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Description
The project was designed to improve and boost communication between The Portuguese Cancer League – Northern Regional Branch (LPCC-NRN: Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro – Núcleo Regional do Norte) and its public to increase public knowledge about the institution and effectively disseminate the existence of free support services for cancer patients. This project will empower the employees and volunteers of LPCC-NRN and its delegations and will provide the necessary means and resources to put into practice their communication and marketing strategy, guided by a logic of proximity, equality, commitment, and transparency. The activities to be developed include the organisation of two training courses in Digital Marketing and Social Networks; consulting and mentoring actions in communication and marketing; the elaboration of a Manual of Good Practices in Social Networks; the creation of an institutional video; the development of a periodic Information Bulletin; and the execution of digital awareness and fundraising campaigns.
Summary of project results
According to the project''s promoter, the pandemic crisis and its impact on the health sector has reinforced the urgency of speeding up and increasing the communication and capacity of cancer prevention and screening programmes. In order to keep up with society and respond to its current needs, seeking to guarantee the future of its mission of solidarity, humanisation and proximity, it was imperative that LPCC-NRN strengthened and reinforced its organisational capacity and the training of its resources in the area of marketing and communication to ensure greater effectiveness in its work.
The LPCC-NRN had carried out a market study to assess and identify the perceptions, awareness and evaluations that the population of the Portuguese northern region had of the organisation. The results showed a clear lack of awareness of the activities and support services that LPCC-NRN offers free of charge to cancer patients, family members, carers and the general population, and also revealed incorrect perceptions, such as considering it to be an IPSS and that it receives state funding.
In view of this situation, LPCC-NRN had the clear challenge of updating its competences and to strengthen its communication strategy with its audiences, in particular by improving the actions of its delegations in the northern region.
The activities carried out as part of the project were:
1.Development of graphic materials and internal training in ‘Communication’ for LPCC employees. A training company organised the ‘Digital marketing strategy’ and ‘Social networks’ training sessions, totalling 30 hours, in an expository, demonstrative and practical way, for internal employees. At the end of each session, practical challenges were set to be carried out and presented at the next session, with support for any questions during this process. During the sessions, the CANVA platform was presented and trialed, where an account was created, shared as a team with the trainees, to access graphic materials, templates for future posts and posters and LPCC-NRN logos.
2.Training sessions, mentoring and the presentation of the ‘Manual of Good Practices in Social Media’ to the delegation teams. The manual was distributed in digital format. This manual presents standards and guidelines, including good practices for writing copy, using hashtags and emojis, identifying partners or sites with complementary information, using logos, as well as examples of correct and incorrect publication. Two courses were held: ‘Digital Marketing Strategy’ (6 hours online + 9 hours face-to-face) and ‘Social Media’ (4 hours online + 11 hours face-to-face), attended by 19 trainees, with both theoretical and practical components. At the end of the course, the trainer made a diagnosis of specific needs and former competences.
3.preparing digital tools to start digital campaigns. In order to start paid digital campaigns, the project needed to create a PayPal account, transfer funds to it and link this bank account to the Meta Business Suite account. The LinkTree associated with the Instagram account was updated and refined in order to redirect people impacted by the posts to the website with more information about each piece of promoted content. The e-Goi email marketing platform account was created, and the database had to be uploaded and updated in accordance with Data Protection standards and segmented according to the content of the digital campaigns to be communicated.
4. Implementation of digital campaigns aimed at raising awareness and funds to support the cause of fighting cancer. To this end, text and video and/or image content was developed for publications and adverts, an institutional video was produced, Facebook event pages were created, and 10 digital fundraising and awareness campaigns were put into operation, instead of the 11 planned due to time constraints.
5. Four Newsletters (digital and printed) were produced and distributed, which involved graphic development, content editing, appropriate images and layout. In digital format, they were sent via the ‘e-Goi’ e-mail marketing platform to the institutional database of 29,192 contacts. They were also publicised on social networks and institutional websites.
The project ran two training courses, ‘Digital marketing strategy’ and ‘Social networks’, with a total of 30 hours, involving 19 professionals from the various delegations. A “Manual of Good Practices in Social Media was created and disseminated in the delegations.
Additionally, 10 digital awareness-raising campaigns were launched which increased the number of followers in the different platforms.
On Facebook, there was a 17 per cent increase in the total number of followers and a 20.7 % increase in the number of posts.
On Instagram, there was an impressive 127.6% increase in the number of followers, which indicates remarkable success in expanding the follower base during the analysed period. A substantial 80 per cent rise in the number of publications suggests a more active and engaging strategy on the platform.
The digital newsletters were produced and distributed to 29,192 contacts wich included companies, municipalities, schools, partners and patrons, donors, volunteers, governing bodies and LPCC-NRN employees.