Why were you looking for a digital PR and communications platform?
We were looking for a one stop shop for all our media needs. Epresspack gave us an easy way to manage our contacts, distribute our stories and analyse what content works for our audience. Many comms teams are being asked to do more with less resources, yet still find themselves using Outlook to distribute their press releases and not seeing results until the end of campaigns. This was something that we needed to change and Epresspack allowed us to do that.
Who are your main audiences?
In the media world, we have a range of contacts we are looking to reach from political to climate and faith media. We have 3 focus areas at Christian Aid UK – advocacy, humanitarian, and supporter stories, all requiring different messaging and approaches. Our CRM allows us to create bespoke audiences to ensure our messages for each focus area resonate with the correct audience. This helps us to target our message to amplify our voice..
What has changed for Christian Aid since implementing Epresspack?
Epresspack gave us an easy way to manage our contacts, distribute our stories and analyse what works. The platform provides us with confidence and security, which allows us to be more creative in our messaging. It has allowed the team to be more focused, as we don't have to worry about the smaller time-consuming elements of distributing our message. This has seen our engagement increase with content downloads increasing by over 180% in 2022. The solution allows us to demonstrate value within the comms team and we can grow with confidence. The Epresspack account teams are friendly and on hand to help, ensuring that onboarding is simple and clear which allows new team members to get up to speed, quickly. I am a great believer in simple solutions and Epresspack really hits the mark for what we need at Christian Aid.
What are Christian Aid UK’s communications priorities moving forward?
There are many areas we need to put our energies into to try and improve things. From a humanitarian perspective we have the war in Ukraine which is one of the biggest crises out there and has an immediate urgency as it is front of mind for so many. Couple that with the ever-increasing cost of living crisis we are really seeing a struggle on several fronts with global and localised aid being needed. We need to be awake to this whilst still providing continued support to ongoing humanitarian causes.
We also must consider longer-term advocacy causes such as the climate crisis and the impact we are already seeing with the hunger crisis in East Africa. These causes not only need direct support but pressure to persuade those in power to help those that need it most. Our editorial voice is key to the success of this, where we lend our voice to these causes as you may have seen across mainstream opinion and features. Our newsroom will have a big part to play in maximising this. We need to ensure what we produce is accessible and engaging to the press to increase our coverage. We also need to be tactical in our approach to both medium and longer-term humanitarian causes. Identifying which contacts from key publications engage with our content will help with building long-term relationships. This will help further establish Christian Aid’s editorial voice.
To discover which charities David thinks are hitting the mark with their comms, plus the biggest challenges facing non-profit comms teams, download the full case study and see behind the scenes of an organisation using their voice to help others.
