Flight Centre Travel Academy
A Website Takes Off with Flight Centre Travel Academy
Product Excellence
Project Manager
Project Location
Brisbane, Australia
Product Excellence
Project Goals
The team at Flight Centre Travel Academy (FCTA) were struggling with an outdated website that was over a decade old. General Manager Cameron Boyd knew that the site failed to define FCTA's service offer and wasn't highlighting how they differ from other educators and employers in the travel industry. While they had no problem driving traffic to the website through PPC campaigns, abandoned sessions were leading to a low conversion rate and wasted ad spend. To fix this, Cameron knew they needed help.
In order to better educate potential students on the courses and employment pathways available, Neighbourhood determined that the website needed to be redesigned to allow the end user to easily find the information they needed. To make sure these issues never pop up again, they needed to ensure that the end result was a site that empowered the Flight Centre Travel Academy team to jump into the HubSpot CMS and update content on the fly.
Their wants
01
02
Leads that are better educated on the FCTA service offering
03
An easy-to-use CMS that encourages staff to jump in and update content
04
Increased organic search traffic
Their needs
01
02
A templated solution built on the HubSpot CMS, that maximizes the FCTA team's ability to customise pages
03
Search Engine Optimisation Training Workshops to provide guidance on content creation and on-page SEO
Identifying the problem
The Flight Centre Acadamy team knew that they needed to fix their website to better reflect the brand's identity. They had one big problem though. Rigid page templates on a site that hadn't been redesigned in over 10 years were making it impossible for the team to get in there and update content.
Neighbourhood knew that this project wasn't just about overhauling the website's navigation or restructuring pages to better communicate the brand offering and drive conversions. All of this had to be done with the goal of empowering the FCTA team to feel comfortable diving into the CMS to make changes or add pages as required.
Scope of works
The Plan
- Scoping Phase
- Creating a New Sitemap
- Wireframing Pages
- Conducting SEO Boot Camps
- Building Pages & Populating with Content
- Quality Assurance, Site Launch & CMS Training
Scoping Phase
- The project was to begin with two in-depth scoping workshops between FCTA and Neighbourhood, designed to better uncover the opportunities and requirements of this project and ensure all ideas were heard.
- These workshops would allow Neighbourhood to define the overall goals of the site as a whole, determine the goals of specific pages, work out optimal customer journeys through the pages, review the content to ensure everything necessary had its place and discuss the overall strategy that would govern the copywriting and content.
- The outcome of this would include a detailed and specific plan that covered timelines, requirements and Neighbourhood's plan of attack for using the HubSpot CMS to make the site something special.
Creating a New Sitemap
- Based on Neighbourhood's research, alongside insight from FCTA, it was determined that the “Pathways to Diploma” should be at the centre stage. This would allow the site to highlight different course options students could choose.
- It was also determined that the new website should emphasise student experience and prominently feature testimonials or “Career Success Stories”.
Wireframing Pages
- To determine the best page layouts Neighbourhood would wireframe selected pages, that could then be duplicated for related content
- The aim was to design a website that would lower the barrier of entry and allow prospective students to become qualified leads at the earliest possible time.
- Three contact points were to be introduced; downloading an info brochure, enquiring about a course and submitting an application
Conducting SEO Boot Camps
- As FCTA wanted to take charge of all content creation and search engine optimisation it was determined that running workshops would provide the best possible outcome.
- Neighbourhood would train the team with two "SEO Boot Camps" and collaborate closely on content creation
Building Pages & Populating with Content
- Once the wireframes were approved Neighbourhood would move on to building out each page within the HubSpot CMS.
- The FCTA team would be primarily responsible for copywriting and sourcing photo and video material to populate the pages.
- Neighbourhood would also provide support and guidance in content creation for selected pages
Quality Assurance, Site Launch & CMS Training
- Before launching, Neighbourhood would review all content for quality and test site performance including responsiveness across desktop, mobile and tablet.
- After the website went live Neighbourhood would provide post-launch support and staff training in the use of the CMS.
The Strategy
- Determining the Factors Blocking Conversion
- Collaborating on Site Design & Content Creation
- Ensuring Continued Success
Determining the Factors Blocking Conversion
- The FCTA team already knew that their website was outdated and didn't effectively communicate their offering to potential students, but Neighbourhood knew that they would need to delve deeper into what was blocking conversion
- It was determined that the new site needed to be; easier to navigate, provide the customer with more information and feature more opportunities for conversion on each page
Collaborating on Site Design & Content Creation
- From the beginning, it was clear that this would be a very collaborative project between FCTA's in-house marketing team and Neighbourhood
- To facilitate collaboration on the site map and page design, Miro and Wireframing would be utilised to allow for drafts, feedback and final approval
- While FCTA wanted to take the lead on content creation, to ensure that it was optimised for search engines it was determined that Neighbourhood should provide SEO Bootcamps, assistance and quality checking
Ensuring Continued Success
- A major reason the team FCTA approached Neighbourhood in the first place was that rigid templates were making it impossible for them to get in and update the site themselves.
- It was extremely important that every aspect of the project was geared towards enabling their in-house marketing team to take ownership of the website upon completion
- Alongside the SEO Bootcamps, Neighbourhood needed to ensure that all templates were easy to use and that training and support on the HubSpot CMS would be provided post-launch
The Results
102%
Increase in Enquiries
22%
Increase in Website Sessions
Their new website better reflects their brand image and has led to a 102% increase in customer enquiries. This has had a direct impact on the site's conversion rate which has increased from 2% to 3% within 6 weeks of launch!
By following an inbound marketing strategy and featuring informative content that is built with the goal of driving organic traffic, they have also facilitated a 22% increase in total website sessions per month. This number is only increasing and they now receive over 9,000 sessions per week compared to less than 3,000 in the weeks before launching the new site.
Additionally, their enrolment team have noticed significant improvements in the quality of leads. They have been enjoying conversations with much more knowledgeable applicants who already have a good understanding of the courses and career pathways on offer.
Last but not least, thanks to user-friendly page templates and a greater understanding of SEO practices and the HubSpot CMS, the FCTA marketing team have the tools and know-how to take ownership of the website. Now they are not only qualified to update content and add pages, they are excited to do it!
The Impact
The website work by Neighbourhood for Flight Centre Travel Academy has been an amazing partnership experience from start to finish. Highlights included sticking to all timeframes, flexibility in approach, SEO and SEM advice and a fun team to work with. Enquiry results from the new website have also seen an immediate spike.
Conclusion
Through a fiercely collaborative process, Neighbourhood was able to overhaul an outdated site and launch one significantly easier for users to navigate and find the information they need to move through the customer journey.
Flight Centre Travel Academy now have a future-proof website strategy with the tools and know-how to ensure it is adaptable to changes in the market while always maintaining their unique brand identity.
Think we could help you out with something you see here?
Neighbourhoods we’ve grown with HubSpot
Flint Group
$50M
In loans closed in July as opposed to $3M in March
3.2K
New inbound opportunities
639%
Rise in website visitor sessions