Website Redesign Sparks Outreach for Heart to Heart

Heart to Heart International believes in making the dream of a healthier world a reality by connecting people in need with the resources necessary to make a difference. Through disaster response, care kits, lab and clinic services, and fundraising for medical supplies and research, Heart to Heart is providing relief and medical services across the globe. While serving the needs of people in four continents, the non-profit organization, headquartered in Lenexa, Kansas, relies heavily on its website to promote its story, work, volunteer opportunities, and most importantly, donations.

The Ask

With Heart to Heart’s previous website growing increasingly older and more out of date, the organization came to DEG to boost donations, and ultimately help create a healthier world, through a fully redesigned website. DEG, a full-service digital marketing consultancy and one of Inc. Magazine’s “25 Companies That Are Changing The World,” was tasked with transforming the old site into an engaging, responsive, and easily navigated web experience.

The Answer

Using its expert knowledge in web design and strategy, DEG worked with Heart to Heart to create a more impactful engagement with its audience. The organization thrives through the power of storytelling, and DEG gave Heart to Heart a stage in which the stories could shine. DEG’s expertise was utilized in every step of the process, from performing a discovery in order to learn as much about Heart to Heart and its users as possible to implementing and building on pre-existing features to steer visitors toward Heart to Heart’s goals.

The previous Heart to Heart website already contained features used in the new site, but under various domains. DEG brought all of Heart to Heart’s work under one roof while also adding new features like incorporating social media buttons and email subscription. DEG also created the Heart to Heart Aid Map; a responsive map detailing the areas of the world impacted by Heart to Heart’s work. DEG’s tactical approach to web design filtered every creative move back to Heart to Heart’s objectives: increase visitors to the site overall and from visitors outside of the United States, increase online donations and volunteer sign-up, and increase mobile traffic to the site. DEG’s designers utilized the organization’s creative strength of powerful photography as a pillar for building the site, and strategically incorporated the color red, from Heart to Heart’s brand, to signify any call to action that draws people toward Heart to Heart’s key objectives.

Understanding the importance of the site within the organization’s marketing plan, DEG advised Heart to Heart to use their direct mail and social media marketing services as a vehicle to generate buzz around the new site. The DEG-created site helped bring Heart to Heart’s email, social media, and web marketing strategies together to keep visitors connected and informed, no matter the platform.

The Result

The strategic execution of the collaborative effort between DEG and Heart to Heart International created a site that not only looked the part, but also brought in results. Launching on July 1, 2014, Heart to Heart’s website has seen the number of traffic sessions increase 173.90 percent from July to mid-November of 2014 compared to the same period in 2013. Another effect of the new site was an increase of 154.40 percent in the number of users visiting the site, while page views grew an incredible 430.36 percent. Most outstanding to Heart to Heart was that the new site dropped the bounce rate 89.19 percent, from 53.11 percent to 5.74 percent.

DEG succeeded in not only bringing more visitors to the site, but also in better engaging the visitors once they arrived. The average time spent per session jumped 32.04 percent from July to mid-November, while the number of pages viewed during each session nearly doubled.

“What DEG has done for us by building our website is nothing short of amazing,” said Dan Weinbaum, Director of Communications for Heart to Heart International. “The numbers speak for themselves – more people are visiting, more people are staying and exploring, less people are leaving. And mobile? More than one in three visitors come from a mobile platform, and they’re staying too, now that they have something to explore with the responsive design.”

The new website was an engaging, informative design, needing very few post-launch changes and making it simple for Heart to Heart to continuously update the site. DEG’s digital expertise gave Heart to Heart a vehicle in which to promote and inspire its efforts in making the world a healthier place to live.