Case Study
Emma Norton Services strengthens, nurtures, and empowers those on their recovery journey. Their website wasn’t up to the task.
Emma Norton Services is a trauma-informed organization that promotes healing and recovery, operating at a scale that brings a full array of resources to women, individuals, and families who have experienced homelessness. Since they could not easily update their website, they couldn’t use it to reach their audiences and call attention to the critical services they provide.
Our Role
- Blueprint / Strategic Planning
- WordPress Website Redesign
- Website Optimization
- Virtual Event Planning, Production, & Execution
- Hosting & Support
Shawna Nelsen-Wills
Advancement Director
The whole team at ArcStone was amazing to work with—from initial proposal to creation, to a final product. They worked with our budget constraints and brought expertise, compassion, and commitment to each project. Through our partnership, we exceeded our goals for our first-ever virtual gala and created a powerful new website that will help Emma Norton achieve our mission for years to come. It is clear that ArcStone brings excellence to each job and truly cares about its clients and the broader community.
The Challenge:
The team at Emma Norton Services was stuck. There had been turnover, and nobody on the team knew how to manage or update their website correctly. Their former designer had moved on to start a new business, and she no longer had time to help them.
On top of that, the site was built with Dreamweaver, which created bulky dynamic code, offered limited global styling options, and a confusing interface. They knew it was time for a website redesign.
Our Approach
Emma Norton Services engaged with ArcStone to design and develop an easy-to-manage WordPress site. We needed to ensure our approach considered Emma Norton’s two distinct donor personas.
The first persona lacked computer skills and felt uncomfortable going through an online donation process. In contrast, the other donor persona was tech-savvy and preferred to donate online. To accomplish this task, we created a clean website that’s easy to navigate, with clear calls to action for donors who prefer to write and mail in a check.
Additionally, the annual Emma Norton Services fundraiser had pivoted from a live event to a virtual one. The ArcStone team collaborated with the Emma Norton Services team to create a virtual gala and auction that engaged all their audiences. The ArcStone production studio was used to safely shoot video, which we could use for the fundraiser and on their website.
Preliminary Results
Since the site launch, users, new users, and sessions have significantly increased. Furthermore, organic traffic continues to improve, suggesting that our SEO-friendly approach is paying off and that Emma Norton Service’s reach is growing. The result was an empowered nonprofit team able to update their website, do their work, and serve their client better.
143% Increase
Page views more than doubled from SEO optimizations and other site design improvements.
77% Increase
Pages per session increased because the new site’s engaging layout and navigation encouraged browsing.
34% Increase
New users were up considerably due to the improved website SEO optimizations and better content.