How I Rebuilt MCD's Website to Be the Hub of Their Automated Systems
TLDR: I rebuilt MCD's website into a strategic hub that connects all their automations, starting with a brand refresh to clarify their voice and messaging, then building a site that works as hard as their team does.
Hey I'm Hailey,
I'm the founder of Echoroot, where founders, consultants, and small teams come to transform their marketing and workflow systems, reclaim 20+ hours every week, and get back to the work that actually inspired them, without adding to their to-do list or working more hours.
When Dani Hamilton first showed me Missaukee Conservation District's website, she said something I hear from a lot of clients: "We know it needs work, but we just don't have time to deal with it."
Their site had been built years ago. It looked outdated. Navigation was confusing. It wasn't mobile-friendly. SEO was essentially nonexistent.
And most importantly, it wasn't connected to any systems that could help their team work more efficiently.
But here's what most organizations don't realize: your website isn't just a digital brochure.
It's the foundation that makes everything else work.
The contact form automation I built for MCD? The newsletter system? The social media strategy? None of it works without a website that's designed to support it.
So before I could automate anything, we had to rebuild their website from the ground up.
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Why the Website Had to Be a Priority
I've learned over years of doing this work that if your website is confusing, outdated, and disconnected from your systems, automation just makes the mess faster.
MCD needed their website to do three things:
First, clearly communicate who they are and what they do. Their old site had old messaging, unclear program descriptions, and no cohesive brand voice. Visitors couldn't quickly understand what MCD offered or who their programs were for.
Second, capture and route inquiries efficiently. The contact form was nonexistent—just an email address. No way to route people to the right team member. No way to segment by interest. No connection to any tracking system.
Third, serve as the hub for all their automations. Every automated email, every follow-up sequence, every resource, it all needed to link back to a website that could deliver on the promise. If someone clicked a link in an automated email and landed on a confusing page, the whole system breaks down.
So we started with the foundation: their brand.
Starting With Brand Clarity (Not Just Pretty Design)
A lot of consultants would have jumped straight into building a new website. I don't work that way.
Before I write a single headline or design a single page, I need to understand: What's your brand voice? What are your key messages? Who are your audiences and what do they need to hear?
MCD had never documented this. They had a logo and some colors, but no brand voice guidelines, no key messaging framework, no clarity on how to talk about their work to different audiences.
So I started by creating their complete brand guide:
Brand Voice Guidelines: We defined their tone (knowledgeable but approachable, conservation-focused but not preachy), their values, and how they should sound across different contexts.
Key Messaging by Audience: We developed specific messaging for landowners, community members, potential partners, volunteers, and funders. Each audience needed to hear different things about why MCD's work matters.
Visual Identity Refresh: We took their existing logo and colors and expanded it into a complete visual system (typography, photo style, graphic elements) that could work across all their materials.
This brand work wasn't just for the website. It became the foundation for everything.
Their newsletter, social media, email communications, print materials. One cohesive voice across every touchpoint.
"Hailey really helped expand our brand and helped us define our brand voice guidelines and key messaging so we can articulate why our work matters to different stakeholder groups." — Dani Hamilton, District Manager
With brand clarity in place, now we could build a website that actually worked.
The Website Rebuild: What Actually Changed
Let me show you the transformation through before and after.
Before: What Wasn't Working
(Screenshot of their old homepage header)
The Problems:
Outdated design that looked like it was built in 2010
Confusing navigation, visitors couldn't find programs or information easily
Not mobile-friendly (60% of their visitors were on phones)
Slow load times
No clear calls-to-action
Basic contact form with no routing or tracking
Poor or nonexistent SEO
No connection to any backend systems
Content was scattered and hard to find and update
No clear path for different visitor types (landowners vs. community members vs. funders)
No clear way to donate (the donation button was all the way at the bottom)
The Impact:
Visitors left without understanding what MCD offered
Inquiries were vague because the form didn't ask the right questions
The team couldn't update content easily, so information got stale
Local landowners couldn't find them through Google searches
No way to track where inquiries came from or what people were interested in
After: A Strategic Hub That Works
(Screenshot of their new homepage header)
The Transformation:
Clean, modern design that reflects their brand
Intuitive navigation organized by audience need
Fully responsive on all devices
Fast load times
Strategic calls-to-action on every page
Smart contact form that routes and tracks (the automation I wrote about last week)
SEO-optimized for local searches
Integrated with their CRM, email system, and calendar
Easy-to-update content management
Clear pathways for different visitor types
The Impact:
Visitors immediately understand what MCD does and who it's for
Inquiries are qualified and routed automatically
Team can update content in minutes, not hours
Showing up in local Google searches for conservation services
Every inquiry is tracked from first visit to completed project
Professional first impression that builds trust
Get a website like this for your organization
My free mini-course walks through the R.O.O.T Method I use with every client—the strategic approach that transformed MCD's entire marketing and operations. You'll learn how to build marketing and workflow systems that support your work instead of adding to your plate.
The Details That Made the Difference
Let me walk you through some specific strategic decisions that made this website actually work for MCD's team.
