How communications and digital innovation are helping with grief

In response to the crisis, Cruse have helped those affected by bereavement in a whole host of ways, from responding to three times more phone calls to managing 75% more website visits than ever before. Responding so well to the crisis has been facilitated, in part, due to the marketing efforts and digital transformation that’s taken place at the charity, led by Fiona Brydon, their Director of Communications & Digital.

Here, we speak with Fiona about the rebranding that’s taken place at Cruse and how digital has been at the heart of the transformation to help reach more people affected by bereavement in the UK, and how other charities can make the most of the potential digital offers to better serve the communities and causes they work with.

How did the decision to rebrand and redevelop the website come about?

When I took on this role in 2019 one of the first tasks was to review our brand and how it was and wasn’t working to support our strategy. Cruse was well known within the NHS, among health professionals in end of life care and the government, but we knew that we needed to do more to widen our reach and understand how our brand could work better for us.

Alongside this work we had been awarded funding from the National Lottery Digital Fund to expand our reach by supporting more people digitally, and so the website was always going to be a key focus.

Our CEO, Steven Wibberley, has always led with a digital-first mentality and we knew this opportunity would be the start of a digital transformation for Cruse and as such, we would need to bring in digital expertise into the team. Just as we began recruitment, the pandemic hit and digital was in demand in a way no one could have predicted.

How did you adapt to the strains of the pandemic?

At the very start we had a tiny team of three people and in that first week I prioritised that we needed to:

1. Immediately have Covid-related grief advice online. The advice we had always given was suddenly now the opposite of what lockdown imposed: don’t isolate yourself was something we had always advocated against when bereaved.

2. Then promote these new resources through our networks and media.

3. Lastly, ensure our people were being supported through clear, directive and kind internal communications.

We are still incredibly proud to have been the first bereavement charity to produce Covid-specific content for those dealing with the death of loved ones due to the virus, creating content around ‘not being able to say goodbye’, for example.

After that initial response we then needed to look longer term and how we could fast track our digital plans – not only in the immediate transferring of our services online, which our Services team did superbly, but in the way we could help people dealing with grief at such a unique and scary time. We resumed our recruitment and, in Easter 2020, hired Suzanne Begley as our first Digital Lead at Cruse – actually via a search that Prospectus carried out.

What did hiring a Digital Lead allow you to do?

With Suzanne onboard, we were able to delve much deeper into using our data in a meaningful way to really understand our audience. This would then mean that we could adapt our website structure, content and wording through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to make sure our resources were most easily available to those that needed them. Simply put, we could understand so much more about the people we wanted to help most and be able to do it more effectively.

When evolving your digital presence, what practical steps did you have to undertake?

Initially we ‘polished’ our old website. Redevelopment would have to wait. It was crucial that we were providing those grieving with an experience that was as kind, informative and based on insight of what they needed. This work proved to also be incredibly valuable for when we came to redesigning and building the new site, with now so much more data available to drive decisions.

Our rebranding was all about making us more accessible and visible and to truly reflect who we are now. Part of how the brand and website worked together was the rewriting of hundreds of pages in our new Tone Of Voice (TOV) and optimising them for Google and other search engine searches with an SEO audit. Working with Reason Digital, a specialist agency in the sector, we were able to pivot our site effectively and start building what would be the most innovative part of our new digital offering, the grief self-assessment tool.

This tool was launched at the end of September 2021 and has been created to help users understand what they are going through. They are asked a series of questions about how they are feeling, and then get a personalised page with content and signposting to what would be best for them. Part of that content we developed was in the form of 3-minute videos from a cross-section of trained staff and volunteers at Cruse to create an intimacy with the person so they don’t feel so alone in their grief.

Nearly three months in and we’re already reaching 35% more people and already have plans underway for another exciting digital project to help support more people at one of the most painful times of their lives.

What’s the biggest advice you’d give to other charities looking to take a leap when it comes to digital?

Make the investment. It is a need for any charity wanting to reach their mission.  By having invested in digital, it’s allowed us to define a clear strategy, with clear target audiences and clear ways of communicating with them. It has affected and benefited every department – as digital runs through every organisation. Ultimately investing in digital has meant we have been able to help so many more people than ever before – which is why this is a need not a want for the future of charities.

If this article has affected you, or you are experiencing loss and need advice, visit the Cruse Bereavement Support website.

For advice and a confidential discussion about hiring your own Marketing or Digital Lead, please contact Rebecca Pooley, Team Leader in Recruitment at Prospectus via Rebecca.pooley@prospect-us.co.uk

To find out about similar marketing and digital opportunities available in the charity sector, search our website now.