The Challenge

THEIMDA’s previous website was built as a standard WordPress site with membership functionality bolted on rather than designed in. Partners had no way to manage their own listings, so every image swap, offer change, or content update had to be routed through an administrator. Partner pages themselves were mixed in with general site content, with no dedicated directory structure, making the partner offering hard to browse and even harder to maintain. Members were managed through WordPress’s native user list, a system never designed for tracking membership tiers, renewal dates, or targeted communications. As the organisation grew, these limitations became a genuine operational bottleneck.

The Approach

Rather than patch the existing site, we rebuilt THEIMDA from the ground up as a purpose-built membership and partner platform, now live in staging at imda.themarketinghub.net. The rebuild was structured around four core systems that needed to work together seamlessly: membership, partners, events, and jobs.

Membership System

At the heart of the new site is a dedicated member dashboard, separate from the WordPress admin entirely. Members sign up and pay via Stripe, with recurring annual billing handled automatically rather than manually chased each year. Behind the scenes, a purpose-built member list replaces the old WordPress user table, storing membership status and additional data needed for the organisation’s bulk email system — so communications can be segmented and targeted properly for the first time.

The membership tier itself now drives content: paying members see platinum partner offers, while non-paying members see the standard offer set. This gives THEIMDA a genuine incentive layer for membership upgrades, built directly into the browsing experience rather than managed as an afterthought.

Partner System

Partners were the area most in need of reform. Each partner now has their own signup flow and a dedicated dashboard where they can independently update their page — adding images and video, editing content, and managing their own offers — without needing an administrator to intervene. Partner pages are pulled into a proper category-based directory, giving visitors a structured way to browse partners rather than hunting through general site pages.

Administrators retain full oversight, with backend access to every partner profile so they can step in and make changes directly when a partner needs support. This balances partner independence with the ability for THEIMDA to maintain quality and assist less tech-confident partners.

Events System

Admins can create events directly through the platform, with members booking on through their dashboard. Tickets are emailed automatically on booking and also saved to the member’s dashboard, so there’s always a record they can return to — removing the need for members to hunt through their inbox before an event.

Jobs System

Members can list job openings themselves, and candidates browsing the site can view these listings and contact the relevant member directly by email, attaching a CV or requesting more information. This turns the site into a genuine recruitment channel for members, adding a tangible membership benefit that didn’t exist before.

The Result

The rebuild replaces four previously disconnected, admin-dependent workflows with a single, self-service platform. Partners manage their own presence. Members get a real dashboard for payments, tickets, and renewals. Admins retain control without being a bottleneck. And the underlying membership data is now structured well enough to power targeted email campaigns rather than a flat WordPress user list.

The result is a site that scales with THEIMDA’s membership rather than requiring more administrative hours as it grows.