PeopleCert Digital Transformation Project

The Brief 

Peoplecert promptly identified its digital presence as the major pillar via which it will accomplish its long-term strategic goal to dominate the global certification market and revolutionize the exam and certification industry.

Following Peoplecert’s official Request for Proposal to which more than 15 leading digital agencies from around the world responded, we were awarded the task of designing and implementing Peoplecert’s new B2C and B2B2C Marketplace to become the international default go-to place for a certification.

Digital Objectives

Linakis Digital undertook several important goals for the project:

• Build a vibrant marketplace taking into account the customer type. Target the right B2C customers (exam candidates) while at the same time use smart ways of signposting B2B partners (Test owners, training centers & test centers) towards the right call to action.
• Drastically increase online sales, as a result of both new conversions and increase of existing upsell/cross-sell ratio, without endangering relationships with partners.
• Create a B2B self-care portal for partners to be able to fully manage: their profile, examination products, test schedule and availability, exam center allotment and view sales analytics online.
• Utilize state-of-the-art technology to monitor visitor behavior and respond to the needs of each unique visitor in a personalized manner.
• Gather important behavioral data for each visitor/customer to be utilized in advanced marketing automation techniques.
• Reduce operating expenses via eliminating support tickets from end customers.
• Achieve deep, secure and real time integration with Peoplecert’s ERP
• Review, evaluate and redesign the Peoplecert’s brand identity

A holistic approach

Linakis Digital worked on a holistic Service Design approach enabled by best-of-breed technology. On one end we put great emphasis on the User Experience layer. We set out to design a stunning, engaging, efficient, goals-oriented environment which would clearly place visitors’ needs and expectations at the forefront. On the other end we utilized the world’s leading Content Management and Context Marketing platform to meet the project's very high technical demands in terms of intelligent content personalization, sales funnel optimization, automation, speed, high availability and security, allowing Peoplecert to drive advanced digital business optimization and context marketing initiatives.

Our Service Design 

In order to design the best possible environment for our multiple user segments we worked closely with the stakeholders and it’s users. We researched, observed and understood the problem we are solving, as well as the people we are designing for, so we could generate meaningful insights.

Determined to create a great human experience we carried out several Stakeholder’s Workshops, we researched actual users, we visited training and examination centers and received feedback directly from B2C and B2B users, we held several user testing sessions, we examined Peoplecert’s existing ecosystem of tools such as mobile apps, email notifications and examination tools, we did in-depth competitors’ analysis, we studied existing analytics and reviewed all available marketing research material.

As a result, we delivered:

• A unique, comprehensive and data-educated user experience that focuses on ease of use and efficiency for both B2B and B2C visitors.
• A heavily engineered, drastically improved conversion funnel that cuts the steps of the previous solution and thus increasing efficiency by 50% (5 steps, down from 10)
• A carefully crafted navigation architecture that assists users and search engines alike to reach the information they seek.
• A wealth of digital interactive tools, such as advanced search and on-line application forms, for new and returning customers aimed at aiding and promoting the buying process
• A flexible user interface which can respond to all the stages of the customer’s journey (research, engage, adopt, purchase, retain, advocate)
• An advanced user dashboard with heavy emphasis on relativity and personalization, assisting users to get what's relevant for them as well as pushing micro-conversions with context-marketing
• A powerful environment which allows advanced personalization and Context Marketing tactics to be deployed

Technology as an enabler

After careful consideration of the project’s functional and technical requirements, we chose the Sitecore Experience Management platform as the technological layer. Sitecore is the world’s most advanced and intelligent Content Management and Context Marketing platform that gives marketers everything they need, in order to understand visitors' needs and intents and deliver a more relevant, personalized experience, from initial visit to post-purchase engagement and nurturing. Sitecore empowers businesses with comprehensive digital marketing tools, a holistic view of customer needs and machine learning-generated insights, in order to deliver highly effective personalized experiences.

Linakis Digital is a certified Sitecore Gold Implementation Partner with extensive international experience in enterprise-grade projects for Banks, Airline companies, large Travel organizations and others. This deep knowledge of the platform was utilized throughout the entire implementation process of the project ensuring that all advanced context marketing features of the platform are fully supported by design and that all strict speed, availability and security needs are met to the highest extent.

The Cloud

The final solution is delivered to its international audience through Microsoft’s Azure Cloud infrastructure, achieving maximum security, performance, availability and geographic redundancy with minimum needs for maintenance from Peoplecert’s personnel and real flexibility to the organizations’ constantly growing needs.

Brand Identity

We were also asked to design a new brand identity and clear guidelines on how it will be used across the entire marketing mix including website, Direct Mail, Electronic Direct Mail, Social Media, advertising etc.

Envisioning an “act locally, think globally” strategy, Linakis Digital designed a new brand identity, that spoke both individually to each and every customer, and globally to an international audience. A new brand tagline was invented: “PeopleCert. All talents, certified”, that reflected PeopleCert’s vision and was applied to all marketing communications, across digital and analogue channels. 

In visual terms, we created a simple colour coding for the brand’s main market groups: Orange & black for B2C audiences, Black & white for B2B partners and we carefully developed the brand guidelines and a comprehensive style guide, including library of visuals that clearly depicted Peoplecert’s key messages as a business, taking into account the target groups.