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How we brought clarity to MCLD’s online presence.

Here’s How We Created a Brand New Digital Presence for this Dedicated Non-Profit Organization
The Montreal Centre for Learning Disabilities
A Significant Cause

Client Story: MCLD

Since 1966 the non-profit, Montreal Centre for Learning Disabilities (MCLD) has been working with both adults and children to create a safe and inclusive environment for learning and self discovery. Through their many programs and community initiatives, MCLD has played a powerful role in supporting both parents and children, and spreading awareness when it comes to coping with learning disabilities.

This incredible cause does so much for the community and unfortunately, they found that the tools they needed in order to help others were falling short. An old, out of date website had them running behind, when their clients needed them most.

The team at ElementIQ was honoured to take on the task and our marketing specialists were determined to make MCLD’s digital presence as impactful as its noble cause.

Marketing Objectives: Create an Accessible Website and Unified Sense of Purpose for MCLD

1. Updating the Website

The core goal for MCLD was to create a stunning and easy to navigate website, so parents, kids and senior users alike could all find the resources they needed easily online. The old website was cluttered and disorganized. Users had trouble registering for programs and finding the materials they needed. Our core goal was to make the user experience easy.

2. Exploring Mission & Values

As our team dove further into this project however, we found a second key problem at play, one that MCLD did not even know they had. In order to create an impactful website, we wanted to know more about the team's mission and core values. So that the web content could clearly reflect that. However, answers varied and the volunteers at MCLD all had different ideas about their purpose, impact and goals.

3. Aligning the Message

One of the biggest challenges initially was aligning the messaging for MCLD. In order to create a clear identity for them online we kept coming back to the core questions: “What is your mission”, “Who do you want to be?” and “Why do you do what you do?” This company was largely based on the passionate work of volunteers, but it lacked a true, unified mission statement. After much debate, our team finally had the answers we needed to create a website that clearly portrayed MCLD’s digital identity online.

Website Redesign: A Fresh New Look

Accessibility was Key for the Website

Unlike many of our other clients in the past, MCLD was not initially looking for quantitative results when it came to the website redesign.
Rather, their emphasis was on the visual and accessibility aspects of the website. There was great value placed in the UX/UI and layout of various web features. They had a very good reason for this, they had a very diverse demographic.
Young users, users with learning disabilities, parents and seniors needed to be able to navigate the website intuitively in order to find the information they needed. Our team had 3 months to make this happen.

Aligning the Messaging & Defining Brand Identity

As noted, one of MCLD’s biggest pain points was an initial lack of a truly unified brand identity. Each of the volunteers had their own reasons and desires to help such a significant cause, but they had trouble putting it into words.
Our team needed the group to truly agree on a unified identity in order to accurately reflect this in the marketing communication, social media and advertising, part of their journey with ElementIQ was spent working to determine a mission statement. We truly helped them elevate their brand in this regard, as once a message was decided upon ,everything we did helped to convey that clear message to their prospective clients.

SEO & Organic Keywords

As our team worked to build out the new website , content was one of the first places we focused on. Once the messaging was aligned, we were able to add new content that was rich in organic keywords. This way MCLD could rank high online for users searching terms related to learning disabilities. This would ultimately dramatically increase their visibility online.

Attracting Leads Through Facebook Ads

Once the new website project was underway, MCLD requested we run Facebook ads for the many events and community activities they hosted. The team wanted event marketing, run through social media. They would host webinars and Zoom meetings which required interested audiences. Our team set up several Facebook ads campaigns that focused on the key events MCLD was looking to promote. The results were astounding.

 

The Results: Raving Reviews & Levelling Up

Old website

A Complete Transformation — Website Before and After

Before the website transformation, the old website was visually dull. There is no clear or central statement to help ground the reader or give them context as to what the site is about.
The images and text were not captivating and they did not help to orient the user on the page. This made the website difficult to read and navigate, and MCLD was losing website traffic as a result.
Updated website from April, 2021, after the site launch

Fast forward 3 months to the finished product - a clear, concise, modern new website.

The new site design highlights the MCLD mission statement and purpose in the first paragraph. It sends clear visual cues to onlookers with a pop of colour to visually break up text heavy areas and it includes clear calls to action. This website is also mobile friendly so it’s easily accessible for users, and it incorporates video for a truly personal touch.

The Results Were Clear

Once the website redesign was complete in July 2020, we began monitoring the organic search results in Google Analytics.
We saw a massive increase (21.95%) in organic search engagement as a direct result of the website upgrade. (Pictured left)
~22%
Increase in organic search engagement (from new site)

Top Pages

The top 3 pages to really see an increase during these dates were the homepage (35% increase), events page (100% increase), and services for youth-kids page(100% increase) These were their key areas of focus and the results were exactly what they wanted. (Results pictured left)
Organic Search Engagement (Increases)
35%
Homepage
100%
Events Page
100%
Services (Youth-Kids)

Increase in Traffic Overall

Everything on the website saw an incredible increase in traffic, with some pages seeing a 500% increase in traffic. (Pictured Left) This was a direct result of our marketing strategies, a combination of the new web design and ads running on social media after the website update.

Huge increases in traffic

Some pages saw 500% increase in traffic

Marketing strategies and new site

A combination of new web design and ads on social

Increase in Website Conversions

Lastly, no website redesign is complete without a look at the impact on web conversions. When we compared the dates from before and after the site redesign, we see a 100% increase in website conversions, with 131 new leads coming in, compared to zero new leads before June 2020. Take a look at the data below to get a sense of the sheer impact the website redesign had on MCLD’s conversions.

Facebook Ad Success

We used Facebook ads to promote and generate interest in MCLD, specifically interest in the frequent online events they held. One of the highlights of the Facebook campaign was advertising for a paid Zoom event, which cost users $25 to attend. We were able to generate 60-70 conversions for this event entirely through Facebook Ads which ran for just over a month (35-45 days) and had a total advertising spend of $550-$600. The total revenue generated from the paid event was $1500-$1750, which went towards this incredible non-profit.
On top of the success we had with Facebook event marketing, we managed to grow MCLD’s follower base on Facebook from 649 to 827 followers, an increase of 178 people from July 2020 to April 2021.
As a fun glimpse into the campaign, you can see our top performing Facebook post below, which reached 1148 accounts, had 130 engagements, 48 post clicks and 41 shares. That is some serious engagement!

Final Thoughts

This volunteer based company came to ElementIQ looking for a simple website redesign, but we were truly able to provide them with so much more.
The dedicated team at MCLD was able to gain a unified sense of purpose, and this shared goal has made them so much stronger as a team both online and in person as a result.
They continue to express gratitude for the amazing new website. However, what truly contributed to MCLD’s success was the personal touch the team contributed, through many hours of meeting to discuss their mission statement and purpose. This heart and soul behind the work they do is clearly reflected in their user based, intuitive and easy-to-use website.
Through a new website, social media, SEO efforts and Facebook advertising, ElementIQ helped solidify MCLD online through multiple channels and even presently continue to get acknowledgement on how amazing the website looks. We are so happy to have helped expand the horizons of possibility for such an incredible cause. Strategic event marketing and a new site have helped open up new markets for MCLD, they are no longer restricted to Montreal and can see their impact extend throughout Canada.

Work with us.

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604.909.3750

#204-3242 Westwood St
Port Coquitlam, BC V3C 3L8

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