Who’s looking?
Anyone could be looking at your website. Your auntie’s mate. Your jealous ex. Oprah. We can’t cater individually to each one. But if you have a social enterprise, we have a good idea the kinds of people who are probably visiting your website.
What are they thinking? What questions are they asking? You need to know, and be able to answer them clearly. Then these people can get what they want from your site, join you in what you’re doing, and ensure your organisation keeps growing and making an impact.
1. Potential beneficiaries/customers/clients
Hopefully the people you’re trying to help will find your site and explore it. You need to make it easy for them to get around it and find the info they need to get involved.
The questions they’re asking
- How can this organisation help me?
- Do I need to be referred?
- How do I contact them?
- How have other people been helped?
- Will they understand me?
How you can answer them
Make it obvious where they click to find out more about enrolling, joining, or buying. Then make this information thorough and clear. FAQs can be really helpful here, especially if you use the questions you’ve actually been asked!
You could make a flow diagram to show the process of onboarding onto your programme.
Use case studies and blog posts to share the stories of previous clients and customers. Showcase the transformation that took place, as well as including any worries they had before joining, and how these were put to rest.
Choose photos that show a range of participants, so people can recognise themselves.
Remember to consider any needs that might be particular to your community of beneficiaries.
Do they have:
- Limited access to the internet?
- Low literacy levels?
- English as a second language?
- Neurodivergent traits?
- Visual impairments?
- Anxiety about going to new places?
The information you give and the way you present it will be dictated by these.
2. Current beneficiaries/customers/clients
Once people are involved with your organisation, you want to keep them feeling included and having a good experience.
The questions they’re asking
- How can I book another session?
- Which contact method should I use to reschedule my appointment?
- How do I log in?
- Where are the photos from that event I attended?
How you can answer them
Your website will work alongside your emails and face-to-face interactions to give your current beneficiaries what they need. Get clear within your organisation which channel is the main way your users stay connected and which is for any admin (if that’s different). Then make sure your users know. This could be a membership portal, Facebook group, email list, slack channel, Instagram account or something else. The key thing is for your website to get your community to that place.
Use your blog for pictures and write-ups of events (if appropriate and with permission, of course). Getting your beneficiaries to do guest posts is another great way to involve them in the site.
3. Potential funders
Your website may well be the first place a potential funder will go to get a sense of what your organisation is all about. Don’t let them go away disappointed!
The questions they’re asking
- Who runs this organisation?
- What impact are they having?
- Which partner organisations do they work with?
- What policies do they have in place?
- Can I trust them with my money?
How you can answer them
Use your about page to make it clear what your mission is. You can also tell the story of how your organisation started, how you got to where you are today and where you want to take it in the future. Not in punishing detail, though! Just enough to show the inspiration, the passion behind your enterprise and how you’ve grown it.
Have your impact reports on your site and make a big deal out of them. Show off! Funders want to see the difference their money will make. Hard numbers and emotive quotes from your beneficiaries will tell them.
Make sure your track record is obvious. You could include a timeline of successful projects, case studies on partnerships with other organisations and even testimonials from previous funders, if you can get them.
If you’re a newer enterprise and don’t have much of a track record yet, there are still ways you can demonstrate that you can be trusted to spend money wisely.
- Display your registered company number or charity number.
- Publish your policies such as safeguarding and volunteer management.
- You can even show a pie chart of any money you have received so far and how it was spent.
- Got an accountant on your advisory board? Get them up on your meet the team page.
Talking of which, do feature the people who run your organisation on your website. If possible, include their pictures, too. Funders are human beings and it helps if they can really connect with the people they will be handing over money to.
4. Current funders
You gotta keep those sugar mummies and daddies happy. When they’re looking over your evaluation and wondering whether to renew funding for your project, they might pop back onto your website.
The questions they’re asking
- How are they spending our money?
- Have they used our logo?
- Are they publicising the fact we funded them?
- What impact are they having?
How you can answer them
Bigger funders in particular may give you image files of their logo to use. Use them. They can go in your footer (that bit at the bottom of the page) and/or in a collection of images showing all your funders and partners.
When you get the good news, you can publish a celebratory blog post about the funding and what you will use it for. If it’s for a specific project you can also write updates as it goes along, and then a post when it’s finished to show off the difference you’ve made and profusely thank the funders again. And don’t forget to carve up those blogs to make social media posts!
Yep – I’m mentioning impact reports again. Highlight which project was funded by which funder so they can see the exact effect of their money.
5. Potential partners
Sometimes we all need a little help from our friends. And organisations can make magic happen when they work together. Your website should make sure you’re attracting great people to work with.
The questions they’re asking
- What kind of work do they do?
- Does it fit with our mission?
- Have they got a good team in place?
- What other organisations do they work with?
- What’s their track record?
How you can answer them
Your home, about and impact pages can all feature your mission statement and your blog can give regular updates on your projects. Make it impossible for anyone visiting your site to miss what you do and how well you do it.
Being specific with job titles and bios in your team section means potential partners can see exactly who they’ll be working with. Demonstrating expertise will make them feel in safe hands. So if your admin person has been a PA for 30 years or your head of operations used to run M&S then say so.
