TM Website — 2026-04-20 Decisions

Two Noella calls on 2026-04-20 locked structural decisions for the website redesign. This doc captures all 16 areas.

Calls: 2 sessions (morning + afternoon) Attendees: Sandeep, Noella Status: Locked Owner: tm-cmo

Overview

Structural locks from two sessions with Noella on 2026-04-20. Positioning (v2, locked 2026-04-16) remains unchanged. This doc patches nav, case studies, priorities, CTA language, and adds the 3-question page framework.

Source of truth chain: Positioning v2 → positioning/positioning-v2.md. Messaging v2 (updated today) → messaging/messaging-framework-v2.md. IA + nav (this doc's content) → decisions/2026-04-20-website-messaging.md. URL structure + CPT + redirects → Slack canvas F0AMPGYNRSR.
Go-live gate (this week): Homepage + Case Studies archive + Ashoka case study + ILA case study + About.

2. CTA Label Changed

BeforeStart a Project
AfterBook a Discovery Call
Why: "Start a Project" is transactional. "Book a Discovery Call" is consultative — matches the senior-consulting-team voice in v2 positioning. Considered "Work With Us" too; discovery call won out.

3. "Solutions, Not Services" New

Solutions = services + tools + workflows. Footer only. Industry-agnostic.
  • Where: Footer column (renamed from "Services" to "Solutions"). Not in primary nav.
  • Why "Solutions" over "Services": Solutions signals investment in client outcomes. Services sounds transactional.
  • Industry-agnostic: Solutions pages detail capabilities + outcomes. Industry-specific LPs (University, Schools) link to them for deeper detail.

Existing pages affected

These stay at current URLs (SEO value), get re-labeled "Solutions" in the footer, and get re-framed in copy as industry-agnostic capability pages:

  • /marketing-communication-strategy/
  • /ai-marketing-automation/
  • /digital-campaign-management/
  • /website-optimisation/
  • /digital-marketing-automation/
Future-state: A "Marketing Intelligence + Research" solutions page is planned — packaged as a standalone offering, linked from relevant industry LPs.

4. Industry Pages — Stay for SEO Reaffirmed

  • Life Sciences — stays live, no copy changes, no nav placement
  • IT Services & MSPs — same treatment
Purpose: Organic search discovery only. Not marketed to actively.

5. Case Study Version Strategy New

Each case study (ILA, Ashoka, future) exists in multiple written versions. Each version plays a distinct channel role.

v1+v2
Narrative + Outcomes-at-a-glance
Website case study page /case-studies/{slug}/
v3
Playbook format
Lead-gen asset (gated) — schools variant + universities variant
v4
Channel + campaign breakdown
Blog post on /blog/
v5
Proposal format
Client proposals (not published publicly)
v6
Short-form highlights
LinkedIn / social media

Source docs

Grammarly rule: Use Grammarly's AI + plagiarism detection on every AI-generated version before publishing.

6. Ashoka University — Now Named Changed

Before (March 19) "A leading private university" — anonymized. Metrics only, no name/logo.
URL: /case-studies/leading-private-university/
After (April 20) Ashoka University — named, testimonial to come.
URL: /case-studies/ashoka-university/

Testimonial plan

Reach out to Jasrita (Head of Brand & Marketing at Ashoka) — senior stakeholder preferred over operational contact.

Publishing priority

Ashoka first (ahead of ILA). The University LP already has an embedded case study section, but the case study page itself is currently unlinked — fixing this is a quick-win conversion lift.

Rationale: No explicit instruction from Ashoka prohibiting name use was ever received. Proceeding with named publication.

7. Updated Page Priorities Changed

P1 — Launch gate

  • Homepage (full rewrite)
  • Case Studies archive /case-studies/
  • About (refresh)
  • Ashoka CS (NEW, named)
  • ILA CS (NEW, named)

P2 — Next phase

  • Education parent (reframe)
  • University LP (rewrite)
  • Halo SEO (align to v2)
  • Explorers Lab CS (update)
  • Content Engine (NEW, from staging)

P3 — Later

  • Schools LP (deferred)
  • AI Tools index (deferred)
  • Non-profit CS redirect
Go-live gate: Homepage + Case Studies archive + Ashoka CS + ILA CS + About — target this week.

8. Case Study Page Templates

Two WordPress templates required:

  1. Archive page /case-studies/ — listing view with filters
  2. Single case study post template — reused automatically for every new entry

Handoff: Noella designs both (HTML) → Provine (developer) builds WordPress templates. Final Ashoka + ILA content lives in shared Google Doc (separate tabs).

