In our ongoing Clients Creating Change series, we’re sharing inspirations and insights from some of the top digital influencers across a range of fields.
Today, we’re talking with Carrie Benjamin, the Associate Director of Strategic Communications of FSG, a mission-driven consulting firm for foundations, businesses, NGOs, and governments in search of large-scale, lasting social change.
What do you enjoy most about working at FSG? And what are the obstacles?
A big part of FSG’s mission is to share best practices from our research and consulting more broadly with those who are working on complex social and environmental issues. Our colleagues generate a lot of influential thinking for the field. In some ways it’s easier for them to write a 100-page white paper than it is to write a one-page blog. The reality is that we need both: in-depth research and interesting, shareable content to continue to make an impact. As a communications team, we are trying to think differently about how we source short-format content and move more quickly and serve our growing digital audience.
What were the key drivers behind reimagining your digital experience?
It became challenging for FSG to clearly communicate who we are and how we can help as we’ve grown and evolved over the past few years. Once we went through a branding process to refine our messaging, we knew we needed to translate this thinking for digital. We had a lot of data, but we needed to develop a story about who was interacting with our website and what they wanted. As much as we do a lot of face-to-face work with CEOs and executive directors, we understand that our digital audience is mostly social change implementers, and not executives.
That’s where BSD came in: they helped us focus on reaching these practitioners by “unlocking the PDF”—making the insights from whitepapers more accessible—ensuring each page on our website was as useful as possible, by bringing key takeaways from publications up front, and including related blogs, videos, and other resources. To see an example, visit our publication page for “Collective Impact.”
What’s one piece of advice you would give other organizations undertaking a transformation to their digital strategy?
My advice is to take the time to get it right. Oftentimes there is an expectation that digital can happen quickly—and it can, but rushing to create the wrong products for your audience can be costly. Think about the best internal and external partners for your project, and not only the ones who will share your opinions. Build a process that allows stakeholders to test new ideas, and give your team enough time to make necessary adjustments in response to feedback and data analysis.
What surprised you the most about the process?
That less is more! The website we have now is in many ways less technically complex than our previous website, but it takes a user through a simple path to learn about how FSG can help him or her. BSD encouraged us to take a similar approach with our email marketing, focusing on clear messages and customized content that provides value to the reader.
Throughout the digital strategy process, and with each campaign, we need to remind ourselves and our internal stakeholders that the way that we categorize information, name concepts, and think about our work is not necessarily the language or framing that will resonate with our audience.
What are you excited about?
Now we are much more equipped to ask thoughtful questions, and experiment with different kinds of content and marketing techniques, than we were a year ago. For me, it is incredibly exciting to be able to run a test with each campaign to learn more about our audience and what they find useful. And perhaps the most exciting part is that all of this work has a purpose; we’re learning how to do a better job of providing resources and support to the people who are alleviating social challenges around the world.