UKinbound
Established in 1977 and now with 400 members, UKinbound is the leading trade association that represents the UK’s inbound tourism sector. Alongside a busy programme of events they lobby Government on key industry issues including VAT, visa’s and Brexit, and engage with the media to raise the profile of tourism and highlight its importance to the economy.
Objective
UKinbound’s requirement was primarily for a new website to increase revenue generated through membership and event registrations. Alongside this were secondary objectives to deliver a smart, modern and highly accessible website to offer higher levels of engagement; to attract more overseas enquiries to drive inbound tourism for their members; and to integrate closely with their CRM platform to reduce admin, duplication and human error.
We won this project through a tender process, with the panel of decision makers being impressed by our user-centric approach, experience working with other membership organisations and our technical expertise around CRM integrations.
Impact
The new site achieved the following amazing results comparing September 2017 and 2018.
30%
increase in average number of page views
1500%
increase in newsletter registrations
11%
increase in returning visitors
Approach
We facilitated in depth stakeholder planning workshops which uncovered several key details about their members, most importantly the varying needs of different user roles and how they can have diverse motivations for visiting the site, and shouldn’t all be treated the same.
A user story mapping process matched user needs with website features aligned to business objectives, and helped to plan a great user experience for everyone.
We produced a beautiful design and delivered this using the WordPress CMS which included a range of bespoke features and functionality: multi-step application process, custom dashboards, jobs board and a system for members to respond directly to overseas enquiries.
We provided the following services:
- Stakeholder planning and strategy workshop
- Responsive website design
- WordPress development
- Bi-directional CRM integration using ACT! API
- Bespoke membership portal, members dashboard and user management
- Jobs board and application process
- Membership application form and workflow
- Member migration and launch strategy
- Search optimisation.
Highlight: ACT integration
The highest risk or most critical feature is usually where we start a new project, in this case the integration between the website and the ACT CRM.
Firstly we helped to migrate their self-hosted ACT database to the ACT! Cloud platform, enabling us to use the best integration method, the API to pass content between the website and CRM.
An advanced integration allows members to manage their profiles, jobs, news and offers via the website, which is sync’d to ACT to provide UKinbound with a single centralised repository for management and reporting, which saves duplication, time and reduces errors.
The tourism industry in the UK is going from strength to strength but there are many challenges ahead such as BREXIT, increasing competition for visitors and ensuring the industry continues to attract the right talent. We really needed a more effective website that would help our members keep up to date and join in quickly and easily with our lobbying activity, signpost the latest business opportunities from overseas operators and help us attract new members. We are delighted with the end result!
Deirdre Wells OBE – CEO, UKinbound
The new site can now be used very easily by all members of the internal team as it is so intuitive and therefore requires minimal training. Only one or two members of the team could use the old website due to the amount of time it took to train people up! Our events team report that setting up events on the website has reduced man hours by half as it so intuitive to use.
Antonia Stratford – Head of Public Affairs and Communications, UKinbound
The team really enjoyed this project and were excellent in overcoming a number of technical challenges, including integrating with new platforms and working with complicated business logic. It's always satisfying but also a big relief to deliver a big complex project like this.
Christian Scott – Head of Project Delivery, Granite 5
The new UKinbound site is a big step forward for the association. It’s much easier to find members’ details, the visuals are bright and bold and the layout is clear and clean. Most importantly, as I spend a lot of time on the road, the mobile site is highly user-friendly.
Gary Grieve – Communications Committee, UKinbound
