As we begin to close on 2020 with a new year heading towards us, here are some things you could give some thought to in 2021.
Marketing
If you spend more time on Social Media for your organisation than you do on your website, remember that your website is where all of the detail is. Don’t be tempted to just use Facebook and Twitter because it is easy. A much better strategy which will help to promote your organisation further while still engaging on social media is to publish your content on your website first, then save it, and view it. When you view the item, grab the web address and paste it into the social media feed.
Why?
You only need to write it once, share the URL (web address) and everyone reading it will be taken to your website. Your website numbers will increase, and you are likely to achieve greater traction with your viewers.
Also paste your URL into other related social media feeds. This will definitely drive more traffic to your website. However do make sure your post is not overtly “selling or seeking money” if it is of human interest, say a story, it will be far more likely to be accepted by those that manage the social media feeds.
Editing your website
If you are not editing your website, ask yourself why? If you have forgotten how, or need some help, just ask. The whole reason I got into supporting charities was to help them to manage their own presence. I would much rather you come back to me and seek some support.
I can now handle training online and set up some exercises for you to increase your confidence. I also add guides into all new websites now. A moderate proportion of my time is spent training people online each week. The Zoom session is recorded and added into your site as a video.
Why
Because your site is your online brochure, it is where people will make a decision to support you, volunteer for you, seek your services or help. It is also where local authorities and other funding sources will look before giving you a grant.
A website is never complete. It is a living document which acts as a window on your organisation. If nothing has changed on it for 12 months, it will not give an impression of an active or successful organisation.
Be Provocative in a nice way
Think about how you can more effectively position your value proposition, and enumerate the value you have currently provided to your community.
Some people ask me to add fundraising buttons here and there. Usually from trustees, probably because they can see someone else has them. What does not tend to happen is equal or greater attention is given to providing a narrative on why you need to fundraise. Often because those in the charity are very much aware of the problems. However the public is not. So tell them, and in true marketing parlance; tell them again. Take a look at this fundraising page. It states at the top of the fundraising page the dilemma they face. Probably not unlike yours. But you may be more likely to help if you know the funding gap, rather than just “send us some money”.
Add some button in but go to the fundraising page
Do not direct people off of your site to another site without telling the first. You will be more likely to lose them. All fundraising buttons need to lead to the fundraising page which lists the ways in which you can help. The narrative can also provide guidance to the reader that they are about to leave your site and visit your account on anther site. This is a much better way than jumping directly.
Consider a pop up
A pop up message inviting people to do something is a powerful way of reaching out provided it is not done too aggressively. Pop-up plugins are available in WordPress. Contact me to find out more.
Help promote Remote Working
We have all been dealing with the Pandemic this year, and it is likely that once we are out of the pandemic, things will not return to quite how they were. Management have often been the main obstacle to remote working; largely because of trust, and lack of control. The Pandemic has removed those barriers, and managers have had to just “suck it up and live with it” because there has not been any alternative way of working. That said remote working has been proven to work, and some reports suggest people are actually more productive. Large premises may no longer be required. People that used to attend an office, may be encouraged to continue to work from home.
Password protected pages
Note that you can have hidden pages in your website which are password protected, or you could have a membership based website that is indepedent from your main website which contains procedures and policies, a virtual noticeboard, a diary and other things that are necessary for the running of an operation. There are lots of things you can do to help promote a distributed operation. Some of you may already be signed up to Sharepoint and other cloud based sharing. If you are a smaller organisation and have some particular requirements drop me a line, I can point to some free systems which might help.
Facelift, or major surgery?
I am probably going to use this one as theme for next year. If you feel that your website has become stale, which can happen if nobody is actively keeping it alive, then it may be worthwhile exploring the business goals of the organisation, how you intend handling communications, and marketing, and how the website can help.
Based on those factors, we can critically look at how closely the website ties in with the new direction and look at some nips and tucks in places rather than a radical new redesign.
Part of this work may also lead to analysing Google Analytics data on your site to establish which places people are reaching or not reaching, and whether those are important or not.