How to Get the Most Out of Our Curated Gallery of Web Design Blueprints
Make Your Website Blueprint Your Next Digital Home
I’ve talked many times about how we think of websites like a home, where we move you from your old house into a brand-new beautiful digital home. We also understand that different organizations need different homes. Just like a young couple might go with a starter home rather than a three-story mansion, we fit the home around the organization.
With our essentials package, there are a few different “model homes” we try to place different organizations in. Each of these different types of blueprints fits into a few different purposes aiming to achieve. The Blueprint gallery is a staple of the Powerful Essentials package that we offer. Each blueprint is catered to the specific needs of each organization that we partner with. Some organizations need action buttons like paying the bills or checking outages as the most prevalent on their website. On the other hand, some organizations have services that they want people to sign up for, so they have a selling aspect associated with their website. For those organizations, a promotional blueprint may be better suited for them. Here are a few examples of some of our best blueprints and some of the organizations utilizing them.
Task-Oriented Websites
For those organizations whose main goal of their website is to act similarly to their lobby, carrying out tasks like signing up for service or for members to pay their bill, we have our task-oriented websites. These blueprints have the most common tasks that their members look for everyday front and foremost. Strategically putting the most common tasks as call-to-action buttons as soon as a member clicks on your web page.
Take South Alabama Electric Cooperative in Troy, Alabama for an example, which is utilizing our Sellwood blueprint, which falls into the task-oriented blueprint family. They wanted their members to have easy access to what they believed to be the most trafficked places on their website without having to navigate. Making shortcuts to tasks like Start/Stop, Careers, and Payment Centers takes that frustration of searching around out of the equation. This eliminates the time it takes to complete these easy inquiries and improves a member’s experience on the website. Andy Kimbro, the Manager of Member Services at South Alabama had this to say about his transition to a task-oriented website.
“Our website was not very member-friendly and did not allow our members full access to all the services we offer. It needed a more current, fresh, inviting design that would provide a valuable resource for our members.”
More often than not, we see organizations that do so many things for their members, but those services get buried in inner web pages within the website. Bringing those to light with a task-oriented website is a major key to ensuring member satisfaction.
Same Goal, Different Feel
Another very popular version of our task-oriented websites is our Deschutes Blueprint. Our Deschutes blueprint allows the call-to-action buttons being front and foremost as well. Take a look at Pee Dee Electric in Lilesville, North Carolina on an iPad.
When looking at Pee Dee Electric’s website on an iPad, you can see not only the top tasks but also their news section and upcoming events all on the same screen. This is the epicenter of their website, the member can go in so many directions from the home page, so making those means of travel as easy as possible is going to resonate with your members.
Showcasing Programs & Services
Sometimes a utility organization needs to promote itself or its products rather than top tasks on its home page. Utility organizations that offer broadband or television often benefit from utilizing a promotional blueprint rather than a task-oriented website. With a promotional blueprint, the first thing a site visitor sees is a top promotion or different rates that the utility organization offers. Rapid Fiber by Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative in Florida recently built their website with a promotional blueprint utilizing our Laurelhurst layout.
The site visitor is immediately drawn to explore internet plans. This space on the home page is such a valuable territory, filling it with information that you want to emphasize to your site visitor will have a lasting impression. When a broadband provider has a selling aspect, this blueprint becomes even more vital. Gaining easy access to rates and other plans so that prospective customers don’t have to search, you will garner trust and positive feedback.
Sell Yourself with a Website Built to Showcase Your Story
If your electric cooperative or utility organization isn’t prioritizing the promotion of a particular product or service at the very top of its home page during the web design process, you have the option to promote your organization. Take South Central Arkansas Electric Cooperative, which elected to promote its “About Us” section at the top of its home page as they utilized the Springwater Blueprint.
South Central Arkansas Electric Cooperative recognized that one of the best ways to earn their member’s trust is to tell them who they are. For many younger members, the only thing they know about their electric cooperative is that when they flip the switch, the light comes on. Having a promotional blueprint to showcase their story on their website’s homepage allows their electric co-op to share their story to their members.
Which Blueprint is Right for Your Organization?
Choosing a website blueprint is not as easy as it may seem, there is not a set blueprint for any utility organization as each organization has its own rich history and differentiators. I’ve heard many times, “If you’ve seen one cooperative, then you’ve only seen one cooperative.” Each utility organization and cooperative goes through an intentional strategic meeting to determine what blueprint is right for them. Powerful prides itself on optimizing each utility organization’s web presence with intentional home page and interior designs.
