All work

Paper sign-in sheets out. 287% more members.

Over 50 years of supporting parents and playgroups, with membership forms still typed in by hand. Now families can find their nearest playgroup themselves.

Client
Project lead
Sophie CostelloAI & Digital Strategist
Industry
Early childhood and parent support
Platform
HubSpot CRM, CMS, Marketing, Sales and Service
Connected
Shopify, Zapier, SimplyBook.me and more
Data model
10 custom objects
Memberships287%Increase since the digital tools launched
Family memberships22,500Created online, where up to 6,500 forms a year were typed in by hand
Website visits835,000+Parents finding play experiences on the new site

01 The briefA new website for the rebrand, a tool for finding and attending playgroup sessions, a CRM for parents, children, members, organisers and groups, and members-only portals, all on HubSpot.

02 The problem

A much loved service, run on paper and typing.

Play Matters Australia has helped parents and carers support their children through play for over 50 years. Much of that happens at playgroups: regular meetings of parents and carers with their children aged 0 to 5.

The service was loved, but the systems behind it had not kept up. The old website meant up to 6,500 membership forms a year were entered by hand, which cost staff a lot of time, slowed everything down and let errors into the data. Attendance at sessions was taken on paper sheets.

With the data in that state, managing the organisation and reporting on it was hard, and growth stalled. Play Matters needed a new look for its rebrand, members able to register for their groups' events, portals for members of different levels, and reporting it could trust.

It stayed that way because the data was more complicated than a website form. A family is a parent and children, a playgroup has sessions, and memberships come in several types, some expiring on a child's sixth birthday. Holding that needed a CRM built on custom objects, and a website that could read from them.

What changed for the team

The jobBeforeOn HubSpot
Membership formsUp to 6,500 a year, keyed in by handEntered by the member and bought through Shopify
Session attendancePaper sign-in sheetsRSVP and check-in on the website
Playgroup pages700+ pages to update one at a timeOne dynamic page for every playgroup
ReportingHard to produceReports on every custom object
03 What we built

Four builds, one set of records.

The CRM uses 10 custom objects alongside contacts, deals, products and tickets. A custom object is a record type built for the business, here playgroups, sessions, suburbs, attendees, children and families, and every part of the website reads from them.

Four sub-projects, all built on the same HubSpot portal
Build 01

The public website

Built on HubSpot CMS from designs for the new brand.

  • Over 110 pages across the site and portals
  • Dynamic pages reading up to 4 custom objects at once
  • Downloadable content and online training
  • Userway, Zapier, SimplyBook.me and more connected
Build 02

Search and attendance

Find a playgroup, register, and attend, all run through HubSpot.

  • Search by suburb, ranked by distance
  • One dynamic page for every playgroup
  • Upcoming sessions on each page
  • RSVP and attendance numbers for the facilitator
Build 03

The CRM

Parents, children, members, organisers and groups, with marketing on top.

  • Data migrated and cleaned
  • 10 custom objects, each with its own associations
  • Memberships bought through Shopify
  • Expiry dates set by automation
Build 04

Members-only portals

Private sub-sites, open only to specific member types.

  • HubSpot's registration tools
  • Several portals by member level
  • Group management pages for staff
How a parent finds and joins a playgroup
The Play Matters search and attendance tool, from a suburb search to a new attendee A visitor searches by suburb. Playgroups are ranked by distance, and a result opens a dynamic playgroup page that lists its upcoming sessions. The sign-up form creates an attendee for someone who has been before, and for a new family it creates the family and children records as well. Suburb The visitor's search A custom object Playgroups Results by distance from that suburb Playgroup page One dynamic page for 700+ groups Sign-up form Short or detailed, by attendance history Sessions Each group's upcoming meetings Attendee For someone who has been before New family Family and children records created finds opens joins shown on returning first time

Every box is a HubSpot record or a page that reads one. The group's facilitator sees the RSVP and attendance numbers in reporting.

Over 700 playgroups, and one page that shows every one.

Neighbourhood

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A child's hands pressing into bright coloured jelly in a tray on a red play mat
Play Matters Australia
04 How we ran it

Planned in Miro, then taught to the team.

A new website, a new CRM, new marketing tools and new processes to run them, all at once. So the planning came first and the training was built in.

Step 01

Plan with everyone involved

Sessions with Play Matters and its external contractors on the site structure, and with the developers of its CompanyOS system so the right information was captured. The member's journey to buying and activating a membership was drawn up in Miro.

