Steer73

A large scale CMS migration for everymum.ie

everymum.ie was able to improve the user experience, increase revenue potential and avoid potential issues, with a CMS migration from Kentico 9 to Kentico 13.

Client

Zahra Media (everymum.ie)

Client since

2021

Services provided

Website CMS migration, UX & UI Improvement, technical SEO and web performance monitoring, salesforce integration

Case study on Zahra

The Problem

Zahra media were running everymum.ie successfully. However, their website was built on an old CMS that was about to become unsupported. This could have led to problems such as security issues and a loss of functionality.

The primary goal was to deliver what was already there but on a new and supported platform. Critically, this included not breaking things that were already working well, such as SEO and legacy content.

As the migration needed to happen anyway, a natural question become “what improvements can we make while doing this?”

Characteristics of the project

Legacy and changing suppliers

As with most projects, we needed to liaise with existing suppliers. In this case the suppliers were changed several times during the project.

We used our proven processes for supplier interaction to ensure a consistent and effective line of communication was maintained, thus avoiding delays.

Limited budgets

This was not a strategic project designed to deliver a competitive advantage. If it were not for the CMS becoming unsupported, no migration would have taken place.

As such, it was important to keep budgets as constrained as possible.

Large scale CMS migration

A huge volume of legacy content needed to be migrated without negatively impacting SEO.

everymum.ie was a market leader and their strategy was working well, this could not be interrupted by the migration.

Salesforce integration

A primary driver of Zahra’s business is the targeted audiences that they build with their content. It was essential that the front end seamlessly integrated with Salesforce.

SEO

A fundamental part of Zahra’s model is the content they produce and the audience they attract through organic SEO. It was essential that their search engine performance either improved or stayed at the same level throughout the migration.

The solution

Steer73 analysed the requirements and scanned the market for the best solutions, this included assessing other CMS’s, hard coding the site and other platforms. The conclusion was that the best solution, both in terms of functionality and costs, was staying on the same platform (Kentico) but upgrading to the latest version.

This would provide Zahra with a highly effective platform that didn't require any re-learning of a system for their staff.

In addition to ensuring that Zahra had ‘their existing site but in a stable, supported environment’ the opportunity was taken to make a number of improvements.

UX & UI

Our dedicated UX, UI & Design team performed a review of the site and identified some simple improvements to the site that would bring it up to present day best practices, without a huge overhaul.

Audience capture and experience

A primary driver of revenue for the business is monetisation of their audiences and lists. In a review of the systems, it became clear that the experience could be improved for everymum’s audiences, while increasing the revenue potential for everymum.

This included optimising the signup process to enable a wider, yet still highly relevant, audience to sign up for everymum’s content. This expanded the available market and engagement with the site.

Furthermore, the list structure and signup process was optimised to better gather subscribers' interests and life events. This gave Zahra more insight into each subscriber and opened up greater revenue generating potential. For the user, it facilitated more relevant, useful content and a better experience from everymum.

Technical

There were several changes to the running of the site that would enhance the experience.

One example was the way images were used. As is normal for content sites, images had been added by many staff members without a consistent database structure or optimisation. Our team wrote a custom script to optimise, then structure the storage of each image optimally in a logical set of folders.

The tech

✅ Kentico 13
✅ Salesforce integration
✅ Onetrust
✅ Ad delivery platform integrations

Delivery methodology

✅ Waterfall
❌Agile

Product services

✅ UX & UI Design
✅ Systems integration
✅ Supplier interviews
✅ Stakeholder interviews
✅ Business process analysis & design

The outcome

• Zahra have a stable, safe platform to grow their business from.

• They are supported by greater capabilities and features.

• Customers have a better user experience throughout the funnel, from first landing on a page to receiving personalised content that helps them on their parenting journey.

• Zahra have greater revenue potential through more targeted marketing to their audience (which itself has been expanded).

• Difficulties related to their CMS becoming unsupprted were avoided within a tight budget, and delivered on time.