1. A quick wins digital strategy

There are many benefits to having an effective digital strategy. It can be difficult to know which strategy is the most suitable one for your heritage organisation, with countless digital resources easily accessible online and elsewhere. In this resource, we show you that instead of a ‘one size fits all’ approach, digital transformation relies on a process which Pieter Brinkman, Senior Director of Technical Marketing at Sitecore* describes as ‘build-measure-learn’. [1]

Developing a digital strategy is an ongoing process. You should strive to identify and take improvement opportunities that will deliver continuous value in your organisation’s situation. Applying a quick wins digital strategy will help you to achieve immediate results, foster a culture of continuous improvement, and set the foundations for long-term digital transformation.

*Sitecore provides web content management, and multichannel marketing automation software and services.

2. Marketing areas you can focus on

Our expert, Dr Ruth Daly, University of Leeds, explains how you can make change happen fast.

Adopting a quick wins approach need not be a lengthy, resource intensive, or costly venture. This is an ideal route for revolutionising the digital strategy of small heritage organisations because quick wins deliver maximum impact from minimum resources.

You can:

• Achieve a better understanding of how your online and offline engagement performs
• Enhance your use of social media
• Improve your website design and visibility
• Improve communication more generally
• Boost your profile as a heritage organisation and awareness of your brand
• Increase your search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Improve your marketing strategies
• Attract a more diverse audience
• Keep your organisation current.

3. ‘Analytics’ quick wins

‘Analytics’ refers to the process of discovering, understanding, and communicating interesting patterns in data and information. This can be a powerful management tool but doesn’t have to involve complex systems and specialised expertise. Perhaps you might want to know which parts of your website are clicked on the most, what are the outbounds link clicks (i.e. clicks away from your website) or how many times a PDF document is downloaded for example.  Two easily available online tools can help you perform analytics without investing too much time.

1. Google Tag Manager (GTM)

You can use Google Tag Manager to access advanced features in analytics. With GTM you can:

• Install a scroll depth tracking plugin
• Track YouTube video watch time
• Measure activity across domains with cross-domain tracking [2]

2. HotJar analytics tool

Installing HotJar will give you raw data about how people behave on your site, what they need and how they feel about your content. HotJar describes its platform as ‘an intuitive, visual way to discover, consolidate, and communicate user needs.’ [3] You can find out more on the HotJar website by selecting this link: Hotjar: Website Heatmaps & Behavior Analytics Tools.

4. Website quick wins

Here are some quick ways you can improve your organisation’s website:

• Regularly update your ‘About Us’ page with the latest information relevant to your organisation such as news, events or what’s going on. Set a reminder to do it every few months.
• Each time you have an event or community engagement, increase the impact by adding a report.
• Add photographs and profiles of all staff. Make sure this stays up to date.
• Check your contact information is accurate. Include a phone number, an email address and a query form.
• Add testimonials to your website.
• Write your content in clear language and keep to the point.

If you follow a quick wins strategy such as this, then expect to see immediate results. This approach will set the foundations for long-term digital transformation and foster a culture of continuous improvement in your heritage organisation.

5. Quick wins checklist for social media marketing

You can use social media as a branding tool for your organisation. Register your organisation’s name and brand across major social media sites.

1. Some key major social media channels to create accounts

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Facebook
• YouTube
• LinkedIn
• TikTok
• Snapchat

2. Add social media widgets to your website

• Widgets will link your website visitors to your brand across all the social media platforms and highlight your positive engagement and impact.

3. Be strategic with your social media content

• Ask yourself, who is your target audience(s)?
• Find out who are the typical audiences for each platform.
• Share useful, interesting, insightful, engaging and educational content they will find relevant. This might be different content on different platforms.

4. Create interactive online events

Here are three examples:

• Invite relevant individuals to ‘take over’ the organisation’s Instagram account for one day.
• Host a live Q & A on Instagram.
• Run competitions that require your social media audience to share content with their followers, leading to more interactions with your account.

6. Further resources

• Digital Culture Network – a knowledge hub for organisations in the arts and culture sector
• 3 quick wins to improve your online strategy
• How understanding different social media audience demographics improves marketing

References

[1]  Brinkman, P. 2021. Building a culture of continuous transformation. [Online]. [Accessed 16 December 2021].

[2] MarketingNerd. 2021. [Online]. [Accessed 16 December 2021].

[3] HotJar. 2021. [Online]. [Accessed 16 December 2021].

More help here

Approaches for digital transformation

This guide focuses on three approaches to digital transformation and what they can mean for your heritage organisation. Case studies explore how other organisations have embraced digital transformation, their experiences and the strategic pathways they have taken to change how they engage with their audiences.

 

Using templates to create your digital strategy

Using templates to create your digital strategy will help you work through a set of diagnostic questions that indicates your organisation’s recommended priority areas along with relevant performance indicators to guide you through digital transformation.

 

Except where noted and excluding company and organisation logos this work is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) Licence

Please attribute as: "Developing a quick wins approach to your digital strategy (2022) by Dr Ruth Daly supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, licensed under CC BY 4.0