Website Launch: HRChamber.com (2020)
Hampton Roads, Virginia - Insercorp LTD announced the launch of the Hampton Roads Chamber's revamped website. As the largest regional Chamber of Commerce in Virginia, the Hampton Roads Chamber serves businesses in #the757 with representation in the five major southside cities of Hampton Roads: Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Virginia Beach.
Trusted Website Vendor in Hampton Roads
Insercorp has provided Website Design, Development, and Hosting services for the Hampton Roads Chamber since 2010 and has delivered 4 previous incarnations of the Chamber's website, the most recent being part of a rebranding project launched in 2016 in collaboration with FAM (Free Agents Marketing), the agency which designed the 2016 rebrand.
In 2019 the Hampton Roads Chamber contracted Insercorp, a member of the Chamber since 2009, to revamp its website www.HRChamber.com. The website serves as a regional hub of news and information for businesses in Southeast Virginia with over 100,000 unique visitors accessing the website every year.
Renovating an Enterprise Website, One Page at a Time
The latest Hampton Roads Chamber Website overhaul project took 6 months to complete. Insercorp's team worked with the Chamber's staff to make major improvements to the website -- both visually and functionally as well as updating the context and presentation of the website’s content.
The main navigation system was completely rebuilt to intelligently yet subtly inform users of where they are in the website as well as make navigation of the website more intuitive for users.
The mobile interface was enhanced to improve user experience and adapt to more modern smartphones while preserving the user-friendly backwards compatibility with earlier generation mobile devices.
Page cover photos were added along with a re-design of over 80 content pages after restructuring the information architecture to reflect the Chamber’s current mission and programs.
Several dynamic "blocks" were added to various sections of the website to automatically display content from modules thereby reducing staff time required to make changes by eliminating redundant data entry.
Interactive Features position the Website as a Resource for Chamber Members and Website Visitors Alike
Several new features were included with the revamp to make the website even more interactive than previous iterations.
The all new Chamber Blog was added to provide Website Visitors the ability to directly engage with Chamber Leadership through User Comments. The Chamber Blog features a custom design theme which compliments the main website’s look and style with its own contemporary application.
A new "Become a Sponsor" web-based form was added to provide opportunities for businesses to submit requests to advertise in the Chamber's various publications.
A "Featured Events" section was added to highlight the Chamber's premier events as well as to house the Small Business of the Year Award Nomination and Application forms.
Insercorp also worked with the Chamber's new Membership Database provider, Atlas, to integrate the new design into their MemberClicks software which replaced the aging "SBAWeb" application.
In addition to complete integration with the revamped Chamber Website design the new templates include improvements to the third-party Events Calendar, Event Registration, Member Dashboard, Member Directory, Member Profiles, Coupons, Chamber Store, and Jobs. Insercorp also integrated a widget from MemberClicks to display a scrolling feed of upcoming events on the Chamber's homepage.
The new website was delivered as a “soft launch” on December 18, 2019, just in time for the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Membership of the Hampton Roads Chamber, with additional features released for the New Year in conjunction with the rollout of the new MemberClicks software.
Intuitive Website Management Software
HRChamber.com was developed on iPlasmaCMS2 Web Content Management System, Insercorp’s proprietary web-based application which allows clients to easily manage their website content without technical skills or training.
The new website offers dynamic content through many of iPlasmaCMS2's modules and plugins. Features such as the News Manager, Slideshow, Blog, Staff Directory, Gallery, and PlasmaAds allow the Chamber to utilize its revamped website to instantly disseminate news and information to the Chamber’s hundreds of thousands of Website Visitors.
iPlasmaCMS2 is the perfect solution for business organizations such as the Hampton Roads Chamber, especially those which produce a multitude of content. Insercorp’s iPlasmaCMS2 allows even the most non-technical website administrator to easily make changes and updates to any part of the website.