Episode 4 hears me chatting with Tracey Pritchard, Director of Engagement at Prostate Cancer UK. While their brand is strong and performs well, and fundraising was going well too, they knew that if they applied some good audience insight they’d be more effective in reaching and resonating with the people they need to engage. Crucially, their audience-centred approach is about seeing people who want to engage with the charity as one, i.e. not putting people in boxes labelled ‘supporter’ or ‘service user’.
A summary of the learning:
- The clarity of the organisational strategy is key: they are currently all geared up behind one goal of getting to the point of having a diagnostic tool for prostate cancer – and this needs money. This means that agreeing on messaging is easier because all calls to action are focused on this goal.
- Workshop it. To help get a sense of how you’re engaging with (or what you’re doing to) your audiences and start having discussions about how you can do this better, pull a few journeys off your database and map them out on flip-chart paper across the wall. This will help you to visualise how things are and you can plan how you want them to be.
- Importantly, make sure that your communications are driven by the audiences. Sounds obvious, but how many of us do things ‘because that’s what we do here’? Prostate Cancer UK deliver’s below the line activity in the run up to Christmas, but their big Christmas activity, where the above the line investment is, is on Boxing Day. Because that’s where their audience is.
I hope you enjoy the chat. You can listen on my website, SoundCloud or iTunes. And if on iTunes, please rate it – thank you!
Beth Crackles 