CRA

The greatest challenge facing CRA was an awareness problem beyond their local community.

Most people in their small town of Dalton knew the CRA well, but anyone outside of that town either thought you needed to be a Dalton resident, didn't know much about them, or had never heard of them at all.

Pittsfield, the largest city in the Berkshires, is only minutes away, yet the CRA had relatively few Pittsfield members. This untapped potential represented a significant opportunity for growth.

Our challenge was to create a brand identity, messaging, and a new website that would increase awareness beyond Dalton, clarify that everyone is welcome regardless of residence, and showcase their extensive program offerings in a user-friendly way.

Our discovery process began with facilitated sessions to uncover CRA's true identity and the community they serve.

Through these sessions, we identified key brand attributes that define CRA's culture: welcoming, family-focused, inclusive, safe, and dedicated. Their voice emerged as energetic, helpful, accepting, and nurturing, while their impact centers on building community, providing opportunities, and creating meaningful experiences.

To better understand their audience, we developed detailed patron profiles, including a "Young Pittsfield Mom" with children of different ages trying to balance work and family time, and a "Dalton Teen" new to the community looking to make connections. These profiles helped us create targeted messaging that would resonate with different segments of their potential membership base.

The red thread connecting everything was clear—CRA is here to build relationships and foster community through recreation, creating a safe, welcoming space for people of all ages and backgrounds. This understanding became the foundation for everything that followed.

One of the most significant challenges was organizing CRA's extensive program offerings in a user-friendly way.

We designed the website with a mobile-first approach, ensuring visitors could access everything they needed directly from the homepage. Programs were logically separated into Youth Programs and Adult Programs, making it easy for different audiences to find relevant options.

The menu was greatly simplified from their previous site, and special attention was given to accessibility for those with vision and physical disabilities. Every page was carefully written to provide clear information about how to join, what membership includes, and program details.

The design balances vibrant visual elements with clean, functional layouts that prioritize ease of use and information discovery.

Previously, CRA was generating static PDFs to provide their program and class schedules—a process that was difficult to maintain and keep current.

We developed a custom WordPress solution that eliminated these inefficiencies. Using a custom post type called 'programs' combined with custom taxonomies, we created a dynamic program listing system that's both easy to manage on the backend and intuitive for visitors to navigate.

Each program area, like Aquatics, now features a filterable program list where visitors can quickly sort offerings by day of the week or program type. This system makes it simple for parents to find age-appropriate classes, fitness enthusiasts to locate specific workout sessions, and new members to explore the full range of CRA's offerings.

For CRA staff, updating program information is now a streamlined process that ensures website visitors always see the most current schedules, descriptions, and availability—eliminating the need to recreate and upload PDF schedules whenever changes occur.

Having never engaged in marketing before, CRA needed a robust SEO plan to increase their digital visibility.

We developed an extensive SEO blueprint that focused on seven key program areas: Exercise classes, Fitness center, Pickleball, Pool & swimming, Preschool, Summer camp, and Youth sports.

For each page of the website, we created a structured approach with carefully researched URLs, H1 headings, keyword lists, and meta descriptions. We targeted geographical phrases like "Berkshire County," "Central Berkshires," and "near Pittsfield" to help regional searchers find CRA.

This comprehensive approach ensures that whether someone is searching for "community center," "recreation center," or specific programs in the Berkshires, CRA will be more visible in search results.

While the new brand and website have only recently launched, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

The CRA now has a professional, cohesive brand presence that accurately reflects their values and services. The website provides a user-friendly platform that effectively showcases their extensive program offerings to both the Dalton community and the broader Berkshire region.

As the SEO strategy takes effect and awareness grows, the CRA is positioned to welcome more members from neighboring communities, particularly Pittsfield. The infrastructure is now in place to support their growth and help them fulfill their mission of building relationships and fostering community through recreation.

In the coming months, metrics from Google Search Console will provide quantitative data on the impact of these changes, but the immediate qualitative feedback suggests a bright future for this vital community organization.