The Commercial Advancement Training Scheme (CATS) is an NGO that serves a critical role in Namibia: connecting school-leavers with employers who can provide them with on-the-job training over the course of two years. Students work four days a week while the remainder of their time is dedicated to theoretical training, which they receive via Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST). The training guarantees that students rotate through different departments of the business under the guidance of a CATS mentor and supervisor.
While this exceptional program helps to up-skill Namibia’s school-leaving population, making them more employable and providing companies with new talent, the NGO needed a digital refresh in order to attract the next generation of students and companies. CATS enlisted Windhoek-based agency V5 Digital for this very purpose. With so many options in the digital space, where would V5 Digital begin?
The first step was conducting an audit to understand the digital lay-of-the-land. V5 Digital did a deep dive into the digital assets of competitor and peer programs globally, to understand the landscape and draw inspiration. Best practice findings were then collated to form the basis for the digital brand strategy for CATS. The major thrust of the strategy was to draft a clear plan for CATS' presence on social media, in conjunction with overhauling the website to make it a highly functional online home for the brand.
First, V5 Digital ensured that CATS' visual branding was refined in order to show up as professionally as possible across social media. Social media branding was developed so that CATS always puts its best foot forward, and that its look and feel was consistent to build consumer trust and recognition.
Next, a content strategy was put in place to guarantee that all posts generate interest and engagement. Content pillars were clearly established so that CATS’ posts highlight the benefits of the program to all potential trainees and companies.
Since we know social media is largely a pay-for-play environment, a paid media strategy was developed to assist CATS reaching its objectives online. Promotion of posts was laid out to cleverly unlock each platform’s targeting tools so that not only would more people would be reached, but also the content would reach the right people, through geographical and demographic targeting.
To reach companies who would be interested in signing up to participate in CATS, V5 Digital established a LinkedIn business page for the NGO, since LinkedIn is the ideal platform for business-to-business engagement. CATS' new business page was then optimized to ensure maximum reach and discoverability. When people discover CATS on Facebook, V5 Digital wanted to empower the social audience to have their FAQs answered quickly. To do so, the Facebook Messenger Response Assistant was programmed to effectively reply to a preordained list of common questions.
For the new CATS website, V5 Digital wanted to build the site with best practice user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) principles in mind. V5 Digital always keeps in mind a clear conversion funnel when building websites, which guarantees that the site plays its role in serving the businesses objectives. On the CATS website, key objectives include driving newsletter sign-ups, so much so that the NGO can keep in contact with interested parties as well as making it easy for companies and school-leavers to apply.
Creating a page with good page speed was paramount, as this is often the reason why most people drop off. Basic search engine optimization (SEO) was implemented site-wide to ensure discoverability and a constant stream of organic traffic. Google Analytics was installed so that V5 Digital and CATS can view site statistics on a regular basis to track factors such as the quality and quantity of traffic to the site.
We refreshed the imagery in the UI sphere to be relevant and appealing to the intended ideal target market. Two distinct customer personas were kept in mind since the site needs to serve both students and decision-makers at companies. And last but not least a simple clean navigation bar was introduced so that every type of site visitor can easily find exactly what he/she is looking for.
Is it time for your company to hit the refresh on your social media presence or website? Don’t hesitate to contact V5 Digital for your free, no-obligation demo/appointment so our digital experts can guide you to the right options for your business.
View the new CATS website for yourself, and check out their social media presence.
