Netsmart’s business has grown tremendously over the last couple years, through organic growth as well as acquisition. Given the growing solution set, expanded audiences, and evolution of the brand platform/positioning, Netsmart was ready to invest in a new web presence to reflect the new direction of its business. However, its site did not reflect the evolution of its brand and broader solution portfolio. It was neither built with a diverse audience in mind, nor was it a valuable destination for prospects seeking deep/rich content. Opportunities for conversion were not as strong as they could be and site optimization was deficient and stale owing to lack of support from Netsmart’s current SEM partner. Netsmart also came to our team with a very limited budget and tight timeline in light of a looming new product launch and previous, failed development attempts with other companies.

Acquisitions can pose a challenge for any company, especially when the acquired company offers a different set of services and offerings than expected for a given industry. Therefore, my team began at the beginning, gathering together the right people from the two client divisions, human services and post-acute care, for a full-day persona development study.

This full-day session opened the door for additional opportunities for site organization and flow. After the initial personas were defined, we created an intuitive user flow for the entire site, separated into the two primary divisions, and created a comprehensive content definition and relationship document. Given that Netsmart’s suite of products uses a branded naming convention that is not intuitive to new users, it was crucial for my team to incorporate a comprehensive faceted search functionality to aid in the hunt for the user’s desired product.

Directly following the persona study, we met with Netsmart’s event team, which requested that a more well-defined event search and registration section be incorporated into the site, as well as for events to be featured on specific pages where relevant. Netsmart has done an excellent job of showcasing its products and services at events, tradeshows, webinars, etc., around the country. However, prior to the site rebuild, the majority of users had been unaware that these resources were available to them.

The newly updated Netsmart site reflects the company's updated brand styles, voice, and messaging; fairly incorporates both primary divisions; has intuitive navigation and content structure; caters to the various different personas within each division; and puts information and resources at the end-user’s fingertips. To complement the robust faceted search functionality for products, documentation, services, and educational information, my team incorporated multiple two-way relationships between each of these content types, allowing Netsmart admins to easily update, add, and remove content without having to edit multiple sections of the site. The site is now fully responsive and SEO friendly, features an organized and intuitive user flow, and caters to the various clientele and divisions of the company.

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