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How to manage a charity website project that gets results.
Introduction.
CHARITY CHALLENGES.
1. Generating more income
2. Reduction in government funding
3. Insufficient resource
4. Meeting demand for services
5. Raising awareness of charity/cause
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DIGITAL CHANGES.
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Decreasing attention spans
“The results showed the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, or
around the time the mobile revolution began, to eight seconds.” (Microsoft)
Delivering audiences acohesive user experience
70% of the UK’s top retailers now have fully responsive websites. Charities need to do the
same to maximise their income.
Audience savvy
Audiences are more aware of how they’re being marketed to. Diminishing trust in
charities. Research by nfpSynergy in 2015 found that the proportion of people who said they trusted charities "quite a lot" or "a great
deal" was 53%, the worst since 2007
Mobile search
“Google cites that 36% of all searches in the ‘Donations & Charitable Giving’ sector
are now on mobile devices (up 16% year on year).”
WHAT WE WILL COVER.
‣ Common pitfalls
‣ Project team
‣ Budget constraints
‣Website brief contents
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Common pitfalls.
COMMON PITFALLS
‣ No internal agreement around project goals
‣ Ignoring current website performance
‣ Undervaluing content
‣ Homepage centric
‣ Lack of focus on target audiences
‣ Search engine optimisation as an after thought
‣ Legacy processes
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Goals.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FUNCTIONAL & ORGANISATIONAL GOALS.
Functional goals - what the website needs to have e.g.
1. Content management system
2. Responsive or mobile friendly design
3. Easy administration
4. Integration with donor management system
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ORGANISATIONAL GOALS - HELP ORGANISATION SUCCEED.
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Goal KPI
Increase brand awarenessWebsite visitors
Ranking for related keywords
Better showcase work/servicesTraffic to topic pages
Enquiries about work/services
Increase online donations One-off and recurring donations
Attract fundraisersEvent registrations
Donations made by fundraisers
Attract volunteers Volunteer sign-ups
“People with goals succeed because they know where they are going...It’s as simple as that.” Earl Nightingale
AGREEING GOALS.
1. Goals should be linked to organisational need
2. Key stakeholders need to be involved in agreeing goals
3. Focus on a max. of 3 goals
4. Ensure everyone involved with your website is reminded of your goals
5. Goals should be signed off before the brief is written
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TEAM.
1. Trustees
2. Marketing/communications team
3. Fundraising
4. Project manager
5. I.T/knowledge of internal systems
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Ignoring currentwebsite performance.
WEBSITE PERFORMANCE.
1. You may not like your current website or feel it now represents your charity’s brand, but it provides valuable insights e.g. content, engagement, design choices, staff actions
2. Don’t assume; use evidence that’s available to shape what’s needed
3. Benchmark current website to measure the ROI of your new website
4. Don’t replicate what’s not working, get buy-in for new approaches
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Undervaluing Content.
ADDING CONTENT WITHOUT PURPOSE
1. It makes important information hard to find
2. Difficult to manage the website from an admin perspective
3. The website loses its focus
4. Impacts the speed of your website, with speed an important SEO ranking factor
5. Difficult user experience for mobile users
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UNDERVALUING CONTENT MEANS UNDERVALUING AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT AND GOOGLE.
1. Your content is how you engage users to support your cause
2. Your content is how users find your website - quality, relevant content, is a major ranking factor by Google which can’t be ignored if your website is to be found by target audiences
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CONTENT TO INCLUDE.
1. Your mission - something tangible and achievable
2. What’s the problem you’re trying to address?
3. What are you doing to address that problem?
4. What are you achieving?
5. How do you know what you’re achieving?
6. People want to help other people not your organisation
7. Social proof
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CONTENT TO INCLUDE.
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CONTENT TO INCLUDE.
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GOOGLE LOVES VALUABLE CONTENT.
Not focusing ontarget audiences.
TARGETING AUDIENCES.
Is your website organised and designed for your audiences to achieve the results that they want and you need?
