How Brightfind Transformed ASTHO's Website and Supercharged Engagement

PROJECT

ASTHO Website Transformation

WHAT WE DID

Web Design & Development
Content Strategy & Development,
CMS Implementation

CLIENT

Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)

RESULTS

Improved Brand Perception
Streamlined Content Management
Enhanced Communication with Site Visitors

Overview

Who Is ASTHO?

The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) is a linchpin of health equity and optimal well-being nationwide. The nonpartisan nonprofit empowers the individual and collective voice of the nation’s chief health officials.

The membership-based organization works daily to build "peak" well-being and a healthier, more humane world. Its members—the leaders of public health agencies from all U.S. states, jurisdictions, and territories—are a prominent force for change, making a more significant impact each year.

The nonprofit advances its annual strategic plan by influencing public policy, spearheading public health assessment and assurance, and providing training and technical assistance to health officials. These central functions have ripple effects in the private sphere, elevating ASTHO’s status as a pioneer of wellness and social and economic advancement.

Having been laser-focused on change initiatives and membership goals, ASTHO took a hiatus from content creation and routine website updates. Member communications and outreach pressed on, as did all operations, programs, and advocacy. The website, though, was essentially radio silent.

Challenges

The Digital Dilemma

After the lull in content publishing and site maintenance, ASTHO's website misrepresented its innovation capabilities and stature as a tech-savvy group of public health leaders. This inadequate online presence simply wasn’t in line with modern UX/UI and shifting digital expectations. The pitfalls included:

An outdated, difficult-to-manage website with clunky navigation.
Vague calls-to-action, needless menus, and confusing funnels flow.
Lengthy text blocks without clear structure and hierarchy.
No single sign-on, protected content, or login functionality.
Cybersecurity risks and insecure checkout for the diverse threat spectrum.
Unstructured metadata and bulky code disruptive to development.
Oversized images, scripts, and files causing lag.

Brightfind's Solution

The "Big Picture" Strategy

The mission-driven nonprofit needed to shuffle back on the UX bandwagon and the online radar of potential members and web visitors. A runway of new content on a modernized, revamped website was critical to unleash impact at scale and meet the challenges of evolving user standards.

To ensure the association's members and website visitors remained connected to the organization and its mission, ASTHO partnered with Brightfind to identify the bottlenecks, create the site update strategy, and lead the project through execution. Throughout the process, decision-making balanced two goals: preserving the brand and online presence today while looking to the future.

With that objective top of mind, Brightfind partnered with ASTHO to bridge the gap between their outdated website and their ambitious goals. Our comprehensive approach addressed each challenge:

Modernized design and UX/UI: We crafted a user-friendly and visually appealing website that prioritized intuitive navigation and clear information architecture.
Strategic content development: We implemented a content strategy focused on creating engaging and informative content aligned with ASTHO's mission and target audiences.
CMS implementation: We migrated ASTHO to a new content management system (CMS) for easier content creation, management, and future scalability.
Enhanced security and performance: We implemented robust security measures and optimized the website for faster loading times and improved user experience.

"The only way that you're going to know how to continually portray your message in a way that resonates with your audience is if you continuously make improvements."

Heidi SatterDirector of Data/Web Solutions, ASTHO

The Detailed Results

A Content Powerhouse

Consistency and personalization were the primary content delivery objectives. Brightfind built a bank of content ideas, pillar topics, and "They-Ask–You-Answer" storylines reflecting ASTHO's target persona's challenges, search needs, and interests. We organized the content into themes and mapped out into an omnichannel strategy and publishing schedule.

Next up—good ole' copywriting. Heavy legwork was required to develop concise, eyebrow-raising copy that aligned with the content strategy, site design, and brand strategy. Brightfind created a wheelhouse of engaging content to support the new delivery cadence. The finalized copy was rooted in storytelling, audience-specific user research, and on-page SEO, among other tactics from the marketing game plan.

An updated UX/UI was also vital, as websites are the foundation of brands in the digital era. While there's no hard and fast rule, a site typically needs updating every three to five years. To this end, the UX/UI was redesigned in alignment with user research. For example, text-heavy blocks were replaced by visuals, impactful imagery, and robust web layout patterns such as card-based designs to convey messaging.

"My tip to anyone going through a website redesign is to celebrate the small wins. It's always overwhelming to do something of this magnitude. You can get lost in the details and get discouraged along the way. Bite off the different pieces, celebrate all the different milestones that you make along the way, and remind yourself that it's a process and it's okay if everything doesn't go according to that lovely list."

Heidi SatterDirector of Data/Web Solutions, ASTHO

The Detailed Results

Upgraded UX/UI

Enhanced usability and site architecture enabled a more memorable, engaging, and seamless browsing experience.

Friction was also decreased by using clean and clear code, optimizing images, fonts, colors, and sizing, minifying and removing unnecessary elements, and integrating accessibility and performance standards. Every page features a clear call to action and navigation.

We upgraded cybersecurity measures to enable peak performance, server security, and real-time threat intelligence across all user permission levels and environments. Brightfind optimized the site structure, schema, and metadata for optimal crawling and reach.

The improved website design and build resulted in a responsive, well-designed, user-friendly site that loads quickly on mobile and engages users in a consistent (and hyper-personalized) UX experience across environments.

Who Is ASTHO?

The Digital Dilemma

The "Big Picture" Strategy

A Content Powerhouse

Upgraded UX/UI

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