Site structureCompanyOSMiro
Step 02

Build the CRM on custom objects

Ten custom objects working with the marketing tools, each with its own associations, then the data migrated in and cleaned.

10 custom objectsData migrationAssociations
Step 03

Build over 110 pages

The public site and the private sub-sites on HubSpot CMS, with dynamic pages showing staff what they need to manage groups and showing each visitor what belongs to their playgroup.

HubSpot CMSDynamic pagesMember portals
Step 04

Automate memberships

Members enter their details and buy through Shopify. Automation sends the invoice and updates the CRM, then sets, updates and removes start and expiry dates, down to expiring a family membership when the youngest child turns 6.

ShopifyInvoicesExpiry dates
Step 05

Report on every object

Demographics of parents, children and families, performance of playgroups and sessions, attendance, marketing by segment, and pipelines that track group and contact membership.

DemographicsAttendanceMembership pipeline
Step 06

Keep improving it

Email templates and workflows for sessions, memberships and applications, deal pipelines for affiliate group renewals, a faster and more reliable search, and a process for capturing Working with Children Check credentials from facilitators and volunteers.

RenewalsSearch overhaulWorking with Children Checks

Planning took real time on purpose. Doing it properly up front kept a project this size on track once the build started.

Nine sessions over 15 hours, on eight topics
  1. HubSpot CRM and the basics
  2. Marketing Hub
  3. Marketing automation
  4. Sales Hub
  5. Sales automation
  6. CMS and Service Hub
  7. Reporting
  8. Recaps and refreshers So nothing important was forgotten.

The training ran once the back end was built, so Play Matters learnt the system it would actually use.

05 What it looks like

From a postcode to a playgroup.

The membership journeys as they were mapped, and the search tool as parents use it, both published with the case study.

A Miro board mapping two membership journeys, Play Hub membership and organisation membership, from landing page to checkout, the HubSpot contact and deal, and the welcome email
Two membership journeys, mapped before they were built. A Play Hub membership and an organisation membership, from the landing page through the Shopify checkout to the contact and deal in HubSpot, the membership type and start date, and the welcome email. Organisations can pay by card or by invoice, and both paths end in the same place.
The Play Matters search: Find a Play Matters experience near you, with the postcode 4011 entered and the nearest playgroup listed with its venue, day and time
The search, with a postcode in. A parent enters a postcode and the nearest playgroups come back first, each with its venue and next session, and a link through to that group's own page.
06 The results

Three goals. Here is what came of them.

What Play Matters asked for before the project started, and where it stood once it was live.

Goal 01

Members registering for and attending events

We built the search and attendance tool: a suburb search, one dynamic page for every playgroup, and sign-up forms that create the attendee.

97,000+

searches, and 42,000 attendee records created online. Parents RSVP and check in on the website, where attendance used to be taken on paper sheets.

Goal 02

A logged-in experience for each member level

We built members-only portals on HubSpot’s registration tools, and set up memberships bought through Shopify, with the invoice, CRM update and expiry dates automated.

22,500

family memberships created. Members enter their own details, where up to 6,500 forms a year used to be keyed in by hand, and memberships have grown 287% since the digital tools launched.

Goal 03

In-depth reporting on everyone in the system

We built reports on every custom object: families, playgroups and sessions, attendance, marketing by segment, and membership pipelines.

10

custom objects, and a report on every one. Staff save hours of their week finding data and running reports, where reporting had been hard to produce.

Put together, the website has become how parents find play experiences, with over 835,000 visits, and memberships have grown 287% since the digital tools launched.

The paper sign-in sheets and hand-keyed forms are gone, and staff save hours of their week finding data, running reports and talking to members through HubSpot.

A child in face paint lying in a ball pit, giving a thumbs up
“The Neighbourhood team was instrumental in our successful migration to HubSpot, creating a new website and suite of digital portals for us. Their expertise spanned across CRM, Sales, Marketing, Service, and CMS Hubs. Dom, Trav, and the entire team were not only a pleasure to work with but also went above and beyond to ensure our project's success. They delivered everything on time and with exceptional quality. We owe much of our current success to their support and dedication. I wholeheartedly recommend Neighbourhood to anyone seeking a top-notch agency for their next HubSpot project.”
Dan Marais Play Matters Australia
Sophie Costello, project manager at Neighbourhood

Who ran it

Sophie CostelloAI & Digital Strategist

Led all four sub-projects: the CRM, the search and attendance tool, the member portals and onboarding.

HubSpot Impact Award winner, Neighbourhood since 2023

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