37 Must-Have Strategies to Better Engage Website Visitors, Part 3

[Editor's note: This is part 3 of a four-part series on the session "37 Must-Have Strategies to Better Engage Your Website Visitors" at the Bridge Conference. Click here for part 1, and here for part 2.]

At the 7th Annual Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference last week in National Harbor, Md., three fundraising technology professionals shared some website best practices in their session “37 Must-Have Strategies to Better Engage Your Website Visitor.” Here are strategies 18-26 from presenters Sue Anne Reed, account manager, online fundraising at The Engage Group; Allyson Kapin, founding partner of the RAD Campaign; and Rob Manix, director of marketing technology at Defenders of Wildlife.
18. Find ways to tell stories
Ask yourself: What impact are your activists, volunteers and donors having on your organization? There are tremendous stories in that answer.

“You actually have access to the greatest stories, the people who work in your organization, work on the ground, your members, your volunteers and your donors,” Kapin said.

She suggested testing a storytelling campaign online encouraging your constituents to share their stories. She added that you should consider framing your stories in a fairy tale structure, with a hero, villain, story arc, etc.

“Why does your organization continue to exist?” Kapin asked. “Don’t answer that with your mission statement. Dig deep, and find the stories that explain it.”

Manix said Defenders of Wildlife was successful with a video story, where his organization filmed its crew moving endangered bison to safe Indian land.

For other ideas on finding ways to tell your story, check out Kapin’s Frogloop blog post: “10 Ways to Reveal Your Organization’s Best Stories.”

19. Keep content fresh
A great way to do that is to develop an editorial calendar to publish new content on a regular basis, Reed said. Manix said his organization is very dependent on its editorial calendar for determining what type of stories to share and how long they should stay up on the site.