Not-for-profit

How The British Library handles information architecture & ecommerce

In some ways, the notion that an institution like the British Library has to market itself at all is fairly new. 

Indeed, my step father wrote a paper on exactly that topic (marketing is a family affair, you know).

But not only does the British Library have to create ‘customer value’, it has to do so online, casting as wide a net as possible and relying on its website to engage and even convert(!).

With the aid of analysis from its brilliant blog, let’s have a look at the British Library’s improvements to website information architecture.

How digital transformation improved Marie Curie’s marketing strategy

Marie Curie provides care and support for more than 40,000 terminally ill people and their families in the UK each year, therefore it’s vital that the charity is able to provide services across every possible channel both offline and online. 

To achieve this Marie Curie is undertaking a massive digital transformation programme, so it can extend its proposition to offer more services and support.

Seven inspirational Instagram campaigns from WaterAid

WaterAid has increased its Instagram presence by 12,000 followers in just one week after entering a single Instagram video to the network’s ‘Weekend Hashtag Project’.

WaterAid’s team entered the 15 second Instagram video #WHPfromwhereiwalk featuring a woman in the remote fishing community of Brubeng, Ghana walking to collect unsafe water in Lake Volta. 

The unique film offers point-of-view footage that highlights what it’s like for the millions of women around the world who walk miles to collect water each day.

As of writing, since the video was uploaded on Instagram two weeks ago, WaterAid has achieved more than 22,000 followers, gaining roughly a thousand users per day. Before this WaterAid had only 3,800. 

Here’s the footage…

Three content strategies from the charity sector

Online giving is growing, and year-on-year the role social media plays in fundraising and marketing increases. 

Online, particularly social, is already important, with 47% of Americans learning about a particular cause via an online channel. 

Trevor Neilson of the Global Philanthropy Group states, “in the next two years, social media will become the primary way that Americans give money to charity.” 

So with online proving so important, who is doing what with content online in the charity sector? Here are three organisations with quite different approaches, detailed in Aegis Media and Social Misfits Media’s new guide to social and content for charities. 

Charitable giving emerges from the dust left behind by the rise of mobile

As mobile devices sweep the nation, non-profits are eager to invest in mobile friendly websites and apps that maximize their exposure to these new tech-friendly audiences.

According to the Charity Navigator, in 2011 a total of $298.42 billion was given to charities by Americans. Giving by individuals (not corporations) represented nearly 9 out of every 10 dollars donated in 2011.

Non-profit organizations continue to utilize traditional marketing methods to promote thier cause, but they are now embracing digital marketing and the opportunities to reach new donors on a global scale.