Studies show that Denmark ranks as the third country in the world for the prevalence of multiple sclerosis, with an average of 227 people out of 100,000 suffering from it. This number grows tenfold if you consider how sclerosis impacts the lives of direct sufferers, their families, and close friends.
The Danish Multiple Sclerosis Society (Scleroseforeningen)’s mission is to help improve the quality of life for people affected by sclerosis and their families. They do this by financing research in the field, offering free counseling sessions, as well as keeping people up to date on the latest discoveries through a quarterly magazine.
The biggest political issue they encounter is that sclerosis is not given enough consideration by the Danish government. In the case of cancer, children of patients are offered special benefits and support from the state. This is not the case for sclerosis, despite the similarly devastating impact it can have on families.
Inflicting change in a political environment is an enormous task, but Scleroseforeningen took it upon themselves to fight for the rights of the sufferers. They knew that changing the regulation would be a long-term goal at the end of a long journey, so they started this process the only way they could—by taking the first step.
Klaus Ibsen Bloch, Scleroseforeningen’s Digital Project Manager, told me: “The first step was getting political attention and setting the tone of voice. It’s a long shot, but we’re working on it, and if we’re lucky, we’ll get this through in a year or two.”
To get this political attention, they turned to members of the Society and people who were interested in the topic, gathering signatures for a petition. Since most of the target group were already visiting their website, Klaus needed a way to leverage that traffic and make those visitors aware of the petition.
By researching what other companies have been doing in similar situations, Klaus found on-site messages were a go-to solution. As Sleeknote offers discounts for non-profit organizations (NGOs), he decided to use it to promote the petition. He created the following campaign, which directed visitors to the form they needed to fill in for the petition.
This campaign helped Scleroseforeningen collect 2,500 signatures for their petition, accounting for 25% of the society’s current members. The success of this campaign proved that people wanted families affected by sclerosis to be given more support. This fact gives them a strong foundation to build their case upon and takes Scleroseforeningen one step closer to getting the change in regulation approved.
Being an NGO, Scleroseforeningen relies on donations to function. They sign up contributors through Facebook ads and their newsletter. In order to improve their on-site signup rates, they ran campaigns on their website asking visitors for their name, email address, and phone number, as shown in the example below:
Furthermore, they also used a Guide Your Visitor campaign to enhance the on-site customer journey, by offering easy access to relevant pages.
“With most popup tools, you have a box and that’s it. With Sleeknote, I can break out of that box and make really nice designs that convert much better than just boxes.”
Every journey, no matter how long or difficult, begins with a first step, regardless of whether you have a small business trying to make it’s way to the market or an established NGO trying to change political regulations.
To begin with, Scleroseforeningen’s task seemed impossible, but as they took steps in that direction, their vision became closer to reality than ever before. This petition was a first courageous step in a chain of events that will bring a meaningful change in people’s lives, and get families affected by sclerosis the support they need and deserve, to live a better life.
SCLEROSEFORENINGEN’S SLEEKBOXES