Some organisations have a whole page to show off their partners, others may have a section on one or several pages. Whatever works best for your site, it demonstrates your connection and credibility if you put up their logos and explain what you worked on together.
How to demonstrate your track record? Cough – impact reports – cough.
6. Potential donors
Some social enterprises accept donations, some don’t. If yours does, you want to get those people convinced and getting out their wallets with as little friction as possible.
The questions they’re asking
- Who do they help?
- Where does the money go?
- How do I donate?
- What effect will my money have?
- How else can I help?
How you can answer them
As well as hard data about your impact, emotive stories from and about your beneficiaries are powerful tools to connect with potential donors. Testimonials, case studies and blog posts can all be used to communicate the change you are making in people’s lives.
Just like with potential funders, being transparent about where your money goes means people are more likely to give it. If a visitor sees that only 10% of their money will be spent on admin and the rest directly helps people, they feel more confident about donating.
Get that donate button to stand out and put it in key places like the header, footer and under testimonials, if appropriate. Choose a payment processor that provides a quick and easy checkout process so people won’t give up in frustration.
Some people may want to help in other ways. After they have made a payment, why not link them to your volunteering page so they can find out more about getting involved?
7. Potential volunteers and employees
Your organisation can’t thrive without a team of amazing people. Your website can help attract them, persuade them you’re amazing to work for and set expectations for what they will give and get.
The questions they’re asking
- What’s it like to work there?
- What will I get out of it?
- What is the recruitment process like?
- What support will I get?
How you can answer them
The best people to talk about what it’s like to work for you are the people that already do. Guest blog posts, volunteer or employee testimonials and ‘day in the life’ case studies allow your team to share their experiences in their own words. Pictures of them having a great time doing their jobs are also helpful. And if there are questions that often come up during the recruitment process, this is another place where an FAQ is useful.
Particularly for volunteer roles, you need to tell people why they should bother applying. It’s not for the money! Do you offer travel expenses, references, training or away days? Make this really clear on your volunteering page. As well as helping you with your mission, potential volunteers want to gain from the experience too. Show them they will be valued.
You could use a flow diagram or simply paragraphs and arrows to explain the onboarding process. Then potential team members know exactly what will happen once they express interest or apply. Be sure to include what happens after they start, too: volunteers are more likely to stick with you if you have regular check-ins, listen to them and support their development.
8. Journalists
Reaching out to news publications – especially locally – can be a great way to get more people to hear about your enterprise. But once you’ve sent that pitch or press release, chances are the journalist will come for a nose on your website.
The questions they’re asking
- Is there an interesting story here?
- What are their recent achievements?
- Do they have good quality photos we can use?
- What publications have they been featured in?
- Who do I talk to about doing an interview?
How you can answer them
Here’s another reason to have a well-crafted origin story on your about page. If you can offer a clear narrative, that will make their article easier to write.
Even if they just glance at your blog initially, when they see it’s regularly updated with a variety of news and updates, they know your organisation is active and there’ll be a choice of things to write about.
Good rule for life: if you want someone to help you, make their job as easy as possible. Your website can show a journalist that you have some hi-res photos of your work in action that can easily be emailed over to them.
I know from experience that it can be hard to get good pictures, particularly if you have no budget for a professional or a photography nerd friend to do you a favour. But you can get some great snaps just from a smartphone. Top tip: take plenty in landscape as this is the most common orientation on websites and in newspapers. And they can always be cropped to portrait if needed.
If you’ve already been featured in a paper or magazine, those are some other logos you can put somewhere on your site (with permission). You can also link to the articles either from a page or blog post. Journalists won’t want to repeat a topic someone has already covered, but seeing you’ve been written about before demonstrates that people are interested in your story and that you’re not a nightmare to interview!
Talking of which, make sure it’s clear on your contact page or team section if there is a particular person or email address for press enquiries. Not only will this make it easier for journalists to contact you but it also shows you are organised and they will get a prompt reply.
Joining the dots
As you can see there are some common themes here. That’s great, because it means that if you get a few key parts of your site nailed, it covers a lot of bases. If nothing else, get those impact reports up!
Some people may overlap across a couple of categories – a current beneficiary might be a potential employee, for example. So as well as having all the content sorted and clearly displayed, you need to join the dots so people can navigate easily through your site to get the info you need.
Wait a minute. Did you notice that was only 8 people and I promised 9? Well here’s the last person who might be looking at your website:
9. Me
Oh, hello. Yes, I might have snuck onto your website for a look around.
The questions I’m asking
- Is this website a hot mess?
- Am I excited by the work they do?
- How could everything be clearer?
- How sustainable is the site?
- How can I help?
If I answer ‘Yes. Yes. Ooh I’ve got some ideas…’ then maybe we’d be a good fit to work together. I can transform your current wonky site into a powerful tool that answers all these questions for all these people.
How you can contact me
You can either send me an email at hello@mollygetsitdone.com or book a call for a free chat. I’m looking forward to meeting you.
