The DiMenna Center has welcomed over 100,000 visitors, including more than 400 ensembles and artists such as Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Valery Gergiev, James Taylor, and Sting. The DiMenna Center is NYC’s only acoustically optimized rehearsal and recording space. Committed to serving the musical community and its Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, it hosts hundreds of neighbors, families, and school children each year for free community events.
The target audience of The DiMenna Center is a niche group of touring companies, orchestras, choirs, and musicians who could utilize a variety of spaces. Musicians travel from gig to gig and need a reliable way to book rooms on The DiMenna Center’s website. There was no clear lead generation on their previous website, so it was difficult for visitors to learn about what the space offered and how to inquire about a rental.
The DiMenna Center needed a revised homepage and website refresh to:
- Show off the space’s best features by incorporating social media feeds.
- Deliver a seamless payment system that connects the front and back end.
- Create a lead generation tool where people could look at spaces and book during the same visit.
But that was no problem for us–that’s the core of what e9digital does in UX design for websites. Our designers study the target audience’s mindset to understand what they’re looking for when booking a space–if this isn’t done, then the user will go to a competitor. We implemented our know-how in modern website design to refresh the website and make it easy for any musician, touring company, or orchestra to use it–even those who prefer classical to contemporary!
Visually appealing CTAs increase click-through rates by up to 42%
Increasing lead generation for the rental space was a #1 priority for our website designers, so we sharpened up the homepage to make it possible to request a space as fast as a musician could play four beats. Our website designer added large photos of each available space, using curvature to reflect how each room is acoustically optimized for ideal sound. When the homepage loads, the images shift slightly to give the target audience a complete picture of the spaces. Specs are next to each, including size, capacity, and technical details.
Two critical CTAs accompany the photos to generate leads: the first is “Book” for people in a hurry. This button takes the visitor to the booking inquiry form, a simple two-step form that sends the user’s entry to The DiMenna Center’s internal system. From there, the client services manager will handle the fully executed rental agreement and deposit.
But not everyone wants to book from the homepage–they want the nitty gritty before making such an important decision! The “Learn More” button takes visitors to the interior page about each rental space, which offers more detailed technical specs, architectural drawings, and social media posts to see the center in action.
61% of website visitors will leave a site if they can’t find what they’re looking for in five seconds
But users will have no treble finding anything on The DiMenna Center’s new website. With e9digital’s refresh, the navigation and homepage make it easy for busy musicians to find important details. Good UX design starts at the top: the menu features two drop-downs that double as CTAs. The user is invited to “view capabilities” and “explore spaces,” both of which generate leads. The drop-downs feature inviting images of potential events that can be booked at The DiMenna Center and the available spaces. When the cursor hovers over the image, it turns from black and white to color for an inviting action.
The key detail of the site was to make it easy for people to book a space so that CTA is bright orange at the top right of the screen. When the user hovers over, it turns orange to blue, creating a clean, seamless invitation to move forward.
Our website designer then refreshed the elements on the homepage, crafting small details related to music and sound to keep the theme of the site top of mind. Circles outline the hero CTA to feel like a reverberation. Sound patterns were added to the background. Capabilities are highlighted with a stacked stairstep approach and a review from famous violinist Joshua Bell–if that won’t convince a classical musician, we don’t know what will!
“I love the way you framed the photos in the activities section. I think it’s very cool and interesting. It draws me from left to right and feels like something is happening. So funny how the shape of a picture can evoke these things but it really does.” – Alex Johnston, Director | DiMenna Center for Classical Music
Composing a website symphony on any budget
“Everything looks wonderful, and your designer was extraordinarily helpful and responsive making tweaks and last-minute updates over the last few weeks as we geared up for our public launch. We’re a pretty tiny company competing with some of the largest arts organizations in the country, and having a partnership with a great digital agency like yours is such a boon to us. Thank you again for your work and for keeping it budgetarily possible for us to develop our sites so nicely!” - Stephen Litner, Vice President of Marketing and Communications | Orchestra of St. Luke’s
No matter how creative or technical, every business requires lead generation to profit. Using UX best practices to showcase the gorgeous spaces, The DiMenna Center’s website has a seamless experience for the user from the moment they land on the page to the finalization of the booking.
If you need a clean, modern website design to generate leads in a niche industry, contact e9digital today to learn how our designers can refresh your homepage to make music to your target audience’s ears!
