Your nonprofit or mission-driven organization might feel motivated to adapt its visual storytelling approach to respond to shifting audience preferences or changes to your organization’s brand or cause. Online storytelling is our favorite way to drive mission engagement and upgrade current donors.
Marketers frequently use visual elements like pictures, infographics, charts, data visualizations, and videos to drive their storytelling strategies. But how can you improve these visual elements to tell your story authentically this year? Let’s explore five expert tips for enhancing visual storytelling on your organization’s website.
1. Take inspiration from other organizations
As a marketing professional, you’ve probably come across a website from a similar organization and felt a bit of design envy. Whether it was a particularly striking homepage graphic, interactive blog post, or a unique call to action (CTA), perhaps you said to yourself “I wish we could add that to our website.”
The good news is that there’s nothing wrong with looking at other websites for design inspiration! Take some time to browse similar websites, assessing what aspects resonate with you and your donors and could work for your nonprofit. For example, depending on your organization’s field, you could draw inspiration from:
- Top nonprofit websites: Investigate the visual storytelling strategies used on donation pages, About pages, fundraising event pages, and homepages.
- Higher-education and college website strategies: Understand how education-focused organizations leverage blog posts, testimonials, research updates, and other storytelling features to engage alumni, students, faculty, and other stakeholders.
- Best healthcare designs: Explore how healthcare websites incorporate online resources, internal search functions, and testimonials to connect with patients, community members, and healthcare professionals.
Note your favorite design elements in a document or folder and connect with your design team or developer to share your findings. Even if you don’t implement all of the ideas, it’s good practice to be aware of standout visual elements other organizations are using.
2. Ditch the trends
As we’ve seen, digital storytelling trends come and go rapidly. Designs that once seemed ubiquitous, like the much-maligned Corporate Memphis, are now making way for softer, more flexible options like Claymorphism. Also, we’ve flipped back and forth between minimalism and maximalism so many times, we’ve started to lose track.
As a marketing professional, you might be tempted to redesign your organization’s website whenever a new trend appears. However, let this be the year you let go of trends and determine the visual style that works best for your unique needs.
Embrace timelessness by finding the style that promotes your organization’s message the most effectively. For example, if you want to connect with environmentally-minded donors, you’ll never go wrong with high-quality, engaging photographs of real environmental landscapes or wildlife.
If you need help understanding what types of visuals appeal to your unique audience, send a survey asking for their input. Include different styles of images, infographics, and typography to see which options resonate with your supporters. And remember that your supporters may be older, so larger print and easy-to-read fonts are key. All this will help you develop a visual design strategy that’s uniquely yours and free from constant trend-chasing.
3. Embrace interactive video
Interactive video is a type of video that viewers can engage with by clicking or touching within the frame. Interactive video makes visual storytelling even more engaging by allowing users to take different paths through the video depending on their needs or interests.
For example, let’s say you’re creating an interactive video for your recurring donor welcome series. Offer a “build your own adventure” experience by including choices for new donors to learn about different aspects of your mission. You could allow donors to explore the following options:
- Beneficiaries
- Research
- Community Outreach
- Volunteer Program
- Community Member Testimonials
After clicking an option, donors will have the opportunity to dive deeper into the subject and learn more about that topic.
Interactive videos give users more control over their online experience, allowing them to investigate topics that interest them. If you want to explore interactive video this year, connect with a web design or video production professional to help bring your vision to life.
NXUnite by Nexus Marketing recommends keeping nonprofit video best practices in mind as well, such as crafting a clear narrative with a beginning, middle, and end, and wrapping up the video with a specific call to action. For example, you could invite new recurring donors to head to your website to learn more and sign up for new opportunities.
4. Optimize your calls to action
Every story you tell on your website—whether a blog post, testimonial, interactive video, or infographic—should end in a compelling call to action. Your stories will inspire website visitors and motivate them to get more involved with your organization. Your CTAs are the tools that will allow them to actually do so. Keep the following tips in mind to create engaging CTAs:
Make CTAs bold and obvious
Your CTAs should stand out, whether they’re on your website’s homepage, menu, blog post, or at the end of a video. Make them as attention-grabbing as possible by incorporating:
- Eye-catching colors
- Strong color contrast (the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines recommend a color contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, or 3:1 for large-scale text)
- Bold, large fonts
For example, check out this bold CTA from the World Wildlife Fund’s 2023 Adopt an Elephant video:
Screenshot of a WWF video showing an elephant and a bold message to “Go Online Call or Scan Now”
The CTA includes information about what the donation will go toward, along with multiple ways to donate, including a link, phone number, and QR code.
Empower supporters
Use second-person to ensure CTAs are focused on your audience’s needs and interests, not your organization itself. For example, consider the difference between these statements:
- We tackle the world’s biggest environmental issues. Help us by donating today.
- You can be a wildlife champion. Donate today to make a difference for animals in need.
The first sentence keeps the focus on the organization, whereas the second statement places the supporter in the driver’s seat, giving them a greater role in their involvement.
Make a specific ask
Your CTAs should ask supporters to take just one action and use strong verbs to inspire support. For example, they might say:
- Register to volunteer
- Donate now
- Become a monthly donor
- Get your donation matched
- Download our annual report
Your CTAs should make it immediately clear what visitors will see after clicking through, whether it’s your online donation form, volunteer registration page, or annual report document. This ensures that anyone who clicks through has a clear intention to engage with your organization on a deeper level.
5. Make the most of your CMS
Today’s popular content management systems (CMS) are more user-friendly than ever before. For example, according to Kanopi’s WordPress for Nonprofits guide, many organizations turn to WordPress for a user-friendly interface, simple media management, and an intuitive editing process. Drupal, another popular platform, offers drag-and-drop functionality that makes implementing website updates and strategy adjustments simple.
Make the most of CMS tools that allow you to make easy changes to your website, even if you don’t have development experience.
You may still need a developer’s help when it comes to developing custom functionality and design. However, work with your developer to train your team on simple page updates, such as adding new media assets or updating your landing pages.
This can give your marketing team greater independence and flexibility when implementing your visual storytelling strategy. At the same time, you’ll still ensure that your site has the custom features it needs to serve your audience effectively.
Now is a great time to enhance visual storytelling for your organization. Start by gathering inspiration from outside sources and input directly from your audience. Then, develop a strategy that suits your organization’s unique needs and serves your supporters for years to come.
AUTHOR: ANNE STEFANYK
As Founder and CEO of Kanopi Studios, Anne helps create clarity around project needs, and turns client conversations into actionable outcomes. She enjoys helping clients identify their problems, and then empowering the Kanopi team to execute great solutions. Anne is an advocate for open source and co-organizes the Bay Area Drupal Camp. When she’s not contributing to the community or running her thoughtful web agency, she enjoys yoga, meditation, treehouses, dharma, cycling, paddle boardi
