
The Challenge
Time for an overhaul
After being live for almost ten years, the existing TSSA website was looking its age and creaking at the seams. In terms of design, structure and functionality, the site was no longer meeting the needs of the union or its members, nor was it able to leverage available opportunities in terms of personalisation or the integration of critical applications, such as a new CRM platform.
In order to effectively engage members, and encourage them to interact with the brand more regularly, TSSA needed to transform its online presence and develop a dynamic hub for TSSA's activities, resources and news.
In order to effectively engage members, and encourage them to interact with the brand more regularly, TSSA needed to transform its online presence and develop a dynamic hub for TSSA's activities, resources and news.
The Brief
A platform to engage and recruit new members
Having extensive experience partnering with member organisations, The MTM Agency was selected by TSSA to design and build a future-proof digital platform that would become its central communication asset. TSSA needed a website that would position the union against its competitors and peers, support member retention and increase member satisfaction, drive recruitment and provide quick and easy access to critical information to meet the needs of a broad range of stakeholders.
The new site needed to offer cost-effective routes to integrate third-party applications via APIs, facilitate easy editing for the TSSA team and perform in line with best-practice SEO standards to drive organic visibility.
Overall, the site needed to work hard to tell the TSSA story and demonstrate the value that being a member offered.
The Solution
Stakeholder engagement workshops
We began our validation of the project requirements with a series of virtual workshops, bringing together senior TSSA team members, union reps, members and other influential stakeholders. With the needs of the union and its members in hand, we were able to document our findings for each identified audience group, creating a detailed list of requirements and priorities. Our design and strategy teams then created accurate user journeys and functional specs to support each user, before creating a dynamic and UX driven site design that was modern, aesthetically pleasing and met WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards throughout.
The new TSSA website reflects the full breadth of its audience, providing quick and easy access to personalised content, with simple and clear signposting, whilst meeting strict accessibility criteria to meet the needs of TSSA's neurodiverse audience. Delivering 100% page speed performance to ensure the best user experience.
Site Architecture
As part of the project’s requirements, we worked with the TSSA team to review the site architecture, developing optimised user journeys and build new pages to help prospective members understand TSSA and what it does to support members, as well as optimise the member joining process to make it seamless and pain free. We took a streamlined approach to allow members access to both public content and member-only content in one central location on the site. This allows members to unlock member-only content in the company area of the site and be able to digest it alongside public content without having to navigate to a different section.
The Design
TSSA were keen to humanise the union and showcase its personality throughout the website. MTM took a simple and UX-driven approach to the site design to give TSSA a contemporary look and feel, with clear calls to action and engaging content layouts. As part of the design process, we streamlined the TSSA brand to allow it to work for both digital and print solutions and provided brand guidelines to support the TSSA communications team to keep new materials in line with the newly defined rules.
Visit the new site
A Kontent CMS Solution to rise to the challenge
After a comprehensive review of suitable CMS platforms, MTM recommended Kentico’s Kontent – a headless .NET framework that offers enterprise level functionality and integration opportunities but without the large licensing costs typically associated with similar products. It is also recognised by Gartner as best-in-class. Maximising the current and future potential for member services and personalisation was central to the projects long-term success and using Kontent CMS, TSSA would have the ability to serve the same content to different platforms from one central system, combined with the highest levels of performance and security.
Testimonial
MTM always go out of their way to find solutions to problems and ensure we are happy with the direction of the project. The improvement in our website, branding and assets is nothing short of revolutionary.
Sian Jones, Head of Communications, TSSA