One challenge we face time and time again is a client’s desire to feature everything on the home page. When a content manager has multiple departments feeding them content, the easiest solution is often to throw each item in the home page slider and call it good.

This was a hurdle we overcame recently with our client, Marine Corps Community Services (MCCS) Cherry Point. MCCS is a large organization which provides over 80 programs and services – from entertainment to career resources – for Marines and Sailors on base. As our surveys discovered, they are a well-liked and valued organization, but their website is cumbersome and difficult to navigate.

Our solution? Web design by market segment. Our goal was to set up the information architecture so that their 80 programs and services could be filtered into different customer buckets. Rather than showing everything on the home page, where a kids’ story time at the library might be marketed to a 20-something single Marine, we would allow the users to segment themselves via the navigation.

Web Design by Market Segment for MCCS Cherry Point

1. Determine Segments | Our first step was determining our market segments. We knew their audience was varied, so we used Survey Monkey to gather usage data based on gender, marriage status, enlistment status and age. Based on the data, we discovered four segments. We delivered “persona profiles” to MCCS, which can be used not only for the website, but for future efforts such as advertising.
2. Pinpoint Services by Segment | The survey also collected usage stats by persona, so we were able to pinpoint the services most utilized by each market segment. We were able to deliver this information to MCCS not only to better prioritize website navigation, but so each department could understand who is using their services.
3. Use Post Feeds to Display Content | One of the great things about WordPress is the flexibility of post types and categories, and the ability to strategically feed those to various pages. By creating a category called “Single Marines” for blog and event posts, we’re able to feed relevant, timely news and events to that program page. With this setup, a department head simply needs to select the correct category and his event or news item will automatically feed to the right market segment.

Old Site with Unsegmented Home Page Content

New Site with Segmented Content & Feeds

Note: at the time of this post, this project is still a work-in-progress. Check back for the completed site design.