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Optimizing the Marketing Website for Agility and Performance

Next.JS

Headless

Performance Optimization

Encoura serves over 2,000 higher education institutions with advanced solutions in research, data science, recruitment, and marketing. However, to stay competitive, they needed a technology upgrade. That’s where we stepped in, migrating their website to a new tech stack and creating a more flexible content management system.

Market

USA

Industry

Enterprise

Service

Performance Optimization, MIgration to Headless

Time

1 year, ongoing

encoura

About Encoura

Encoura is a top provider of data solutions for higher education, helping colleges and universities improve recruitment, marketing, and decision-making. Their platform combines research, data insights, and technology to support over 2,000 institutions.


By offering practical tools and insights, they help schools reach enrollment targets and better connect with students.

Stay Competitive and Secure a Market-Leading Position

Despite their market leadership and advanced solutions, Encoura faced a significant challenge–their legacy content management system was no longer current. It made efficient marketing content creation and management difficult.


As the need for flexibility grew, they recognized that a technology update was essential to staying competitive.

Why Outsourcing Was the Right Choice

Although Encoura employs UX designers, researchers, and front-end developers for their product, they had limited resources dedicated to the marketing site transformation. Also, building a dedicated frontend team was not a viable option for them.


Instead, outsourcing this work was the best option, letting them focus on their main business while upgrading their platform.

Migrating to a Headless CMS for Greater Flexibility

Encoura’s content system was limiting their ability to update and organize their website efficiently. To resolve this, we migrated their site to a headless CMS.

Encoura's new website built with new, headless content management system

The new infrastructure significantly sped up development. Building new pages and functionalities now takes just 1-2 hours instead of several days, and deploying sites using existing content and components takes only minutes.

Also, with scheduling capabilities in Builder.io (the new CMS), marketing teams can plan content updates and website changes in advance. This ensures seamless launches and coordinated marketing campaigns without technical support.

Optimizing Code for a Better Performance

The outdated codebase was another challenge that slowed down the website and its scalability. To solve this, we optimized the existing code and restructured it to fit modern web standards.

This upgrade improved site performance and prepared the platform for future growth and updates. As a result, Encoura’s website became faster and offered a smoother user experience.

Implementing Advanced Search Functionality

One of the key requirements was enhancing the site’s usability through advanced search capabilities. We introduced an optimized search feature that allows users to easily find relevant content, whether it’s blog posts, research papers, or webinars.

Encoura's new advanced search functionality

The upgraded search made it easier for users to access Encoura’s content, strengthening their support for higher education institutions.


Automating Support for Modern Image Formats

Encoura’s website struggled with handling modern media formats, impacting the visual quality and performance of the site. We automated the support for modern image formats, ensuring that content not only loads faster but also looks visually appealing.

Support for new media formats on Encoura's website

This optimization resulted in a more polished and professional appearance for the website, which helps strengthen Encoura’s digital presence and reputation.

RESULTS

Encoura, a platform supporting over 2,000 higher education institutions, needed to modernize their outdated content management system for better performance and content management on their marketing website.


With Blazity’s help, they migrated to a headless CMS, optimized their code, and introduced advanced search functionality.


These improvements enhanced user experience, site performance, and content flexibility, enabling Encoura to better serve their audience.

Reduced development time for new pages and functionalities from several days to 1-2 hours.

Marketing teams can now schedule content updates and website changes without technical support.

Boosted user engagement through advanced search functionality.

Increased site performance and visual quality by automating support for modern image formats.

Improved load times and scalability with optimized code.

"Blazity not only helped us successfully modernize our marketing website technology, they also improved website performance and boosted engagement across the site. Their team was responsive and supportive, helping us follow agile methodology to manage the project on time and on budget."
Andrew Swenson
Andrew Swenson
Sr. Director of Creative & Digital Marketing