Developing a Membership Portal for Entrepreneurial Scotland

Entrepreneurial Scotland Membership Website

Created by the merging of Entrepreneurial Exchange and The Saltire Foundation. Entrepreneurial Scotland is focussed on inspiring and supporting entrepreneurship. The organisation counts ambitious companies and individuals among its growing membership. It’s in this community where experiences are shared, advice is offered and ideas take flight.

A broad membership

Fostering ambition across a wide landscape, Entrepreneurial Scotland welcomes members at every stage of their entrepreneurial journey. That includes individuals seeking inspiration, business owners looking to grow, and powerful business leaders who, as well as offering invaluable advice, might also be on the lookout for bright new recruits.

Attracting talent

Drawing new members is paramount. All that knowledge-sharing, talent-spotting and advice-giving can only thrive amid a healthy, vibrant community.

It was with this thought that Entrepreneurial Scotland approached Hookson to develop a membership portal and marketing website – one that would raise its profile, attract new members and support sales.

Attract new visitors to a new hub

The new Drupal website would become a valuable portal – garnering repeat visits for news, content, event booking and to discover more about paid membership and the charitable Foundation.

Boost membership

Entrepreneurial Scotland’s Member Network is its lifeblood. The website would have to sell numerous membership benefits as well as defining separate tiers for distinct audiences.

Create one site to rule them all

Faced with multiple sites from two uniting organisations, we would have to work with Entrepreneurial Scotland to consolidate content into one website. As well as the challenge of satisfying different stakeholders, a significant technical job would present itself too.

Enhance user experience

To keep visitors returning, top-notch UX would be employed. A wealth of content – including blogs, press releases and development programmes – would be made accessible. Site tools and architecture would be enhanced too.

Working it out

With Entrepreneurial Scotland uniting two separate organisations, it was important to define the new entity and, on the practical side, remove irrelevant or duplicate content. In arriving at a user-enhanced site, we organised workshops so that a structure could be agreed and developed.

Cohesive and consistent

Ensuring Entrepreneurial Scotland presented itself cohesively and consistently, we set about developing new branding.

Our image strategy was key to promoting the organisation’s ethos. After exploring various routes, our direction utilised infographics: powerful, engaging and compelling facts and statistics.

Interactive innovations

Prior to website build, interactive wireframes visualised content hierarchy and, further down the line, navigation was tested across different devices.

With user experience vital to repeat visits and sharing, we also built-in tools and innovations including creating cross-links between news, events and case studies. In-page filters enabled searching functionality and regular pre-launch testing refined fundamentals like calls-to-action and menu labelling.

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