The American Marketing Association Baltimore Chapter (AMA Baltimore) announced the launch of a new, improved website identity to provide a better user experience for our marketing, advertising, and creative community in the greater Baltimore area.

The new identity has an updated look and feel, which is more modern and clean, better guiding users throughout the website to drive a deeper level of engagement and focusing around key areas of interest including membership, sponsorship, volunteering, and programming. One of the improvements is category tagging for blog posts, news articles, and events. Each of these respective areas of the website now have categorization so users can view archives within a specific category allowing them to find more content for previously published blog posts, news articles, or events. As AMA Baltimore continues to publish blog posts in the future, this will only become more valuable as the website users can explore more content in the respective 20+ categories ranging from advertising to brand marketing to marketing trends to professional development, and beyond.

SR&B Advertising, an in-kind sponsor to AMA Baltimore for over seven years supported the strategy, design, and development for this website project. AMA Baltimore worked alongside the team at SR&B Advertising to determine the key pieces for features and functionality, making user experience a top priority. We thank them for their time and efforts in improving every nook and cranny of our website!

“We are honored and excited to announce the launch of our new website identity,” says Dov Hoffman, vice president of sponsorship + past president, who spearheaded this project and also led the effort for the prior version which launched in 2017. Both projects were supported by SR&B Advertising, who has been an instrumental partner to collaborate with. “Our new website will elevate you as a marketing professional, no matter where you are in your career, as the AMA is the essential community for marketers and the leading provider of continuing education, networking opportunities, and industry resources.”

Below are a few highlights of the new website:

• A Modern Infrastructure to Improve the Mobile Experience
  The site needed a modern infrastructure that improves the mobile experience. Having recently celebrated our 75th year anniversary as a chapter, we felt it was an appropriate time to level up our website given that it’s the hub of our marketing efforts. The AMA Baltimore website didn’t have a major refresh in many years as the prior version was launched in 2017. Given that the website landscape and user behavior have changed drastically over the last few years, especially during the pandemic, it made it hard for users to find and consume content on the site.Not all of the changes will be visible to users because some of them are built into the content management system (CMS), but you will benefit from a content presentation that’s better organized, more frequently updated, and easier to browse from all devices.
• Event Information Front and Center
  Until today, users landed on the AMA Baltimore home page and viewed a slider at the top of the page. This has been replaced with a tile section showcasing three modules where specific information such as our annual MX Awards or other key programming can be featured along two other modules for upcoming events. Additionally, there is now an updated page for our signature programs that has an expanded list of offerings and each of these have their own respective pages. At the bottom of the dedicated pages, users can view the three most recent events within that category and also access an archive of all events within that respective category if they are interested in exploring other programs that AMA Baltimore held.
• New Elements to Explore
  A lot of the existing content and website pages worked well, so they have been migrated over to the new identity, but with a fresh visual look and feel. That said, there are brand new elements to explore on the website including a Past Presidents page showcasing an esteemed list of outstanding leaders who have contributed to our chapter’s success over the years; as well as testimonials from volunteers, members, and sponsors, which are prominently featured on the home page as well as the respective volunteers, membership, and sponsors pages to humanize specific individuals and better showcase the value of our organization. Additional elements such as read time, dropdown lists, and archive links across blog posts and news articles enhance the user experience for these respective sections and posts on our website. Other updates include carousels and card tiles to improve the visual appearance and functionality of the site while also making the content more digestible for website users. Lastly, building on the original photography from our in-kind sponsor, Coyle Studios, our new website identity expands on their work to showcase all of AMA Baltimore’s offerings, including headshot portraits for Board members, event and marketing images that are now prominently displayed in the hero section of pages, and other supporting photos to accompany the website copy.

While this effort took numerous months, detailed planning, and strategic thinking to provide a clickable masterpiece that you are able to experience, there will be continuous improvement as our marketing, advertising, and creative community evolves so we can best meet the needs of our membership.

“I am proud of the work that our team has done to refresh the AMA Baltimore chapter website, which will serve as a central hub to connect with local marketing professionals,” says Keisha Clarke-English, AMA Baltimore president. Our primary goal during the redesign process was to create a more valuable, user-centric and responsive resource to engage with our audiences across all platforms and devices. Specifically, we wanted to focus on making it easier for our users to learn and locate valuable information they need to help advance their professional development.”