VACU
Virginia Credit Union: Optimizing Credit Union Website Design
Opportunity
At VACU, their focus is to provide spectacular member service. VACU wanted to offer a delightful online experience that drives member engagement.
Solution
VACU partnered with COLAB on a multi-stage site redesign that involved refining and enhancing site features and empowering the marketing team.
Outcome
The website became a value-driver for the business, delivering measurable ROI and revenue, as well as a steady lead generator.
Virginia Credit Union (VACU) is a regional credit union with more than $4.5 billion in assets and more than 35 Virginia locations. It has approximately 600 employees and a growing member base of more than 300,000 credit union members.
Three Projects, One Partnership
COLAB partnered with VACU to revitalize the credit union’s digital presence and strengthen its bond with its members. In the first project, COLAB built a better blog where the credit union could share fresh, intriguing content with the community.
This led to the second project, the development of a new branch locator feature with helpful, up-to-the-minute information. Finally, these successes culminated in the third project, a site-wide redesign.
During this partnership, COLAB’s relationship with VACU evolved from a typical web development partner to an ongoing strategic partner, working as an extension of VACU’s internal team.
A successful transformation to an agile and proactive digital marketing organization.
After an initial scan for accessibility issues, VACU’s website framework proved too fragile to design a more equitable experience. Instead, we migrated their site to a Drupal-based CMS with few changes to the front-end experience outside of resolving its accessibility needs. We adjusted color contrast and font sizes globally to ensure it met accessibility requirements, as well as added invisible aria tags and alt tags to accommodate screen readers.
More complex site features, such as rates management systems, were migrated to the new platform. Their separate blog was consolidated with during the redesign process. Relevant posts were migrated and redirects were put into place for to avoid broken links.
Whenever we work with large websites, we like to use a process that allows for constant iteration. The framework that most aligns with this concept is called WebOps. WebOps is a framework that allows organizations to enhance and evolve their websites quickly, in order to meet ever-changing business needs.
Using this process, COLAB and VACU reimagined the credit union’s site and reworked site function, focusing on delivering results for the organization and its members. VACU’s long-term business goals served as the backbone for this digital journey, resulting in outstanding credit union member experiences and strategic business growth.
Typically, substantive results like these aren’t feasible from individual projects; they arise from long-term, collaborative partnerships. WebOps creates value with the speed of project-based initiatives while driving results that come from strategic long-term partnerships.
VACU’s Increase in Evaluated Digital Maturity
We evaluate our clients using a metric called a digital maturity score that we collect using an assessment we’ve created.
When comparing VACU’s original digital maturity score to today’s score, the results are impressive. They went from 2.5, 3’s, and a single 4 (numbers that hurt the business) to 8’s and 9’s (numbers that help the business) across each of the key categories. Specific improvements across categories include:
With this credit union website design, COLAB is proud to support the Virginia Credit Union marketing team in its evolution. VACU overcame frustrating obstacles, expanded their technical control, and streamlined their web process, resulting in a successful transformation to an agile and proactive digital marketing organization.
The Results of Iterative Improvements and WebOps
The value of our work is in the results it drives.
32% year of year increase in website leads and 42% increase in monthly revenue
For VACU, tangible results were delivered with each individual project. As the partnership grew, incremental results started to compound, delivering the benefits of WebOps across the organization.
32%
YoY Increase in Website Leads
VACU’s website generated a 32% year-over-year increase in website leads.
Additionally, VACU saw a 42% increase in monthly revenue.
42%
Increase in Monthly Revenue
Want to Learn More?
Read about VACU’s digital transformation in the detailed case study.