customer project OpenEmbassy

A convincing site is needed to achieve your mission

A professional website that suits a professional organization. Where the site and the organization can grow together, keeping it up-to-date doesn't take an unnecessary amount of time, is always up to date, and, above all, accurately reflects what they stand for.

OpenEmbassy has achieved all of this. We'd love to tell you more about this incredibly pleasant collaboration with Femke Brand.

The assignment

Femke had only been working at OpenEmbassy for a few months. "The discussion about the need for a new site had already started before I got here. But there wasn't really enough time or knowledge to tackle it properly. When I arrived, with my background in refugee work and as a web consultant, everything came together and I was able to get started."

Thanks to her background, Femke knows exactly what's needed for a good site. The navigation, the technology; she already had considerable knowledge of WordPress and its possibilities. She had also already worked out the entire wireframe for the site.

The situation

The old site was made when the organization was much smaller. There were also very different needs back then, Femke explains. If you change and want to grow as an organization, you need a site that fits that again. However, we could hardly change anything ourselves in the old site, our current portfolio could not be displayed properly, and the design needed an update; we really wanted to take steps forward. The translation function was not automatic, which meant that the translations were always lagging behind. So it was time for a new site.

Basically, when creating the new site, Femke discovered that they were 35 projects behind on the old site. All great projects that nobody knew about, so we're making sure that doesn't happen again.

"If you want your organization to grow, your website needs to grow with it. There's often more possible than you think."

Femke – OpenEmbassy

The goal

"We'd already done quite a bit of groundwork," Femke says. "We also had a pretty extensive list of requirements that a web agency had to meet. I'd contacted Buro Staal a few years ago and was still receiving their newsletter, so they stayed top of mind."

"I wanted to be sure that the new site would last technically for a long time. And I also got a good feeling from Buro Staal's site, that they are nice but also down-to-earth people. That was exactly what I was looking for."

THE approach

During the first meeting, there was an instant connection. "Annemieke immediately addressed the content. She told us that we could take it a step further by creating links. This would allow us to filter the projects and news items and link the themes, team members, and projects together. We were immediately enthusiastic. We had to wait for them a bit because they were busy, but we really thought they were the best. It was worth the wait."

"We immediately asked Annemieke if she wanted to be our contact person, and luckily she did. She translated the updated brand guide, which we had already had made by our regular design agency, very well into the web design."

We started, as always, with the homepage. That gives a good idea of what the site will look like and what the look and feel is. "Annemieke's first design was immediately fun and creative. She incorporated the flag from our logo very nicely into the site, for example as a photo frame, in the quotes, and in the footer."

"We emailed back and forth quite a bit. Annemieke would respond to the questions in different colors, which was very helpful. Annemieke and Rick also came up with all sorts of proactive suggestions, which I hadn't even thought of, to make the site even better. Together, they took the site to the next level."

"We are really incredibly happy with the end result! The Annemieke/Rick combination worked great, and the three of us complemented each other very well."

Femke – OpenEmbassy

THE result

Clear results are still pending, as the site was launched just before the summer vacation. But the reactions are positive. "An NT2 teacher said that our site accurately indicates what is needed for newcomers. That we really understand it. We are happy to hear that, of course. New municipalities that we approach also react very positively. We are getting a lot of requests for introductory meetings after the summer. A policy officer said that she had viewed the site and thought it looked interesting. She would like to make an appointment."

Viewers rate the site as good, lively, accessible, dynamic, fresh, and friendly.
Goal achieved, then? "Yes, our story is now clearer and we can showcase our portfolio well. We are reaching municipalities and ministries better. This way, more and more people are working with effective evidence-based newcomer policies. And that is our mission!"

EN HOE GAAT HET INMIDDELS?

We zijn nu een half jaar verder en vragen Femke naar een update van de resultaten.

“De site werkt nog steeds prettig, makkelijk en intuïtief,” vertelt Femke. “Zowel voor het bijwerken van de projectpagina’s als bij het plaatsen van nieuwsberichten met de pagebuilder. Met de invul- en aanvinkvelden die Buro Staal heeft aangemaakt, kan zelfs iemand zonder enkele WordPress kennis ermee werken. Dat is fijn omdat we het aantal medewerkers dat zelf de site aanvult aan het uitbreiden zijn. Rick van Buro Staal heeft me goed geholpen met het toebedelen van rollen aan onze medewerkers.”

“Aangezien we vaak onderzoeksopdrachten doen, is het tof dat we bijvoorbeeld grafieken kunnen toevoegen aan de lay-out. Door de slim uitgedachte koppelingen staan dingen snel automatisch goed. Als je bijvoorbeeld projecten toevoegt aan een medewerker, dan worden deze automatisch op alle juiste plekken getoond met de juiste lay-out. Dat scheelt veel werk. Ik kan ook eenvoudig inschrijf-, bedank- en landingspagina’s aanmaken voor funnels voor een weggever of webinar, bijvoorbeeld.”

“Kort na de livegang zijn we voor het eerst begonnen met koude salesacties. Dat leverde zo’n 25% respons op -wat veel is voor koude sales – maar ook diverse leads en een opdracht. Ik ben ervan overtuigd dat onze mooie site met portfolio hier een positieve rol in heeft gespeeld. En onze Helpdesk voor nieuwkomers krijgt de laatste maanden echt beduidend meer vragen binnen. Mijn collega’s zijn blij met de frisse stijl en de toffe verwerking van de ‘vlaggen’, een mooie vertaling van de vernieuwde brandguide. We gebruiken de site zelf ook nog vaak om dingen terug te zoeken over projecten en onderzoeken.”