International charity The Leprosy Mission has appointed digital marketing agency Itineris to undertake a radical overhaul of its online marketing activity. Itineris will work with The Leprosy Mission to create a website which will educate and inform visitors about the charity’s work and encourage people to donate to the charity.
The Leprosy Mission is a worldwide partnership, active in around 30 countries, with a vision for a world without leprosy and a passion to eradicate the causes and consequences of leprosy.
Jean Jones, Head of Fundraising at The Leprosy Mission said: “Our existing website had been up and running for around six years but had become dated and not engaging for visitors. We know that leprosy is often perceived as a disease from the Bible but sadly it is a very modern issue affecting millions of people throughout the world. Therefore when a new National Director for The Leprosy Mission was appointed in 2007, his core priority was to create a contemporary website which would widen the charity’s appeal and help increase donations”.
After a tender process, Itineris was invited to pitch along with two other digital marketing agencies. “We were confident that Itineris was the right agency to work with,” continues Jean Jones. “Even at pitch stage, the team understood our vision and were able to translate this into design concepts which offered a much needed feeling of freshness and vitality. Now, Itineris is taking the time to get to know us even better so that they can develop a website which is easy to navigate, encourages people to stay longer and makes people want to donate. The Itineris content management platform, i.content, appealed to us because it is simple to use and will enable us to continually update content and adapt and change the site over time in response to feedback from our supporters and partners.”
Another key element of the new relationship between The Leprosy Mission and Itineris is email marketing. i.send is Itineris’ own email marketing product, designed to provide organisations such as The Leprosy Mission with a straightforward and cost effective way to market their products and services online. “We have never done email marketing before and are very excited by the prospect of being able to capture data on the new site and then open dialogue with people who are interested in our work,” continues Jean Jones.
“As a Christian charity we don’t apply to the Lottery for grants due to the gambling element, so our fundraising activity is arguably tougher than for many other charities. It’s therefore essential that we get our marketing right and find ways to build relationships with supporters and potential supporters of The Leprosy Mission; Itineris is helping us to achieve this.”
The new Leprosy Mission website is due to go live in early October. For more information on the charity please call 01733 370505 or visit www.leprosymission.org.uk.