Public Utilities Association Leverages Drupal 8

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Unleashed Technologies
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APPA partnered with Unleashed Technologies to design, build, and launch a new, Drupal 8 website.

Challenge

The American Public Power Association (APPA) was founded in 1940 and is the voice of not-for-profit, community-owned utilities that power 2,000 towns and cities nationwide. APPA represents public power before the federal government, advocating for the interest of over 49 million public power utilities customers and 93,000 industry employees. Associate Members receive exclusive benefits, including valuable opportunities to connect with decision-makers and influencers at community-owned utilities.

APPA launched a comprehensive three-year strategic plan in 2016 to help public power utilities address the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities brought by recent technological and societal shifts. APPA partnered with Unleashed Technologies to design, build, and launch a new, Drupal 8 website.

When Unleashed Technologies initially engaged with APPA, the plan for a revitalized APPA site included the following goals:

  • An updated design, appealing to the site’s users
  • Restructured content designed to optimize targeted conversions
  • Enhanced SEO performance and social media impact
  • A site platform for featured grants and scholarship with improved search and filtering
    Approach

Unleashed Technologies worked closely with APPA to align with its strategic plan by leveraging best-in-breed technology for its content management system. The content was migrated over to the Drupal 8 CMS, granting the association endless possibilities to grow in the future and the benefit of leveraging the vast Drupal community as it continues to increase scalability.

Additionally, the upgraded APPA website is fully responsive for the visitor, regardless of device type. Visitors are ensured to have an on-brand and easy-to-use experience that is navigable on mobile, tablet, and full desktop.

The new PublicPower.org now features:

  • Drupal 8 CMS: offers scalability for the future and flexible content delivery for an evolving audience
  • Aptify Integration: Aptify, APPA’s selected Association Management System (AMS), performs a host of membership services, including website authorization using a custom single sign-on SSO module.
  • Content Paywall: a Content Access module dictates content access based on user roles and permissions. Members have access to exclusive content, while non-members get directed to a page that notifies them of the benefits of membership, encouraging sign-ups.
  • Integrated SEO Tools: allow APPA to improve its performance on search engines, driving higher traffic from targeted audiences. With the new design, the site is now optimized for a stronger conversion rate.

Results

Following the launch of the Drupal 8 site, APPA now offers its clients and visitors a cutting-edge online experience. The new site features an enhanced user experience and an easy-to-use interface, allowing members to effortlessly find exactly what they need when they need it.

By building SEO tools into the site, Unleashed Technologies provided a means by which APPA could systematically improve its search rankings. Social media sharing functionality was also built-in, so users could more easily share content through social media channels.

Additionally, Unleashed Technologies built out APPA’s grant and scholarship database, Demonstration of Energy & Efficiency Developments (DEED Projects) within the site which allows for grant and scholarship content to be featured. The new DEED Projects also allows certain users to search that content using a variety of search filters.