St Seraphim’s chapel, icon and railway heritage museum was established in 2005 and is the first icon museum in the UK. In 2013, it staged an exhibition of icons at Norwich Cathedral’s hostry; in 2015 it opened a quiet garden; and in 2016 it was awarded full museum accreditation status by The Arts Council.

Naked Marketing is a branding, graphic design, web design and marketing agency based a few miles outside Norwich. Their philosophy is: always add more value than you charge.

Project summary – St Seraphim’s Trust applied to ProHelp for support with how to market themselves more effectively – a key objective to enable them to increase their earned income. The organisation is entirely volunteer-run and lacked anybody with marketing experience, so publicity was very ad hoc and collateral was inconsistent. Ben Handford took on the project to help them develop a marketing strategy that would take them forward and help to build their profile. The value of the probono work was £600.

Impact – The outcomes they were looking for from the marketing support included:

• Increased visitor numbers
• Increased income
• To improve the offering to locals and visitors
• To generate increased business for the local community
• Increased income and visitors would increase the sustainability of the operation, including the possibility of a paid staff member

“Thanks to the professional perspective given by Ben Handford, the approach to fundraising has been put into focus. The strategy on how to organise promotion via social media, relevant publications and the media, by splitting the mix of heritage into separate themes, is invaluable. Thank you.” Sylvia Batchelor, Museum Manager

“Naked Marketing were more than happy to help this project, which was a treasure trove of information and items that needed deciphering and targeting to the right audience. By helping produce a strategy we hope that we have put the charity on the front foot when it comes to attracting both funding and visitors.” Ben Handford, Director, Naked Marketing

Case study photo courtesy of Nick Stones