Client | A Little Help
Year | Spring 2019
Team | Annika Galloway, Zach Bretz, Chloe Gordon, Hanna Krivit, Natalie Garibaldi, Amanda Batchelor
Type | UX + Brand Strategy
Role | UX Research + Design
A Little Help Goes a Long Way
During my internship at Denver based advertising agency Karsh Hagan, I was part of a six person team to develop a comprehensive communication campaign and strategic rebrand for a Denver nonprofit called A Little Help - all in less than four weeks.
The Problem
Increase corporate volunteer participation in company service days.
The Solution
Create a comprehensive communication strategy tailored to solve the common pain points of HR Managers when planning company-wide events. We created a complete communication strategy beginning with outreach and ending with a polished Volunteer Guidebook to ensure that the volunteer planning process from awareness to conversion was perfectly seamless for HR Managers.
We made an often dreadful process of company event planning so easy it was impossible to not say yes.
A “Little” Rebrand: Large corporations hold certain standards of professionalism for themselves and the organizations they choose to associate with. That’s we created a clean new look for A Little Help. The concept, titled “A Little ___ Help” allows for endless personalization and customization while still holding true to A Little Help’s well-known look and feel.
My Role
As the UX designer, I was responsible for a variety of UX tasks: conducting research through user interviews and online ethnography, aided in the strategy of the email marketing through user journeys, developed a tone for each module in the strategy and created a custom landing page for corporate partners where they can sign up or download more informational material. The timeline for the project was 5 weeks and we successfully delivered all assets of the campaign to the client.
The Process
Problem Brief
User Research
Understanding Pain Points and User Stories
Market Research
Define Scope
Develop Overall Campaign Strategy
Client Review on Strategy + Design
Design Plan + Execution
Testing + Iteration
Final Design Review
Implementation
Client Review and Improve
Finish
With a four-week timeline, we had to condense our process in delivering our strategy to the client.
Diagram of the process and what methods it fits under.
Research
To inform the design process, I conducted primary and secondary research to understand the process it takes to create a relationship between corporate volunteer and the nonprofit.
User Research
After conducting interviews with 5 local HR and office managers from advertising to technology companies and law firms in the Denver Metro Area, I determined that contacting HR managers directly would be the most efficient way to gain corporate partners. By anticipating the common hurdles HR managers face when organizing events and proactively providing solutions, we were able to make their process to conversion truly seamless.
Key Findings from Interviews Include:
Nonprofits do not proactively reach out and guide the communication between company and organization.
HR Managers expect purposeful communication with clear expectations and dates.
Long “sales cycle”, as HR Managers typically start planning at least 3 months before the event.
Focus on Ethos, values of business need to align with the volunteer opportunity.
Personalization is a great touch in outreach.
Narrowing Down The Target Audience
Occupation | Hiring Managers, Office Managers, Volunteer Coordinators
Company Size | Small to medium (15-75 employees)
Locally owned businesses in the Denver Metro Area
Persona
Defining Scope
As we understood who our target audience was, their journey through the process that helped identify certain pain points, we came up with a strategy that would lead our client to success.
Strategy
Outreach to gain new email addresses.
Email drip campaign to increase awareness and drive readers to landing page.
Landing page specifically tailored to corporate partners.
Volunteer Guidebook + Resources for HR Managers.
Design + Testing
Landing Page
After defining our scope and, ultimately, creating a strategy where outreach and email campaigns that funnel down to a single landing page where a user is able to get started with the sign up process or find out more in the downloadable volunteer guidebook.
User Journey
Although the persona above explains the background of our user with their motivations and frustrations, we are able to fully understand the user
Volunteer Sign Up Journey
Block Wireframe
User Testing
We tested early on in our process by conducting A/B Testing to identify which experience was more effective in the user’s journey of either downloading the Volunteer Guidebook or using the Start Planning form.
Insights Found:
User’s were more likely (23% conversion) to download the Volunteer Guidebook when an overview of the book was presented to them in consumable bites of info.
7/10 times when the guide book was downloaded, a visitor would fill out the information on the form.
Version B and C both performed 50% better than Version A when filling out the form; however, Version B outperformed both Version A and C by 25%.
We also were able to speak with users in an open user testing interview to understand initial thoughts on the landing page.
High Fidelity Mock Up
Implementation
Outreach
Vital to the success of this communication campaign is obtaining a list of relevant emails, specifically the emails of HR Managers and other decision makers in the organization. We provided A Little Help with four unique ways to grow their audience.
REFERRALS. Word of mouth is one of the strongest forms of raising awareness. Ask your partners to spread the word to encourage other businesses to sign up.
LOCAL EVENTS. Show up for your community by having a booth at local events. Bring a signup sheet and/or an iPad in order to collect emails to add to your address book.
SUPPORT YOUR SUPPORTERS. Take an active interest in stakeholder’s work and promote it in a relevant manner. It is the easiest and most efficient way to earn respect in the community. Thank them publicly and tell them how their follow and support is helping push your cause.
LINKEDIN. Post a signup form page on LinkedIn and sponsor it for a small price. Reach out to HR managers through the platform Hunter.io. If you have employee’s emails from certain companies, follow the company email pattern and directly email the HR managers.
Our email drip campaign strategy helps facilitate the long decision-making process of HR Managers when deciding what volunteer opportunity they should pursue for their employees. Even more importantly, every email in the campaign directed readers to the landing page tailored to corporate partners. Our strategic placement of emails flows the reader through an informational email, an email that highlights the unique mutually beneficial relationship A Little Help can provide, emails that pull on the heartstrings, and finally a witty breakup email that will push any reader on the fence to convert.
Email Drip Campaign with example subject lines that all lead to the corporate landing page.
Landing Page
This custom landing page tailored specifically to our corporate partner audience is simple yet packed with valuable information. Two simple offerings help guide the reader through the sales funnel. The first offering is a clean and simple context form with the ability to contact A Little Help. The second offering allows the user to immediately download the Volunteer Guidebook which contains a wealth of information for HR Managers, making their planning process incredibly efficient.
Zach Bretz | Final Landing Page Design
Volunteer Guidebook
This comprehensive guidebook contains a collection of communication materials provided to HR managers to aid them in planning and executing a corporate volunteer day with A Little Help. This helpful, straightforward but also a sharable piece of content that they can resurface to employees and executives reinforces A Little Help as a true partner to potential organizations as they make working together easy and fun.
Included in the Guidebook:
A letter to HR highlighting the mission of A Little Help, how their organization can get involved and how A Little Help is making it ridiculously easy to plan an event with them.
A Fact Sheet that gives the quick facts and can be shared with just about anyone. This public facing piece is meant to get the attention and support of anyone reading it.
An Executive Letter. Sure, volunteering is a nice thing to do, but what’s the ROI? Here, we break it down for you.
A checklist for employees participating. Let’s be honest, if someone doesn’t tell you to bring the sunscreen you will probably forget.
OOO Emails. We are seriously making it so easy for people to volunteer we already wrote their OOO emails for them (Bonus, they are not your typical boring OOO emails).
Posters. Included in this PDF Volunteer Guidebook is an array of posters that HR Managers can choose from to decorate their office with and get employees excited for the event. One version of the poster even has custom fields where HR Managers can insert time, date, and location of the event.
