HAAPI, tripling member growth with a bilingual digital rebuild.
A Bay Area AAPI community organization had a warm in-person community and a cold digital presence. SEOD delivered a brand-forward site, a member-acquisition funnel, and a dual-language content program. Applications tripled; events doubled.
The client.
HAAPI is a Bay Area community organization serving Asian-American and Pacific Islander professionals through networking events, mentorship, and cultural programming. A strong in-person community, a lukewarm digital presence.
What was broken.
The website looked like it was built in 2014 (because it was). Member applications were a three-page form that routed to a Google Sheet nobody checked. Event RSVPs went through Eventbrite with no way to nurture attendees into members. The organization served a bilingual community, but every piece of content was English-only.
What we changed.
1. Brand-forward website rebuild.
New design system built around the community's visual identity. Fast, mobile-first, photo-heavy, because the community is gorgeous and the old site buried that. Member benefits crystal clear on the homepage.
2. Member-acquisition funnel.
One-page application replacing the three-page form. Thank-you email with onboarding video. New-member orientation automation. Member dashboard linking to exclusive content. Application-to-active-member conversion up significantly.
3. Events as member recruitment.
Integrated ticketing with member data capture. Post-event drip campaign inviting attendees to full membership. Events stopped being one-off revenue and became a pipeline.
4. Bilingual content program.
Every new piece of content produced in English and Korean. Member stories, cultural features, event recaps. The community started sharing the content widely because it finally felt like theirs.
SEOD understood the community we serve. Eric himself is bilingual and the bilingual content program he designed reached members we hadn't been able to reach before.
, Executive Director, HAAPI
The takeaway.
Community organizations serving multilingual communities lose members when their digital presence only speaks one language. We fixed that. Membership up YoY, event attendance doubled, content in the languages the community actually speaks.
Let's talk about your business.
Ten-minute call. Free. If SEOD isn't the right fit for you, Eric will tell you straight.
87% of clients renew at month 6. Most see traction inside 90 days.