Driving take-up of digital skills training

The Brief

Make It Click is a platform designed by Good Things Foundation to help people with limited digital skills become more confident using the internet and other forms of digital technology. 

It is a curated resource with high-quality, up to date content – a one stop shop where people can find support to enhance their digital skills, which proved crucial during national COVID-19 lockdowns when physical centres were closed. 

Barley was brought on board to raise awareness of the platform, to inspire action and to signpost support resources for individuals and small business owners who needed to enhance their digital skillset  

Insights and Approach

To elevate the profile of Make It Click swiftly, we needed to deliver a blend of organic content, paid advertising and PR. 

First, we organised a detailed piece of strategic work developing a range of audience personas – from NEETs to furloughed workers and small business owners.  

 Our approach to selecting the right platforms to target ads and content was rooted in audience insights. Using our channel planning tool, we identified which social media platforms were most relevant for the audience personas, and ran six-week ad cycles for each one; for instance, younger audiences on TikTok and older ones on more traditional online platforms such as Facebook and Google. 

To enhance and humanise the campaign, we developed video content featuring case studies of individuals who had already engaged with Make It Click centres, helping credibility and putting a human face to the campaign. 

Selected ad cycles were supported by the release of media stories. Our polling of furloughed workers found seven in 10 feared they wouldn’t have a job in a year and many were looking to improve their digital skills, giving us the hook for our initial news story. For small business owners we announced the launch of a new Make It Click digital hub for businesses that could help them navigate the challenges presented by the pandemic. 

The Outcome

A mixture of organic and paid content directly generated 105,000 visits to the Make It Click website, against a target of 50,000. 84 pieces of national and trade coverage generated a further 64m opportunities to see and hear about the resources, helping Good Things Foundation provide individuals and small businesses with the support they need to improve their digital skills.