The Town of Chapel Hill is updating its online presence to meet the evolving needs of its diverse audience, including residents, community partners, and local business leaders. The first step in relaunching Chapel Hill’s website and digital ecosystem was to conduct a content audit of it’s current presence online.

We designed the audit to provide a comprehensive, yet manageable, content recommendation by determining underperforming pages, evaluating content quality and relevance, and identifying areas for enhancing the website’s structure. These findings will influence the new site’s information structure, maximize digital communication efficiencies, and encourage user engagement.

This case study outlines the content audit, competitor analysis, and persona development project undertaken for the Town of Chapel Hill, NC.

Chapel Hill currently faces challenges in effectively communicating with its diverse residents due to a lack of understanding of their needs, inconsistent content targeting, and difficulty measuring content performance. Additionally, a benchmark against neighboring municipalities is missing, hindering efforts to optimize reach and engagement.

• Limited knowledge of the Town’s diverse audiences and their specific needs.
• Inconsistent content targeting and potential gaps in addressing  requirements.
• Difficulty measuring content effectiveness and achieving optimal reach and engagement.
• Lack of understanding of how the Town’s content compares to neighboring municipalities.

This project took a three-pronged approach to establish a strong foundation for Chapel Hill’s future content creation and communication efforts.

1. Content Audit & Analytics

We conducted a comprehensive review of all existing content across platforms, analyzing its relevance, tone, structure, and effectiveness in reaching target audiences.  Using analytics tools, we dug deeper into website traffic patterns, user behavior, and content engagement metrics to gain valuable insights.

2. Competitive Landscape Analysis

To understand Chapel Hill’s positioning within the municipal communication landscape, we compared its content strategy and communication approach to surrounding municipalities. This included evaluating competitor website design, content types, social media presence, and engagement tactics. By identifying best practices and areas for differentiation, we aimed to create a unique and impactful online voice for Chapel Hill, as well a web platform recommendation.

3. Persona Development

In collaboration with Chapel Hill employees, we identified key resident segments.  Leveraging existing data sources, competitor audience insights, and focus groups, we aimed to gain a deeper understanding of Chapel Hill’s diverse audience.  By developing comprehensive personas – profiles outlining key characteristics, communication preferences, and content consumption habits – we aim to make sure future content is targeted, relevant, and resonates with the needs of each audience segment.

By combining content audit and analytics with competitor analysis and in-depth persona development, this approach provided Chapel HIll with the necessary foundation to create impactful communication strategies for the future.

• Gained a holistic understanding of Chapel Hill’s existing content, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and potential optimization opportunities.
• Identified gaps in existing content that don’t address specific resident needs or preferences based on analytics and user behavior data.
• Gained a competitive edge by understanding how Chapel Hill’s content compares to municipalities and best practices in the region.
• Developed detailed personas that provide a deeper understanding of the Chapel HIll’s target audience.
• Established a foundation for creating more targeted and engaging content for different audience segments.
• Identified areas for potential team training or resource allocation to make sure the Town’s content creation and management capabilities are optimized.

This comprehensive project provided the Town of Chapel Hill with valuable insights into its content landscape, target audience, and competitive environment. By analyzing existing content, understanding resident needs, and benchmarking against competitors, we laid the groundwork for Chapel Hill to develop a more impactful communication strategy. The insights gained will inform future content creation efforts, fostering stronger relationships with residents and promoting a more resident-centric online presence.

We’d love to work with you!

email stacey@your-content-matters.com