St. Martin in the Fields

Increasing donations by 23% YoY

Laptop displaying homepage of St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity's web design, built bespoke and responsive on Wordpress

The client.

St Martin-in-the-Fields is an inclusive church in the centre of London. The church formed a charitable organisation to support services designed transform the lives of homeless and vulnerable people.

The challenge.

Since 1927, it has ran a successful Christmas appeal working in partnership with the BBC. However, due to the increasing success of the appeal, it required a more robust website to support significant increases in traffic and digital marketing services to drive donations.

The strategy.

Create a sleek and modern subsite that can handle the huge spike in traffic around the christmas period. Develop a new, streamlined donation process. Produce new video assets to support the campaign. SEO optimise the website and build a content strategy. Launch Google Ad campaigns.

Laptop displaying St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity's bespoke web design within the charity sector

What we did.

Streamlined donations process

Contra was determined to breathe life into the donations process. Donating is a highly emotive act that makes people feel good. We designed the site to build on this feeling at each stage of the donations process, using interactive elements. We started by adding a personal message section. Donors can also type in how much they want to donate and the impact of the donation is calculated. For example, “Each month £10.00 could provide 2 people with tea and food during a chat with The Connection's outreach team,” or, “Each month £20.00 could provide 1 person with a phone and credit to keep in touch and receive support from The Connection.” Finally, we added animated text that shows how much their donation could increase if they add gift aid.

Clear messaging

We ensured the sight passed the eight second rule, convincing visitors to stay on the website using clear messaging that immediately outlines what it is St Martin’s does and why. It’s also important that the copy is less about St Martin’s and more about their donors. This in turn builds an emotional connection with visitors, making them understand that their support really makes a difference and increasing the likelihood that they’ll donate.

Positive imagery

The success of different types of imagery in driving donations varies from charity to charity. When it comes to tackling homelessness, positive imagery tends to be most successful. We aimed to empower St Martin’s beneficiaries by using images of them smiling and also included success stories, highlighting how the support they received helped to change their lives for the better.

Attractive assets

Contra created a sleek, modern design that guides donors straight to the donations page. The streamlined design has strong call-to-action buttons to donate and also share the campaign. The site uses Responsive Web Design to work across all devices. The site also features Contra’s ‘What matters to you at Christmas?’ film, highlighting precisely why donations are so important.

Powerful performance

Contra delivered outstanding, high-performance hosting for the site. We needed to give the client peace of mind that the site would remain operational when the appeal hit. Before release, we ‘load tested’ to ensure it could cope with the huge spike in traffic sparked by the Radio 4 appeal.

Donation-driving digital advertising

Contra launched Google Ad campaigns, aligning with the St Martin's and BBC Christmas Campaign, designed to drive donations. The campaign achieved a ROAS of 4.68 (a return of £4.68 for every £1 spent).

“I recommend Contra to every single person who talks to me about websites. Charities need an agency that’s very knowledgeable, able to explain things so you can easily understand, and can trust to do the job to the highest possible standard – Contra ticks all of those boxes.”

Laura Aznar, St Martin in the Fields Charity
Laura Aznar Communications and Engagement Manager, St Martin-in-the-Fields Charity
Increasing icon

23%

increase in donations YoY

Increasing icon

468%

return on ad spend

Emily Rodgers Contra Agency

Emily

Project Manager

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