1. Audience-Specific Pathways
Instead of one generic homepage for everyone, I created clear entry points for different audiences:
For Landowners: Immediate access to technical assistance information, property assessment details, and case studies of conservation projects
For Community Members: Workshop schedules, education programs, volunteer opportunities, and upcoming events
For Partners/Funders: Impact reports, partnership opportunities, and ways to donate and support MCD's work
Each pathway leads to the right information and the right call-to-action for that audience. No more guessing what they're looking for.
2. SEO Optimization for Local Discovery
MCD serves a specific geographic area. Their old website wasn't showing up when local landowners searched for things like "conservation district near me" or "property erosion help [county name]."
I optimized every page for local search:
Location-specific keywords throughout the content
Proper heading structure
Meta descriptions that include their service area
Alt text on images
Local business schema markup
Google Business Profile integration
3. The Smart Contact Form (Hub of Everything)
This is where the website becomes the foundation for automation. The contact form I built isn't just collecting information, it's the trigger for their entire inquiry management system.
Their contact form automation:
Routes inquiries to the right team member automatically
Adds contacts to the correct CRM pipeline
Triggers personalized email sequences
Integrates with team calendars for scheduling
Tracks every interaction
The website had to support this. Every page has strategic calls-to-action that lead to this form, and every form field is designed to capture the information that makes the automation work.
Steal my inbox automation strategy.
4. Integrated Resource Library
MCD has incredible resources—fact sheets, guides, educational materials—but they were scattered across the website with no way for community members to easily see and access them all.
I built a resource library right into the website:
Organized by topic and audience
Easy filtering and search
Downloadable PDFs
Each download tracked in the CRM (so they know who's interested in what)
This became a lead generation tool. People find resources through Google, download them, and automatically enter MCD's nurture sequences.
5. Program Pages That Convert
Each of MCD's programs (technical assistance, education workshops, kit rentals) got its own dedicated page with:
Clear description of what it is and who it's for
Benefits and outcomes
Success stories and testimonials
Specific call-to-action (schedule consultation, register for workshop, rent a kit)
FAQ section that answers common questions
These pages do the selling, so the team doesn't have to explain the basics over and over.
6. Easy Content Updates
The team isn't technical. They needed to be able to update workshop schedules, add new resources, post news updates, without calling me every time.
I built the site so they can:
Update content with a simple visual editor
Add new events or workshops with a template
Upload resources without touching code
Change images and text on their own
Now the content stays current because the team can actually manage it themselves.
"When she walked us through our new website and how it connects to the automated pipelines, I felt years of frustration go away. I knew immediately after looking over the new website, that it would save our staff so much time and energy. This will allow us to keep our focus on the 'ground' literally and focus on our conservation projects." — Dani Hamilton, District Manager
How the Website Connects to Everything Else
This is where it all comes together. The website isn't just a standalone project, it's the hub that makes everything else possible.
Contact Form → Inquiry Automation: Every inquiry captured on the website triggers the automation system I built (covered in last week's post). Routing, follow-ups, scheduling—all starts with the website form.
Newsletter Signup → Automated Welcome: Newsletter signups on the website trigger a welcome series that introduces MCD's work and invites engagement.
Social Media → Website Traffic: All social media content drives back to the website where the automation takes over (I'll cover their social media system in another blog post).
Event Registration → Event Pipeline: Workshop registration on the website automatically adds people to Erin's Education Programs pipeline and sends confirmation emails, reminders, and follow-ups.
The website is the foundation. Everything else connects to it.
The Results: More Than Just Looking Better
The website transformation happened over 8 weeks. Here's what changed for their team:
Team Efficiency:
Content updates take 10 minutes instead of 2+ hours
No more tech support calls for basic changes
Team confidence in managing their own site
Professional presence that matches the quality of their work
Foundation for Growth:
Can now add new programs without rebuilding
Ready to scale without platform limitations
Systems in place to support future team growth
Data insights they never had before
"Hailey gave us the strategy, the process, and software systems that'll run in the background while we focus on the conservation work that inspired us to do this in the first place." — Dani Hamilton
What Made This Website Actually Work (Key Lessons)
After building dozens of websites for mission-driven organizations, here's what I've learned separates websites that help from websites that just exist:
1. Brand Clarity Must Come First
You can't build an effective website without knowing your brand voice and key messages. The design decisions, the copy, the navigation structure, it all flows from brand clarity.
2. Strategy Before Aesthetics
Pretty doesn't matter if it doesn't work. Every design choice should support a strategic goal: helping visitors find what they need, capturing the right information, moving people toward action.
3. Build for Your Actual Audience
MCD's audience isn't web-savvy. The site needed to be intuitive for people who aren't online all day. Simple navigation. Clear buttons. Obvious next steps.
4. Mobile Is Not Optional
If your site doesn't work on phones, you're losing more than half your visitors. Mobile-first design is the only way.
5. SEO Is Foundation, Not Afterthought
Optimizing for search can't be added later. It has to be built in from the start with proper structure, keywords in content, fast load times, local optimization.
6. Connect to Your Systems
A website that doesn't connect to your CRM, email system, and calendar is a missed opportunity. The integration is where the real efficiency gains happen.
7. Make It Maintainable
If your team can't update the content themselves, it will get stale. The best website is one your team can actually manage without needing a developer every time something changes.
8. Design for Conversion, Not Just Information
Every page should have a clear purpose and a clear next step. What do you want visitors to do? Make it obvious and easy.
Ready to Transform Your Website?
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