Alina O’Keeffe, engagement manager, Sands, the stillbirth and neonatal death charity Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. Internal and external audiences:
Developing a strategy to engage hearts and minds
Alina O’Keeffe
Engagement Manager, Sands
@Alina_OKeeffe
The Future of Engagement Conference
25 April 2018

2. Intro & about Who’s in the audience?

3. What is “engagement”?
Attention
Participation
Reaction
Response
Involvement
Sharing

4. Sustainable engagementExposure
• Number of new supporters
• Raising awareness
What does engagement mean for you?
} • Not as an end goal
• First step on the ladder

5. Sustainable engagementExposure
What does engagement mean for you?
}
Single donation
One off response
Participation in a fundraising
event
Developing relationships between
supporters and a cause
Encouraging audiences to take a variety
of actions over a period of time
Two way communication that offers
relevant opportunities to support the
cause in different ways and at various
times
• Number of new supporters
• Raising awareness
• Not as an end goal
• First step on the ladder

6. Sands engagement model
• Integration, alignment and coordination of communications and content
• Thematic approach reflecting strategic objectives and audience view
• Internal engagement, as prerequisite for external engagement
• User generated content

7. Engagement Planner: key benefits
• Exploring synergies and breaking down silos
• Information sharing
• Consistency of message and channels
• Supporter journey planning
Roles:
✓ Audience owner
✓ Channel owner
✓ Content generators

8. Audiences Consumers of content

9. Who are your audiences?
• Who are you aiming to influence and why
• What are their motivations
• Think, feel and do
• Audience development strategy

10. ✓ Content is still King, but audience
is Ace
• Shift from developing content to
making sustainable connections
✓ Segmenting audiences into lists
and tailoring content for those lists
is obsolete
Demystifying audiences

11. Audience analysis
• Map out who, what, how, when, where and
why
• Audience journeys through segments and
changes in motivations over time
• Manage (competing) expectations of
different audiences and stakeholders
• Differentiated experiences and relevant,
timely messages of value help build trust
and credibility
• Avoid those who are not interested

12. Audience mapping
• Identify your audiences’ influence, interest and importance
• Analyse what their information needs are, frequency and preferred
channels
• Prioritise audiences and focus on those who will drive the campaign more
effectively
Tips:
1. Be specific.
2. Don’t do lists of ‘everyone who knows us’
3. Put your beneficiaries and employees at the
heart of your stakeholder strategy/map
4. Don’t use the same list of stakeholders every
time - segment and update
5. Think carefully about categorisation as some
may fall into multiple categories

13. • Communications strategy is an organisation-wide effort
• Deeper audience engagement is only possible with strategic approach to
communications
• If you want your colleagues to change the way they think, feel and behave, approach
the challenge in the same way you would with external stakeholders
Holistic approach to engaging audiences

14. Sands volunteering strategy
• 67% of those who have volunteered in the last 12 months say they donate to
the same charities they volunteer at
• They also donate 10x more money to charities than non-volunteers
• Feel: valued and respected, supported and connected
• Be: in the heart of the communities they support, ambassadors for Sands
• Seen as: a great place to volunteer with a wide range of opportunities

15. Content & Experiences

16. • 25%-43% of the communications budget is spent on content
• Only 23% of senior comms specialists feel they are producing the right
information for the right audience
(Source: Business2Community)
Content
• Conversion rates are six times
higher (2.9%) for organisations
using content marketing than
those that aren’t (0.5%)
(Source: Aberdeen Group)

17. What’s engaging content?
• Personalised, timely, location-based experiences for each member of your audience
• Shorter path to action, enhancing the experience and encouraging participation
• Think and measure how your content affects your audiences, their choices & opinions
Creating content for channels
Focusing on creative content of
messages
Creating an experience for the
audience, consumer of content
Nourishing ongoing conversations
Encouraging dialogue and impact

18. Audience Engagement Funnel
1. Hold the attention of the audience
2. Bind someone to do something
3. Use their influence to promote your cause
4. Offer something as backing to a cause
5. Maintain the relationships

20. Why bother?
• Interactive content generates 2x more
conversions than passive content (Kapost)
• 30% of audience were more likely to donate
after seeing someone share charity related
content on social media
• 20% said it inspired them to do something for
charity themselves (Three & Movember)
• Video outperforms other types of content -
57% of donors that give online watch a video
before donating
• The total amount given to charity increased
to £10.3bn driven by fewer people giving
more (CAF UK Giving 2018)

21. Channels Getting your message out

22. Platforms
• 26% donations are made via websites, social media and apps in the UK
(source: Three & Movember)
• 66% of audiences want to be asked about their channel preference before
communicating (source: experian.it)

23. Strengthening outreach
• Availability
• Be selective
• Convenience
• Interactivity
• Integration
• Insight
Audience has max confidence in the
message after it has been repeated 3-5
times. After that, repetition ceases to have
the same effect & may reverse
(Brinol, 2008)
EngagementExposure

24. Considerations
• Budget and evaluation
• GDPR
• FOMO (fear of missing out)

25. Conclusions
• It’s all about them…
• Innovation at heart of every charity's thinking
• Communications represented at board level
Everybody – staff and supporter alike – is
a communicator on behalf of your
organisation and cause

26. Alina O’Keeffe
@alina_okeeffe
The Future of Engagement Conference
25 April 2018

27. The Future of Engagement Conference
25 April 2018

28. The future of
engagement:
developing audience-centred strategies
Sponsored by
25 April 2018
London
#CCaudience

29. Visit the CharityComms
website to view slides from
past events, see what events
we have coming up and to
check out what else we do:
www.charitycomms.org.uk