1.
BUILDING
CONSENSUS FOR
MAJOR CHANGES
USING DATA AND
STORYTELLING
ANNE BERLIN
DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
LUPUS FOUNDATION OF AMERICA
LUPUS.ORG
@ANNIEPOOHSTER

2.
WHAT IS LUPUS?
Lupus is a chronic auto-immune disease that can damage any
part of the body (skin, joints, organs).
It primarily impacts women of childbearing age (15-44), but it
also occurs in men and children.
Women of color are two to three times more likely to develop
lupus than Caucasians.
The causes are not well understood, but researchers currently
believe lupus is triggered by a combination of genetic,
environmental and hormonal factors.

3.
THE
CHALLENGE
Engage activists
Collect donations
Educate patients
Build cause awareness
Issue research grants
A website trying to serve
too many audiences:

4.
THE RESULT:
FAILING TO
CAPTIVATE
VISITORS
73% BOUNCE RATE (MOBILE)
30% RETURN VISITOR RATE
1:26 AVG SESSION DURATION (MOBILE)
1.8 PAGES PER SESSION (MOBILE)
Source:
Traffic to lupus.org
Google Analytics Behavior
All Pages Jan 1-Dec 31, 2016

5.
INBOUND TRAFFIC BY
SOURCE
Email
16%
Social
5%
Other
4%
Search
75%
26% were first-time
visits to only 5 of our
600+ health
education pages
15% of search visits
just for one resource:
"what is lupus?"
OF 18.2M PAGEVIEWS
IN 2016:
Source:
Traffic to lupus.org
Google Analytics Acquisition
Overview Jan 1-Dec 31, 2016

6.
THE
OPPORTUNITY
Grant funding to develop a new
website just for our health
education content
New design and UX focused on
one key portion of our audience

7.
DRIVING
PRINCIPLES
Increase visibility and utilization of
essential health information beyond
the "big 5"
Captivate users as evidenced by:
longer visits
higher page views
more return visitors

8.
MAJOR CHANGE,
REPORTING FOR
DUTY
Diagram created using free
process mapping tool draw.io
From organizing resources
by project and format to
organizing by topic
From posting resources in
one subdirectory, forcing
the user to dig and click, to
a repository of resources
that surface in multiple
contexts
From sections of the
website "owned" by
different departments to
co-stewardship of content

9.
Sitemap generated by
Sitecondor.com

10.
National Resource
Center on Lupus
Introducing the
Launched to the public on March 20
Check it out at resources.lupus.org!

11.
TAKEAWAYS
BEGIN BY UNDERSTANDING WHERE YOU ARE,
WHERE YOU WANT TO BE, AND THE KEY
TECHNICAL IMPEDIMENTS
BE WILLING TO MAKE THE CASE
WHEN IN DOUBT, GATHER MORE DATA; EITHER
YOUR OWN OR BENCHMARK/COMPETITOR DATA
MAKE THE DATA VISUAL, USE IT TO TELL A
STORY OF YOUR USER'S JOURNEY

12.
POST-LAUNCH SURPRISE: SITE-WIDE SESSION DURATION
If our goal is deep engagement with education content, desktop
returning visitors are an important secondary audience to consider