Digital transformation — Digital first Annual Reviews
The Annual Review is a cornerstone of any charity MarComms plan and with good reason. It’s the chance for us to demonstrate our genuine impact to supporters in a long form way with high production values.
More often than not, weeks are spent on creating bespoke copy, professional photography is commissioned and projects spun up to ensure the review is delivered on time and to the CEO’s vision.
There is no doubt that this content is incredibly valuable for the charity and the sector as a whole. But why are we limiting its shelf life to be used once a year? Why are we restricting it to a medium that will only appeal to a certain audience and will never travel further than the 2nd class postage stamp we attach to it allows.
What if there was a different way? A digital led way.
We’ve all worked on getting Annual Review content onto our websites. Chances are the majority have gone from the interactive pdf to the microsite to the About Us section and given up there. I know I have and each time it’s ended up in graveyard content. The retrospective approach simply doesn’t lend itself to digital mediums which are of the moment, ongoing and have to be relevant to be consumed.
In my experience, the digital team can’t see the value in interrupting their carefully crafted user journeys and content plans with words and pictures that weren’t designed for their medium, so they don’t put it front and centre. On the other hand, the CEO and Directors have invested real time and money in this publication so they want to make sure their investment lives in as many places as possible. Both are absolutely valid points of view so there must be a way to accommodate them.
What if we use some of the budget that’s set aside for once every 12 months and spend it over the course of the entire year? In the meantime creating content for the website, social media and eNewsletters which was of high enough quality to be included in a round up of the year?
Annual Reviews could become a collection of these articles, case studies, posts and emails giving supporters a true insight into everything that our organisations have been doing over the course of the year.
You could include a number of bespoke round up articles for sure, and some carefully crafted context setting, but the majority would be content that’s already been created.
You could even decide which content to include based on the various analytics, feedback and social signals that are inherent in digital channels, helping you to understand what is of most interest to your audience.
This approach wouldn’t work for everyone, but it could be a first step in helping your organisation’s content strategy to be digitally led.
There are risks associated with it and the increased resource required throughout the year will be felt. You’d need to plan out the frames of reference for your content creation process, what audiences it’s trying to meet and the messages you’re trying to leave with them so that when the opportunities present themselves you know how to use them.
There’d still need to be an editorial stage where the best content is curated for the review, and of course a decent design process but both of these would be easier if the conversation is ongoing.
Overall though you’ll be left with a tool that can better communicate who you are and what you do, that works across channels and lasts throughout the entire year.
Hopefully you’ll be achieving the same goals that you’ve always been trying to, but by using the best of the mediums we now have at our disposal. That sounds like genuine and lasting digital transformation to me.
Could you see this working in your organisation? Let us know in the comments or on the twits…
