Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF) Partners With Credera

Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF) is a prominent research, advocacy, and leadership development organization dedicated to accelerating the advancement of women throughout the food industry.

WFF initially engaged Credera to create a new digital portal to provide its members and partners with limitless connection and development opportunities. This portal would equip WFF to leverage digital content and virtual technology to extend the organization’s best-in-class professional development beyond physical events.

Credera was tasked with designing the user experience, developing the associated features, completing end-to-end testing, and deploying the new solution to production. Not long into our portal development work, it became apparent to WFF that a website redesign would ensure a more seamless and engaging experience with the same look-and-feel of the portal. Thus, we also partnered with them to deliver a website with a more intuitive site navigation and a fresh, modern design.

Portal and Website Benefits

Portal Results:

We equipped WFF with the knowledge and tools for dynamic content creation and ongoing management:

• • Provided thought leadership and training on content management strategies, including tag management, publishing best practices, and search engine optimization (SEO).

  • Enabled search, filter, and share functionality for 200 pieces of dynamic content.

  • Implemented process improvements for content governance to increase staff availability for meaningful content creation.

• We transformed operations through digital agility:

  • Delivered a user-friendly, self-service content management tool that empowered staff to make real-time updates to WFF’s digital platforms.

  • Decreased turnaround time for content, copy, and imagery updates by removing the bottleneck around development team involvement.

  • Streamlined business procedures by migrating manual processes to a digital, customer-driven experience.

• We increased member engagement, retention, and renewal:

  • Provided members with year-round connectivity to their networks and access to leadership development content.

  • Utilized design sprints and iterative user testing to ensure our digital solution met the needs and behaviors of the WFF community.

  • Integrated Salesforce within the portal experience to allow WFF to apply membership insights to a more personalized user experience.

Website Results:

• We amplified the WFF brand:

  • Modernized the look-and-feel to represent WFF’s brand and clearly depict its mission and values.

  • Increased conversion of site visitors by highlighting the benefits of membership and partnership.

  • Provided a seamless transition from the website to the portal experience by implementing a dynamic landing page.

• We enhanced the user experience:

  • Developed a mobile-responsive site to ensure accessibility on both desktop and mobile devices.

  • Re-architected the site navigation to make it quicker for all users to locate information, resulting in a 95% success rate in finding content during user testing.

  • Embedded Google Analytics into digital platforms to gain engagement insights and drive future updates.

Impact Amidst COVID-19

While these efforts provided many planned benefits, an unforeseen need to serve WFF presented itself during the COVID-19 pandemic. WFF had to make the difficult decision to cancel its largest revenue-generating event with average annual attendance of over 3,000. With so many in the food industry deeply impacted by the changes during this pandemic, WFF’s newfound digital presence proved crucial in continuing to engage its membership.

While providing post-launch support for the portal, Credera worked side-by-side with WFF to ensure the organization could leverage its new digital platforms to meet the critical needs of its membership. Our website redesign, portal development, and supporting marketing efforts enabled WFF to:

• Communicate real-time updates regarding conference cancellation, reducing inbound calls and emails to overburdened staff.

• Generate excitement among members and partners by sharing an uplifting promotional video created by Credera.

• Launch digital events, reaching an unprecedented number of virtual attendees.

• Offer members curated development resources.

• Facilitate connections through an online member directory.

• Provide inspirational videos and online learning opportunities to all members.

In lieu of a conference, these offerings have fostered opportunities for connection when so many individuals in the food industry are in need of engagement and support. The new website and portal have also provided WFF with platforms for additional revenue streams.

Far-Reaching Transformation

Through our collaborative effort, WFF underwent a true transformation in how the organization perceives its business value, communicates its brand, and interacts with customers. The digital solutions Credera delivered have become essential tools for WFF during COVID-19, while also compelling the organization to rethink how it generates revenue and engages stakeholders in the future.

When asked about Credera’s work, Krista Gibson, WFF’s Chief Marketing Officer, said the following:

“Credera has been an amazing partner providing best-in-class thought leadership, project management and technical expertise, well beyond the scope of the project.  They exceeded our expectations in every way and their work has enabled our non-profit organization to quickly pivot to offering our value proposition entirely via this newly developed digital platform. Sharing our passion for the vision, the Credera team have been true partners and the impact of their contributions to the future of WFF cannot be overstated.”

We are so thankful that an initial portal development project served as a catalyst for WFF to expand their understanding of their own business value. Ultimately, Credera had the opportunity to play a critical role in WFF’s transformation from an organization known largely for in-person events to an innovative digital content and virtual events provider.

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