Education

Extra Credit: How Guild Increased Engagement by 42% With Storyblok

Headquarters: Denver, Colorado, USA
Technology: Storyblok, Vercel, Segment, Fingerprint, Hubspot, VWO, Algolia, Common Room, Calibermind

42% increase in engagement YOY
27 efficiently redesigned modules
1,000+ pages migrated

Guild is a leading education benefits management company that facilitates strategic workforce development, helping employers provide meaningful education and upskilling to their employees.

As Guild expanded their presence in the market in 2023, the company started to feel their brittle CMS crack beneath them. The poorly implemented, scaling-resistant headless WordPress setup was holding them back: losing leads, preventing innovation, and stifling strategic adjustments.

Fortunately, with some tutoring from the experts at 9thCO (opens in a new window), Guild revolutionized their online presence. With their move to Storyblok, they unlocked a flexible, adaptive approach that could finally match their enterprise-level requirements.

How Guild Rebuilt Its Web Experience for Agility and Scale

In this JoyConf interview, Michele talks about Guild’s migration to Storyblok, the importance of cross-functional planning, and the results that followed.

Michele Bitinis — Senior Web Strategy Manager at Guild

Jawaad Qureshi — Account Manager at Storyblok

“Two people sit in armchairs recording a podcast-style conversation in a relaxed café setting. The man on the left has dark hair and a beard and is wearing glasses, a blazer, and a light blue shirt while speaking into a microphone. The woman on the right has short brown hair and is wearing a denim jacket, a green patterned shirt, and light pants, responding into another microphone. A small round table with cups of water sits between them, with shelves, plants, and a plush dog toy in the background.

The Problem: Big Plans, Brittle CMS

Guild was trying to build market presence on a faulty foundation: headless WordPress (opens in a new window). Though it’s often advertised as an enterprise-level solution, Guild wasn’t getting the support they needed. The setup was inflexible, underpowered, and an overall bad fit. Other roadblocks included:

Bloated backend code impacting loading times
Unnecessarily complicated workarounds affecting performance
Lack of functional content modeling

With a CMS that couldn’t rise to their level, the Guild team felt increasingly stuck. They couldn’t properly expand, adapt their strategy, or scale effectively like in a true headless CMS (opens in a new window).

We couldn't build new modules quickly. We couldn't meet the market. Our competitors were starting to gain an advantage over us. And the first thing that came out of that needs assessment was – WordPress isn't going to cut it anymore.

Michele Bitinis, Senior Web Strategy Manager at Guild

Guild needed a system that could support their goals. They needed to increase their leads, increase engagement, and improve the user experience for everyone involved. Senior Web Strategy Manager Michele Bitinis kicked off a comprehensive needs assessment with internal stakeholders. With the team’s sights set on scaling reach and moving quickly, they created a CMS wishlist:

The potential to easily expand as product offerings grew
A flexible, adaptive system with strategy and long-term development in mind
Better performance and accessibility for all

The Fix: Storyblok Earns the A+

With help from 9thCO, the team assessed their wishlist and landed on their perfect fit: Storyblok. After managing a complex 1,000+ page migration, they were able to develop a functional content modeling strategy that catered to Guild’s unique needs and fit perfectly within Storyblok’s flexible schema.

We needed something that's highly flexible, adaptable, easy for content creators to build pages in, and easy for us to manage our content governance. And when we went out and looked in the market for what CMS was going to meet our needs, Storyblok was hands down the best solution for us.

Michele Bitinis, Senior Web Strategy Manager at Guild

The Guild team soon discovered that Storyblok provided all the functionality they needed without sacrificing ease of use or agility. Even non-technical users can adapt and change custom modules. Now, every team member is free to continuously innovate as business strategies evolve.

The Results: Content Valedictorians

Once the site went live, it quickly became apparent that Guild had aced the test:

A 42% increase in engagement rate
Greatly reduced time to completion, even with 27 custom modules, thanks to how easy devs could build and launch them with Storyblok
A fast, scalable system that could keep up with their growth ambitions
Improved performance, loading speeds, and accessibility
Better cross-functional teamwork, especially for non-technical users
An easier, faster editing experience

With a little help from Storyblok and 9thCO, Guild is finally working with a system that can support their drive and ambition.

It's just a phenomenal experience with Storyblok, start to finish.

Michele Bitinis, Senior Web Strategy Manager at Guild