Here’s their pulse check on the sector and some tips on navigating some of the challenges that everyone is facing in their organisations.

Engaging senior leadership

A key priority for everyone was navigating conversations - and at times, conflicting perspectives - with senior management. Many of our leaders saw this a huge priority with digital transformation and/or largescale website projects being underway. We also noted its importance for digital marketing and campaigns, especially if senior management have a strong idea of what they want, which is not best practice - or, in many occasions - have unfeasible expectations.

Many frustrations were shared (!), but we also learnt a lot from each other on how to approach these situations in new ways:

• Bring results to life - use visuals and compare results so everyone can track progress

• Don’t wait to be asked - keep Senior Leadership Teams (SLT) up to date on progress with campaigns

• Demystify language - use plain English to explain activity scope and impact

• Force focus - hold a decision-making meeting on what is most important e.g. reaching the right audience or keeping acquisition spend low.

• Find an ally - engage digitally savvy SLT who want to champion your work and approach.

• Build joint understanding of long and short term - share phasing and plan together

• Raise project’s profile - pitch projects as part of business planning to get it as an organisational priority

• User-led planning - demonstrate audience behaviour and interest to help to gain buy-in

• “Let it fail” - sometimes we need to allow the campaign to fail to show SLT that their approach doesn’t work and give you a chance to show your ideas on how to improve

• Don’t lose their interest - prioritise messages to leadership to ensure clarity

• Acceptance - do not burn yourself out trying to change everything, sometimes we need to accept that it’s a culture issue internally and not your personal responsibility

Asking for forgiveness not permission - sometimes we need to be bold and ‘do the thing’ and then explain afterwards

“Outputs, not outcomes”

People shared their organisation’s approach to user experience (UX) and how audiences are involved in planning, content and projects. It was interesting to note that size of charity doesn’t necessarily translate into a strong UX culture, and people talked about the real game-changer being UX being part of the organisational roadmap and being prioritised by leadership.

“Be evangelical”

We loved this quote from one of the leaders, who has an approach of constantly re-capping and re-presenting product management and UX processes to cement a view. We’ve also seen this working well in the strategy projects we run, with the emphasis on taking people on the journey with you being just as important as the project itself.

Digital advertising

Over-reliance on Meta for paid acquisition was flagged as a challenge and it was interesting to hear that leadership preference was a strong reason for this. We heard that SLT are keen to pursue Meta as it often has lower acquisition cost, and the channel has been proven in the past. However, everyone shared that they are looking at other options and here’s their advice on tackling digital marketing channels:

• Be clear on your audiences and break them down

For example, 18-30 year olds is too broad and so narrow this down into several different types of audiences. Try to also segment by interest/behaviour, rather than simply age…

• Show your learning

For example, if you’ve tested TikTok and it’s recruited the younger demographic, be upfront about the higher cost per lead and have an open discussion with SLT on what’s more important

• Review content and tone of voice to attract younger audience

• Test other channels - Spotify, LinkedIn and Reddit

• Test channels for each campaign and/or message and be prepared to use a different channel mix each time

Digital KPIs and planning

We had a really exciting conversation about digital metrics! No, really. It was really positive to hear that so many organisations are talking about how to measure real impact from digital - in fact, we didn’t hear any of the leaders talk about reliance on vanity metrics, which was heartening.

These three approaches particularly stood out for us:

1. Start with your organisational strategy and theory of change and review progress using these.

2. Develop an impact framework that works backwards from your organisational strategy/theory of change and set digital KPIs that link directly to the big picture impact your organisation wants to achieve

3. Use agile planning principles and leverage diversity of thought by involving people from different teams to gain new perspectives on your goals and activity plans.

We loved all of this KPI chat so much that we’re planning a lunch and learn on this topic - watch this space…

We’ll be holding another retro in the Summer with the digital leaders to see how they are doing halfway through the year and what their priorities are/have shifted since our last retro. Sign up here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e…

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Thanks for joining us Harriet Hart (Film and TV Charity), Angharad Francis (RNID), Emma Wallis (Diabetes UK), Kat Cimetta (Young Women’s Trust), Betty-Sue Smith (Health Foundation), Kat Excell (Tony Blair Institute for Global Change), Matthew Farrand (Maudsley Charity), Jenny Steele (freelance), and Miriam Zendle (NHS Providers) Lottie Cripps (GOSH Charity)