Lifestyle matters
- bhf.org.uk was launched in 1999.
- bhf.org.uk has nearly 77,000 visitors per week
The Food4Thought microsite received 39,000 hits on launch day.
Hearts online
2005 saw exciting developments and successes for the British Heart Foundation’s website, bhf.org.uk, which further established its reputation as the UK’s premier online resource for heart health information.
Action
The site provides a valuable, instant information service to a global audience of heart patients and carers, health professionals, our supporters and young people.
In 2005/06, as well as strengthening and improving our main website, we developed a number of dedicated microsites designed to support major campaigns. These included: Help a Heart Week, aimed at women and heart health; Think Fit!, the workplace and community exercise campaign for adults; Under My Skin, 2005’s highly successful anti-smoking campaign; Food4Thought, which raised awareness of the importance of exercise and a heart healthy diet for children; and the Valentine Appeal, which raised funds for BHF Heart Nurses.
Impact
Visits to the site increased by 183% on the previous year to almost 6,400,000 and the public voted bhf.org.uk as Most Popular Health Site in the Website of the Year Awards 2005.
Nearly 28,000 subscribers received our monthly e-Newsletter, an effective way to communicate with our supporters about the latest BHF activities, and supporters showed their generosity by donating over £1.4 million via the website – double the amount raised online in 2004/05.
The campaign microsites were also a great success. Under My Skin received over 144,000 visits and almost 400,000 pages were viewed in one month during the main campaign, while Food4Thought received almost 430,000 visits and well over 1 million pages were viewed from November 2005 to February 2006.
The Think Fit! website was nominated for a New Media Age Effectiveness Award in the Charity and Public Sector category. These are the top UK internet industry awards.
“Not only did I find a wealth of easily accessible information, but I learnt a surprising amount about heart disease. I’m now definitely going to be implementing a few lifestyle changes, including making proper use of my gym membership.”
Lucy Fulford
Next steps
In 2006/07 we aim to increase the number of visits to the website to around eight million, the number of pages viewed to more than 38 million, and the total number of e-Newsletters delivered to more than 352,000.
We also aim to increase income generated via the website to more than £1.8 million.
There will be a new focus on developing the website next year, with work starting to make the site interactive and even more user-friendly.