9. Research-Led Strategy Confirmed

  • Lead with research, not lead-gen tactics.
  • Full research report = FREE asset (not gated, not paid). Distribution + thought leadership outweigh lead-capture value at this stage.
  • Newsletter subscription remains on research pages.
  • Ranking tool report card remains email-gated.
Reversal: March 19 plan was to gate the full report in two locations (deep-dive pages + pillar page). April 20 overrides: keep the full report free.

10. University Ranking Tool — CTA Library New

CTA options (rotate across placements — don't use same copy everywhere)

Top"Benchmark your university's digital visibility"
Top"Compare your institution's digital performance"
"Get your institution's visibility report"
"See where your university stands across search and AI"

Placement map (ranking tool needs more visibility)

HomepageBeat 3 — secondary CTA in research credibility section
Education parentEmbedded in "Why Thrivemattic"
University LPInline CTA in research proof section
Research deep-divesClosing CTA on every page
Research pillarProminent alongside the reports
Ashoka + ILA case studies"See where YOUR institution stands" — cross-sell
FooterUnder Resources column

11. Three-Question Page Framework New

Every page must answer three questions, in order. Ensures messaging consistency across industries without narrowing the site.

Q1
What problem are we solving?
Q2
What is the credibility of our solution? (proof, methodology, research, case study)
Q3
What is the next step for the visitor? (CTA matched to the tier)

12. Homepage ↔ University LP Differentiation

Concern raised: Current messaging framework has too much overlap between homepage and University LP at the page-level-guidance layer. Both lead with research + outcomes.
Homepage Broad, category-led.
"Growth systems for institutions where trust matters."
Leaves room for schools + other industries to enter without narrowing the frame.
University LP Narrow, vertical-pain-led.
"Admissions on Google Forms." "Branded search losing to Shiksha and Collegedunia."
194-university research as direct proof.

Both use the same case studies, but the homepage cards read as category proof while the University LP cards read as peer proof.

13. Proof Point Distribution

  • Case studies = narrative + outcomes (the storytelling vehicle).
  • Metrics distributed across pages — not concentrated in a single "proof points" block.
  • Each metric appears where it's most relevant to the page's problem statement.
  • Proof-point library in messaging framework §5 stays as inventory; page copy pulls from it surgically.

Scenario-based proof pattern

Where appropriate, frame a proof point as: specific market challenge → what the research or work did about it.

Example: "35% of universities are losing branded search traffic to aggregators. Our team's technical audits have identified the exact schema and content gaps causing this — and fixed them across 200+ pages for an 18-month Ashoka engagement."

14. Website Development Workflow

  • Main site (multi-page): ChatGPT/Claude generates HTML referencing tm-brand GitHub repo → Ranjith implements in WordPress.
  • Single-page tools/apps: Host on GitHub Pages (static HTML/CSS/JS). WordPress is inappropriate for flat single-page projects.
  • tm-brand GitHub repo is now canonical for: glossary, TM Tagger, brand principles, tropes.md (anti-patterns for AI writing).
  • Prompt rule: Every ChatGPT instance for TM content should pull latest from the GitHub repo and include "ask me questions for clarity" as a standing instruction.

15. Speed-Launch Website Offering (Exploratory)

Karan's concept: a productised speed-launch website service using the team's WordPress code knowledge (instead of off-the-shelf themes). Potential for faster delivery + lower cost + fewer theme-induced technical issues.

Status: Worth exploring. Not scoped in current website redesign. Park for separate discussion.

Airbnb-style platform inquiry

Noella received an inbound for an Airbnb-style space-rental platform with a backend dashboard. Uncertain whether WordPress fits — likely not for the backend dashboard. Action: Review the brief jointly to decide if Thrivemattic/Pixelmattic can deliver.

16. Next Steps

  1. Sandeep — consolidate messaging framework + IA canvases, add to TM brand folder, upload to GitHub, work on homepage.
  2. Noella — finalize case study templates (archive listing + post template), design both.
  3. HTML + final case study content → prepared and handed to Provine.
  4. Target: Case studies + homepage live within the week.
  5. Wednesday (in-person) — walk through HTML-to-WordPress workflow using the case study redesign as a live experiment.
  6. Follow-up meeting — Wednesday, review homepage and finalize outstanding items before pushing live.
Related docs:
• Full decision log (Markdown): tm-cmo/decisions/2026-04-20-website-messaging.md
• IA v2 addendum (patched today): tm-cmo/decisions/ia-v2-addendum.md
• Messaging framework v2 (patched today): tm-cmo/messaging/messaging-framework-v2.md
• AI language audit review (2026-04-18): tm-cmo/research/ai-language-audit-review-2026-04-18.html