In 2017, we started partnering with the West Des Moines Chamber of Commerce to redesign the website and transition to the CRM system ChamberMaster by GrowthZone. The goal was to create a seamless online presence to attract new business members and retain existing members with digital resources and promote upcoming events and programs.
Today, the WDM Chamber continues to experience success with an incredibly high member retention rate and awards including the 2022 Chamber of the Year Finalist. The website is averaging 40,000 page views per month with an incredibly low bounce rate of less than 8.7%.
“We absolutely love our partnership with Softvoya. They are incredibly responsive, savvy, and so easy to work with. As a non-profit, they also are sensitive to our budget goals and come up with great, high impact ideas that helps us take our website to the next level. Colleen and her team are top notch and we highly recommend working with them!”
Events and custom programming is the bread and butter of chamber member benefits. We wanted to make it easy for members and non-members to register for events, pay the registration fee online based on membership and plan their networking and professional development opportunities in advance. We were able to integrate the ChamberMaster calendars into WordPress and added custom CSS styling for cohesive branding.
The integration maximizes the number of capabilities and features offered from ChamberMaster, including a community calendar, job board, directory listings, company self-service updates, and multiple blog and resource categories.
Membership Calculator
Using custom coding, we developed a Membership Calculator where potential members can enter specific information about their industry and number of employees in order to calculate their tax deductible membership and prompt them to begin the application process. This lead generation tool averages 15 – 20 qualified leads per month!
Revenue Generating Advertising
With a highly trafficked website, we found the opportunity to generate revenue through advertising using a custom plugin that randomly generates clickable company/event advertisements. This includes reporting analytics on views per ad and clicks per ad for transparent ROI with investors.
ADA Compliance & Accessibility
ADA Compliance is short for Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design and means that electronic information and technology—i.e, your website—must be accessible for those with disabilities. As an inclusive organization, it was of utmost importance for the WDM Chamber to have accessible viewing options for everyone.
Nonprofit organizations especially have to be careful with where they choose to invest their time and money, as we all know our team members have to wear many hats. We recommend leveraging existing systems and finding ways to automate specific business processes that are time consuming. Softvoya can help you integrate different systems for ease of experience and time saving rewards. We also recommend membership organizations and Chambers of Commerce be “value first” in their communication, try to showcase the tools, resources and networks available to build membership growth.