Mortgage Bankers Association
The Mortgage Bankers Association services small and large mortgage companies alike, offering industry training, products, events, advocacy, and informational resources. As Senior Director of E-Businees Strategies, Jessica Ferko led the design and development efforts for all online outreach, web properties, advertising and analytics providing both strategic and tactical counsel to all department heads and staff.
The MBA web site's 1,000+ page architecture underwent a thorough discovery analysis including benchmarking, audience and messaging analysis, department goal coordination, information architecture, wireframing, advertising sales assessment and design. This was an extensive project as it required maintaining SEO ranking, visitor loyalty, and managing the expectations and needs of all departments.
Along with the association's website redesign came the re-architecture of the MBA Online Store. The complete discovery, information architecture, and design process was led by Ms. Ferko; it was developed by MBA's information technology department. It uses customized transaction logic integrating Rhythmyx CMS, ASP .NET and iMIS CRM. It handles book and software sales, subscriptions, and conference registration. Advertising space is tracked and weighted based on internal marketing plans. Results are analyzed through WebTrends Enterprise and iMIS.
Working with the Conferences & Events and Marketing departments, she managed the online campaigns for MBA's four main conferences and 20 small conferences annually. They were streamlined across one content management system, visual identity guidelines, and Microsoft Project web site production scheduling cutting back on 16-24 man-hours of work per conference site per year while still maintaining campaign theme consistency. The electronic promotion of the conferences includes a series of animated Flash contests that increased the mailing list numbers, and email blasts customized to each conference theme. Online advertising revenue was increased through additional ad space in the redesigns, comprehensive ad suite packages and improved results tracking. Campaign results were tracked across all forms of promotion for product and registration sales through a combination of WebTrends Enterprise, custom reporting, and iMIS data collection.
Numerous initiatives and programs had online components at MBA. The key was to establish a brand hierarchy and process that prioritized projects and categorized their online presence and effort. A large consumer-focused program was MBA's Consumer Educational Website, Home Loan Learning Center. The site teaches people the benefits of home ownership, the nuts and bolts of the mortgage process, how to financially prepare for home ownership, and how to avoid predatory lending. Campaign branding, information architecture, advertising sales planning and implementation were part of the execution.
