Case Study
Empowering NGOs: A Strategic Approach to Designing Social Media and Online Presence
I had the pleasure of working with a client committed to supporting international NGOs through comprehensive capacity-building resources.
Their mission is to create a platform that provides NGOs with access to specialist training tutorials, workbooks, and personal mentoring, thus enhancing their operational efficiency and reach.
The task at hand was to design and implement a compelling website and a targeted social media advertising campaign that would effectively communicate the client’s unique offerings to decision-makers in the NGO sphere.
Through a careful blend of research, strategy, and creative design, I was able to meet these objectives, creating designs that not only resonated with the target audience but also served as a true reflection of the client’s vision.
Join me as I delve into the journey of turning this client’s vision into a reality, from initial research and concept development, through various iterations and client feedback all the way to the final design and its successful implementation.
Client Background and Project Overview
The client is an emerging entrepreneur focused on bolstering the capabilities of small to medium-sized international NGOs through an innovative approach.
Their business model revolves around offering high-quality capacity-building support, which includes online specialist training tutorials and workbooks, coupled with personal mentoring and coaching by seasoned international development consultants.
The primary aim of this design project is to help the client effectively communicate their services to their target audience: NGOs looking for comprehensive and expert support to enhance their efficacy and reach.
A key challenge to be addressed in this project is marketing these services in a manner that not only resonates with NGOs, but also positions the client’s offerings as a compelling, viable solution for capacity development in the highly competitive international development landscape.
Research and Discovery
The initial phase of the project revolved around a thorough exploration of the client’s unique context and needs. This process began with a detailed business discovery session on a Miro board, delving into the company’s values, branding, identity, stakeholders, and the previously established brand colour palette, which the client wished to retain in the designs.
An in-depth understanding of the target audience was then obtained through persona development, leveraging data from social media platforms and expert knowledge from the client. Simultaneously, a strategy discovery session helped us pinpoint the company’s value proposition, define their market, analyse competitors, understand the business model, and establish an effective marketing strategy.
This comprehensive process laid the groundwork for the following stages: building a resonant website and creating a targeted social media advertising campaign with A/B testing of designs. Through a blend of the client’s insights and our own research, we were able to align the project with both the client’s vision and the needs of their target audience.
Concept Development
I started by really getting to know our client and their goals. Through several meetings, I learned about their mission and what they wanted to achieve. Their main focus is reaching the people who make big decisions in international NGOs. So, we needed to make sure our designs and messages spoke to those people.
We used user personas, to help us understand who these decision-makers are, what they like, and what’s important to them. I also looked at social media profiles that match our user personas to learn more about them.
With all this information, I started coming up with our initial design ideas. We wanted to create designs and messages that these decision-makers could connect with. Something that lined up with their values and addressed what they needed.
My client had clear branding colour palette guidelines which I followed as I crafted the designs. With all this in mind, I was able to create designs that I was confident would really speak to the target audience.
Final Design and Implementation
The designs on this page are the final designs and they include A/B testing designs with people in it and designs only with text, and also slight alterations on the text itself.
These designs were used for adverts on social media. The main message the ads convey is: with the company’s help, it’s a lot easier for NGOs to win grants. The company offers lots of video tutorials on different topics, and they even have people you can talk to who will give you feedback on your grant applications.
The strategic and thoughtful approach underlying their development provides a blueprint for successful design execution that speaks to the target audience and reflects the client’s vision.
Everything in the design – the colours, the pictures, the words – all works together to get that message across.
Results & Impact:
While the full impact of this campaign is yet to unfold, we are already observing positive indicators of success. Since the launch of the new site, we have witnessed an uptick in user engagement – a trend we anticipate will continue to rise.
Given the strategic approach to the designs and the careful consideration of the target user persona in our social media advertisement campaign, we are hopeful that this will translate into an increase in user sign-ups and use of the service.
While we await more concrete results, these early signs are promising, pointing towards the potential of our designs to effectively connect with the intended audience and to support the client’s mission of empowering international NGOs. As we continue to monitor progress, I look forward to sharing more definitive results in the future.