National Insulation Contractors’ Exchange (NICE) Website

With the association’s 25th anniversary fast approaching, the National Insulation Contractors’ Exchange (NICE) sought a new engaging and interactive website to kick off this milestone. Along with serving as a hub for member-exclusive resources and content, the website also needed to appeal to potential members and lead with the value that NICE provides independent insulation contractors. NICE turned to The Jakes Group to develop a comprehensive website that served long-time members while attending to the distinct expectations of prospective and newer members.

Before diving into the website’s look and feel, we first needed to fully understand the “current state” of association membership. Upon reviewing the latest industry trends and delving into data from reports like the 2019 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report, we noted that individuals regularly listed “innovation” as a reason why they join an association. People want to feel like an organization is not just repeating established programs and information (no “wash, rinse, repeat”). Members want to know the association is actively addressing new issues and offering ideas for advancing their businesses. This finding greatly influenced both the design and content for the NICE website.

Our creative and content teams worked closely with the client to develop a site that would appeal to both potential and existing members. Our web developer also built out a member log-in area with organized content and resources. Through our creative process, we aimed to develop a site that is:

Easy to navigate: NICE constantly offers events, educational opportunities and resources for members. From our lens, the site needed to have a “clean” and sharp look so information could be easy to find. Additionally, it needed to successfully balance between speaking to existing and prospective members.
Fresh and eye catching: As our designers dove into the project, they proposed and developed a complementary color palette for NICE that extended beyond the organization’s traditional blue and gray. This gave the site added dimension and a feel of innovation for the group. The colors were also incorporated for the association’s 25th anniversary logo.
Leading with member benefits: We suggested a section that incorporates the new colors with quick and simple member benefits to attract more attention to all that NICE offers. Users can hover over a benefit and learn more about each one. Additionally, we incorporated brief videos that showcase members and NICE leaders so prospects can quickly learn more about the organization beyond traditional text.
A user-friendly members-only area: It is critical that association members can easily access resources and information when they need it. If a website is clunky or difficult to navigate, then people will simply stop visiting it. Our developer worked closely with the client to get real-time feedback and ensure the members area had the content and navigation requirements to meet member needs.
Updatable: Given our experience, we understand that an association website must be easy to update once launched. The organization can continually update the homepage and content areas with upcoming member events and information.

Through close collaboration with our client, The Jakes Group successfully designed a website that balanced appealing to new members with providing a sense of community for existing ones. The website features videos of NICE members speaking to the benefits of the organization—helping a prospective member to get a feel for membership and the association’s culture. Additionally, a member wanting to know the next NICE meeting date or seeking access to an online training can do so in one quick website visit. The association’s website is functional, balanced and showcases the fact that NICE is evolving to meet their members’ needs.

National Insulation Contractors’ Exchange (NICE) Website

I consider [The Jakes Group] part of the NICE team, and I can truthfully say their support is invaluable to our success. They have a lot of capability, and they help us get things done that we couldn’t do on our own.