Women in Seafood

Client: Women in Seafood Australasia (WISA)
Agency: Marketeam, Brisbane
Website: womeninseafood.org.au
Platform: Joomla

Project overview

Women in Seafood Australasia is the only national organisation in Australia representing women working across the seafood industry. Their purpose: to champion an inclusive industry with diverse voices for a thriving seafood sector.

WISA approached Marketeam to design and build a refreshed website that would better serve its national membership base, clearly communicate their mission and programs, facilitate member engagement and provide a platform to support their advocacy, networks and learning initiatives.

Key goals included:

• Creating a strong visual identity aligned to their purpose of empowerment and connection.
• Making membership processes and resources easy to access (events calendar, research reports, key programs).
• Ensuring the site is fully responsive (mobile / tablet) since members are dispersed across Australia and New Zealand.
• Providing the client with a content-managed system so WISA could update events, news, member resources themselves.
• Improving the organisation’s digital presence so they could serve as a credible national voice for women in the seafood industry.

Challenges & key requirements

Brand & audience: WISA serves a diverse membership — women working on boats, farms, in processing, research, policy. The site needed to reflect that diversity, while also signalling leadership, professional development, advocacy and inclusion.

Content variety: The organisation had a wide range of content types — membership information, research reports, events, programs like Turn the Tide, workshops, member testimonials, honour roll. Consolidating and structuring that content for readability was key.

Engagement & conversion: The website needed to convert visitors into members, showcase benefits of membership and provide clear pathways to join or engage. For example, WISA membership is open to women and men engaged in the seafood industry across Australia, NZ and Pacific.

Responsive & efficient: With many users accessing via mobile (in remote, field or vessel-work contexts), optimised responsiveness and fast load times were crucial. Also, WISA needed to own and manage the site content easily.

Our approach

Discovery & planning:

We held workshops with WISA stakeholders to clarify user personas (eg, seafood industry female professional, woman on-vessel, research partner, regional member), key messages (empower, connect, lead), site map (about us, membership, programs, research, events, resources).

We also audited existing content and defined a new structure.

Design:

• Developed a visual concept reflecting empowerment, unity and the seafood industry — imagery of women in seafood roles, clean typography, palette suggestive of the ocean/industry context.
• Created wireframes and prototypes emphasising clear navigation: “Become a member”, “Events calendar”, “Key programs”, “Research & resources”.
• Ensured the homepage hero message immediately communicated WISA’s mission: “Raising the profile of women in the seafood industry” and supporting tagline.

Development:

• Built on the Joomla CMS (content management system) allowing WISA team to easily add/edit pages, upload reports, manage news/events.
• Integrated membership information, calls-to-action, event calendar feed.
• Developed a responsive layout for desktop, tablet, mobile, tested across devices and major browsers.
• Implemented clean URL structure, image optimisation, accessibility best practices and SEO fundamentals so that WISA could grow its visibility.
• Provided training to the WISA team so they could own and manage the site post-launch.

Content & launch:

• Worked with WISA to refine content: membership benefits, honour roll, governance info, research projects. For example, WISA’s history and transition to a Company Limited by Guarantee in 2022 was clearly detailed.
• Pre-launch QA included testing forms (membership sign-up, contact), event calendar links, mobile usability, page speed.
• After launch, we monitored launch metrics and provided minor refinements based on user feedback.

Key features & highlights

• Hero banner and mission statement: Immediately sets out WISA’s purpose and vision — “Women are recognised as valued and equal contributors to the Australasian seafood industry.”
• Clear membership pathway: A prominent “Become a Member” CTA, plus pages explaining membership benefits, eligibility, and onboarding steps.
• Programs & resources section: Site includes dedicated sections for key initiatives like Turn the Tide, Stronger Together, Weaving Connection, Conversations that Count.
• Events calendar feed: Users can view upcoming workshops, networking events, courses — supporting WISA’s community-building mission.
• Research library & downloads: The website hosts downloadable reports (eg. FRDC-funded research into women’s participation) and links to webinars.
• Governance & transparency: The site presents WISA’s governance structure, history, vision and values which strengthens credibility.
• Responsive design & CMS access: Enables WISA’s team to keep content fresh, update events, upload new reports and manage membership-related content without requiring full redevelopment each time.

Outcome & results

• The new WISA website launched successfully, delivering a modern and professional digital platform that aligns with the organisation’s mission and serves its national membership.
• WISA now has improved ability to communicate its purpose, deliver its programs and engage its community online.
• The client team now owns their website content and management processes — reducing reliance on external development for routine updates.
• The site forms a strong foundation for future digital engagement: leveraging online events, membership sign-up and resources distribution.

Lessons & take-aways

• Clarity of purpose drives design: With a mission-driven organisation like WISA, keeping the user journey simple (“Who we are” → “Why join” → “How to engage”) helps reduce friction.
• Diverse audience, unified message: Serving women across many roles and geographies demands inclusive imagery, accessible language and a flexible content model.
• Client ownership is key: Building in the CMS and training for WISA ensures the platform remains up-to-date, relevant and resilient.
• Future-proofing matters: Designing for scale — research library, event streams, membership growth — means the site can adapt as WISA expands its programs and reach.
• Trust & credibility through transparency: Presenting governance, history, values helps build authority for a not-for-profit organisation.

Next steps

With the site live, recommended next phases include:

• Analytics tracking and conversion optimisation (monitor membership sign-ups, event engagement).
• Enhanced content marketing: blog posts or member stories spotlighting women in seafood to drive traffic and engagement.
• Integrating member-only features (eg. members-only resources, forums, mentoring platforms).
• Regular CMS check-ins/training to ensure WISA’s team are comfortable with updates and workflow.
• Explore multi-media (video, webinars) integration to support WISA’s leadership and learning programs.

Click here to visit the Women in Seafood website >>