ECM: preparing for the future
Zoo creates more engaging online content
Having been a part of the Florida community for decades, Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo prides itself on being a place where friends and families can forge natural connections with the animals and each other. To support that goal, the zoo wanted to upgrade its website from a relatively static HTML application that required input from the IT staff to make changes, to a more dynamic, interactive site that could be managed and modified by the marketing team.
The zoo had three strategic goals in mind: generate ticket sales, increase membership and promote conservation through educating its guests. It issued an RFP and selected a proposal from Roger West, a digital marketing agency. Roger West proposed the use of Sitefinity as the content management system that could be more readily updated to provide the dynamic capabilities the zoo was seeking. “As an evolving organization, we wanted our website to become an engagement tool,” says Donnie Gallagher, digital communications ?manager at Lowry Park Zoo. “We wanted it to be as fun and exciting to visit as the zoo itself.”
An initial step that Roger West took was to help create metadata for each piece of content. “We worked closely with Lowry Park to develop a library of content items to account for every animal, activity or event,” says Shanna Kurpe, VP at Roger West. “This allowed us to relate content across many different areas.” For example, “Safari Africa” is a classification that can be assigned to animals, activities or events at the zoo. Once a record has been classified as such, it can be related to other records with the same classification.
Roger West modified several out-of-the-box Sitefinity modules and developed several custom modules in Sitefinity to create a master library for managing all the website’s content. That approach eliminates the requirement to manage the website at the page level. “One centralized library stores all the content, and a master taxonomy matrix is used to classify the content across as many dimensions as needed,” Kurpe says. “Updates made on the back end are immediately reflected on the pages where that resource or classification appears.”
The website does not yet target specific personas to reach different types of visitors, but the structure is in place to do that. “We did try to future-proof the site so that the zoo can dynamically create new pages whenever they need them in order to reach specific target markets,” Kurpe explains. “For example, camps, classes and zoo activities are classified by age, so in the future the zoo can create pages that promote programs and offers specifically to parents with children of a certain age group or to seniors or young adults.”
With the new system in place, changes are easy to make and metrics are readily available. In fact, the zoo has already experienced an increase in online ticket sales. “The needs of our organization are evolving,” Gallagher says, “and as we continue to improve our website’s appearance and our guest experience, we anticipate being able not only to provide information but also to remind people about our mission and the work we do.”