case study : lincoln park chamber of commerce

New Web Site Helps the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce Fulfill its Business and Community Responsibilities

Problem: The Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce's Web site did not reflect the organization's role as a valuable business and residential community resource.

Solution: Jumping Bean partnered with Neoteric Design to identify the Chamber's target audience and organize the site's content in a straightforward and intuitive way.

New Web Site Helps the Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce Fulfill its Business and Community Responsibilities

The Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce's mission is to be a valuable business and community resource for the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Chicago. The organization's Web site, however, did not reflect this role. Aside from a useful online directory that listed the Chamber's business members, the Web site lacked content that the Lincoln Park business and residential communities could turn to for help, answers, and information.

The lack of content affected the Chamber staff's productivity. "We would get a lot of the same questions every day," said Kim Klausmeier, President of the Chamber. "Residents and businesses regularly telephoned our offices for information on where to find business startup resources, public parking, and government services. We wanted a central place to direct them to where we could provide all of these resources."

Making the Chamber Web Site a Business and Community Resource Center

To make their Web site a resource center for business, community, cultural, tourist, and government information, the Chamber hired Jumping Bean to write the content for the new Web site. Jumping Bean worked closely with Neoteric Design, which was responsible for the design and backend programming for the site.

The Chamber's goal for the new Web site was to reduce the number of calls to the Chamber offices—calls that could be answered by visiting the Web site—and to make it easier for members to find important membership information. The Chamber also wanted to offer an easy way for businesses to download and complete a variety of forms, including:

• Joining the Chamber
• Advertising with the Chamber
• Sponsoring an event
• Locating vacant storefront properties

"The Chamber offers its members a wealth of services," said Hsuan-min Chou, co-founder of Jumping Bean. "By providing forms online for its services, the Chamber would no longer have to fax blank application forms to members—a time consuming task for staff. Members can now fill out the forms online."

Jumping Bean, Neoteric Design, and the Chamber met several times to identify the Chamber's target audiences—members, local businesses, residents, and tourists—and to identify information that would meet its visitors' needs.

With the Chamber's help, Jumping Bean gathered a wide range of content and organized it in a straightforward and intuitive way. Jumping Bean then edited more than 100 pages of information to make the site enjoyable to read and easy to skim.

The Chamber site now provides:

• Membership Information
  Includes benefits of joining the Chamber, advertising with the Chamber, city business resources, educational seminars, and upcoming events.
• Residential Information
  Includes maps, parking, transportation, local utilities, city services, and cultural activities.
• Tourist Information
  Includes local cultural and city-sponsored events, dining and shopping information, and maps.

Finding information on the new Chamber Web site is also easier than ever. Jumping Bean wrote meta descriptions for every page on the site. Neoteric Design implemented a smart search engine and other dynamic elements to make the site more usable.

"Jumping Bean did a great job gathering together a lot of information, and turning it into organized and easy-to-read pages," said Klausmeier. "Working with them has been a pleasure."

Links

Neoteric Design
Lincoln Park Chamber of Commerce

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