GDA - Global DMC Alliance

Website redesign for GDA, the Global DMC Alliance, by Flowr, creative digital agency

GDA - Global DMC Alliance is a network of Destination Management Companies (DMCs) specialized in the Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions (MICE) industry.

They did a website redesign in 2017, but didn't get the result they wanted or reach their target audience as they thought they would.

They contacted us in mid-November 2018 for an audit and a new website, which was launched in late January 2019.

Our actions (February - May 2019):

  • Users increase by 38.7 %.
  • New users visiting the site 85.9%.
  • Increase in the number of sessions 22.6%.
  • The bounce rate decreased from 76.7 %.
  • Time spent on the website increased by 19.3%.
GDA - Global DMC Alliance traffic was 94% on mobile with a website that, while considered responsive (resizing on small screens), was not suitable for browsing on phones and tablets. The destinations page, which was the most viewed, was not easily accessible on small screens.The company felt that there were not enough calls to action, not enough good quality photos, the offer was not clear and services were difficult to access.They were also losing ground by posting members' direct contact details on the website and had no control over how people contacted them.GDA being a network of Destination Management Companies around the world, it serves as a platform, guarantees the quality of its members and offers many options to businesses.The website needed to reflect the size of the network, the breadth of the offering, the richness of the DMCs as well as establish the Global DMC Alliance as a trusted and leading partner in the industry.As interest in the GDA network has grown exponentially, this has led to the need for more control over the site, particularly the network's ability to update new partners and details of services offered.

1. The challenge

Understand the needs.

2. The objectives

Set clear objectives.

After conducting an audit on the current site and doing extensive research on the competition (site structures, information displayed and best practices in web design for the industry), we designed a strategy and decided to build a site that :
  • SEO referencing.
  • Convert (clear offer, call to action, easy navigation).
  • Meet the public's expectations.
  • Modern and graphically pleasing.
  • Allow the team to have more control over the management of the site and the actions that are carried out.
We also recommended the hiring of an internal marketing manager who would manage the resigned website and focus on overall marketing efforts with ongoing community management, emailing, DMC relationship management, online presence and overall communication.This was done before we began the website redesign together.
  1. Analysis of competitors and list of best practices to be replicated.
We analyzed what they were doing to list the necessary elements on the website, the color psychology in the industry, the navigation structure, the website functionality and the background structure.From there, we wrote a proposal mock-up to submit and discuss.2. Keyword research to implement a solid search engine optimization strategy to allow the website to rank better and increase exposure for the client.We examined the keywords used by competitors as well as the best keywords and their click-through rates using third-party software.3. The redesign of the site.Together we redefined the offer to make it clearer, changed the user experience, inserted multiple calls to action and ways to contact the network and DMCs independently, going through multiple rounds of edits and feedback to achieve our goals.4. Training, social media and emailing advice.Two hours of in-house training on website management and social media consulting.

The methodology

Follow the method.

4. The solutions

What have we done for them.

  1. The old website had an interactive page which, although intuitive, was counterproductive as it did not work on small screens. It has been replaced by a page with images for each destination, organised by content and accessible from several points on the site using anchor links.
  2. Authority has been better established by displaying member logos, accreditation logos, events in which the network participates and testimonials.
  3. An SEO boost has been put in place to give visibility to the new GDA - Global DMC Alliance website.
  4. Landing pages in French, Spanish and Portuguese have been created to reach a wider audience, not only in English.
  5. Better control of the enquiry service has been ensured, multiple contact points have been created with a video contact form on all main pages, a pop-up contact form on the home page, the DMC contact on their specific landing page as well as a general contact page.
  6. A more modern graphic identity, based on their image, was implemented to better integrate the traveler aspect and appeal to the emotion/identification of the site's users.