About Martlets
Martlets is a local charity, providing essential services to people affected by terminal illness in Brighton and Hove, and surrounding areas. Their expert team provides the very best care and support, helping patients live life to the full during the precious time they have. More than 25,000 local people have been supported and cared for by Martlets since 1997.
The use of technology has changed enormously over the last five years. As a public-facing organisation, it’s important for Martlets to adjust to this accordingly, meeting evolving user behaviours and needs.
Client requirements
Prior to the launch of the new website, the Martlets team were using a bespoke CMS. Over time, the team found that they had begun to outgrow the functionality it offered, and the ease of use it provided in regards to content creation and editing tools.
Martlets also wanted to refresh its website look and feel, whilst still remaining within the organisation’s brand guidelines, to reflect its digital and business objectives. The team’s intention was to simplify processes for charity donation and event registration, grow their e-commerce capability and create a more effective online referral destination for professionals. Overall, they wanted their digital presence to be more patient- and supporter-focused. One of the key goals was to prioritise donations and fundraising towards the charity. WordPress was the ideal solution for helping to meet these objectives.
Our approach
Here at Angry Creative, we have a proven track record of working closely with charities and have developed a suite of website solutions that resolve some of the key challenges charities have. One of the features in our charity solution is the use of GiveWP, which is a favourite plugin that we use on many of our charity websites. GiveWP has many benefits, including giving organisations ownership of the data that is collected. It’s yours to keep and not shared or owned by the platform in use. Some of the ways that it allows for the data to be used by charities is in the planning of future campaigns or the creation of a mailing list for donations. You can find out more about our experience of using GiveWP and our favourite features in this article.
Following a project discovery session with the Martlets team, we decided that this solution was also the best fit for their project. Our charity solution keeps things simple for the team managing the website, whilst providing a seamless experience for the end-user, and delivering as much useful functionality as possible within their budget.
Production and process
The Angry Creative and Martlets teams were a perfect match! Regular and clear communication between the two teams throughout the project meant that we were able to work efficiently. This enabled us to build a good relationship between our organisations. In return, they felt that they could fully trust us and were very forthcoming with what they needed us to do in working within the means of the budget and deadline.
Here’s what Georgina Lestini, Head of Marketing and Communications at Martlets during this project, has to say about working with us:
“An enormous thank you to you all for an incredible project, your project management, development, liaison, speed to respond to our question and actions on your part to find solutions. And also to meet our business objectives of being clear about our offer and increasing our reach.”
Towards the live launch of the Martlets website, more attention was put toward its e-commerce area to drive sales of products. There was plenty of communication between both teams to achieve the objectives set out. We also provided full WordPress training to the Martlets team, which helped the team better understand how they could customise individual elements of the new site.
“It has been the most seamless website development I have been involved in, and I have learnt so much during the process!”
Oh, shucks. ☺️ You can read more about what they think of us over here on Clutch.
Results
WordPress gave the Martlets team control over their website and will ultimately reduce the cost of ownership over time, as opting for an open-source solution means there will be no more ongoing software licensing fees. WordPress also now allows the team to make changes to the site quickly and conveniently, without restrictions or blockers.
In order to continue to provide the highest quality of care and service to our local community, Martlets relies on donations from generous members of the public. Their new website has made it easier for visitors to do just that, with an improved UX and customer journey resulting in a 150% increase in the number of visitors to the Donate page and a 52% increase in the number of donations.
“Once again it has been a sheer pleasure to work with such a knowledgeable, efficient and effective partner. Thank you for making it happen.”
It was a pleasure working with Martlets, and we look forward to collaborating with them again in the future on any new projects they might have.
If you’d like to find out how we can help you increase conversions and reach your business goals, get in touch with our friendly team for a chat!