If it isn’t, then -
1. You won’t engage these audiences
2. They may complain that they can’t find information
3. They may phone/email staff to be sent information
4. They simply go to another charity website
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HOW TO HAVE AN AUDIENCE CENTRIC APPROACH.
1. Define your target audience groups - who do you need to engage to achieve your goals?
2. Research these audiences - Google analytics, surveys, interviews, social analytics, staff
3. Develop audience personas
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AUDIENCE PERSONAS.
1. A persona is a document that describes the ways in which certain type of people will use your website - so the goals they will be trying to achieve and factors impacting them achieving these goals
2. Usually one persona is created for each type of user/audience member
3. Personas help a team focus on important aspects of target users
4. These personas should be referred to throughout your project
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AUDIENCE PERSONA.
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Ben, Age 33 “I want to make a difference.”
Key goals
•Donate to a local cancer charity after losing a friend to the disease.
Behaviours
•Regularly uses mobile for online transactions. •Online privacy is important.
What we must do as an organisation to engage Ben
•Assure Ben his donation will make a difference. •Make it easy for him to donate on mobile. •Show that we have a secure website.
What we must not do as an organisation
•Have a long and cumbersome donation process. •Provide an unsecure web experience. •Ask users for too much personal information.
Homepage centric.
FEATURES OF A HOMEPAGE CENTRIC WEBSITE.
1. Look cluttered with no clear purpose
2. Don’t tell a story
3. Ask rather than explains
4. Rotating carousel/banner
5. Includes social feeds
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“A study by Pilotlight found that 60% of respondents felt that information on the impact of a charity's work was a deciding factor in their decision to donate” (2013)
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OVERCOMING A HOMEPAGE CENTRIC WEBSITE.
1. Adopt an audience centric approach
2. Go back to your goals
3. Clear sign-off process
4. Look at the evidence
5. Education
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SEO as an after-thought.
PURPOSE OF SEO.
The purpose of SEO is to:
1. Create a great, seamless user experience
2. Communicate to search engines what your website is about so they can recommend your website for relevant searches
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WEBSITE SEO.
Your website should be the foundation of your SEO strategy.
If your website isn’t approached with SEO in mind from the ground up, your other SEO efforts will be more more difficult.
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CMS
KeywordOptimised
InformationArchitecture
ContentSite Speed
UserExperience
KEY TAKE-AWAYS.
1. When developing a new website you don’t want to lose the authority you have built up on that website as a whole or pages that have the strongest SEO value e.g. most traffic, inbound links, keyword rankings - so again, you need to be aware of how your current content is performing
2. If you plan to move highly ranked pages, you need a 301 redirect strategy so you don’t lose any of that value
3. Ensure keyword research is completed to highlight new opportunities, every page on your site should concentrate on one or two specific keywords that page will focus on
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Legacy processes.
DO YOUR INTERNAL PROCESSES SUPPORT OR HINDER YOUR WEBSITE?
1. Often these processes make tasks too complicated for the user - donation forms that ask for too much information, lengthy event registration
2. Making your internal processes more simple makes your website more simple
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MANAGING YOUR BUDGET.
1. Concentrate on the functionality that’s needed to achieve your goals
2. Don’t add “A wishlist” of functionality e.g. a form builder, ability to create branded fundraising posts
3. Think less not more - less functionality but functionality that helps meet goals, less content but better content, a design that works rather than a design that “wows”
4. Be sure you’re organisation is ready for certain functionality e.g. shop, blog
5. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, e.g. replicate Just Giving
6. Avoid implementing new internal systems in parallel with your website build
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Website Brief.
WEBSITE BRIEF.
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Projectbackground
Organisationdescription
Websitegoals & KPIs
Targetaudiences
Marketing requirements
Content
Functionality
Creative style guidance
Budget
Staffresource
SUMMARY.
‣ Agree your goals
‣ Always focus on your target audiences
‣ Your website is more than just the homepage
‣ Use evidence to shape decisions
‣ Invest in content for better returns
‣ SEO from the ground up
‣ Simpler processes makes for simpler websites
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Questions?
