Digital Transformation in the Heritage Sector

The heritage sector is still suffering after a year full of lockdowns and restrictions. The pandemic saw a much-needed shift to digital, as many organisations were forced to make changes. For a lot of businesses, the shift lacked the digital infrastructure behind it and caused a sudden need for innovative changes.

Many heritage sites rely on face to face visitors and may have not considered other digital options. However, many organisations are starting to realise how important digital transformation will now be for their business. Despite the restrictions easing across the world, we may see digital solutions becoming a bigger part of all businesses moving forward. 

Building an online presence is key to an organisations success. Users may visit your website for several reasons. This could include confirming your visitor attraction is suitable for them, researching information for a student project or purchasing a gift for a family member. 

There are many ways you can successfully integrate technology, here are some solutions.

Before we were hit with the pandemic a well built and UX (user experience) focused website was not on the top of the agenda for many Heritage organisations and museums. This new way of living is likely to be around for a long period of time.  Organisations are investing more into their digital solutions to help improve their presence online and deliver content more uniquely. Being able to provide different forms of online content is vital to engaging with customers. Utilising your website to do this is the most effective way whilst still being able to generate revenue. 

Websites are important for first impressions, so you need to ensure a good user experience. A badly designed and unusable website will leave people with a bad image of your business and may put people off visiting you. 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience. Showcasing your brand to prospective visitors is a great way to attract new people as well as help you to stand apart from your competitors. Providing quality and reliable information that is straightforward to find will greatly increase traffic to your website as well as attract people to visit.

Having a mobile-friendly website is essential to be accessible to all. Research by Google has found that 53% of people who visit a website on mobile will leave if a webpage doesn’t load within three seconds. More people are now browsing the web using mobile devices and the shift to mobile is only going to continue increasing.

Decrease your page loading speed by ensuring your images are compressed and the images do not exceed the display size on your website. This will create a better browsing experience for the user with a lower wait time per page load as well as saving mobile data.

Users will be viewing these through desktop and mobile which is why it is important to be optimised for both. The National Gallery recently launched a mobile edition of an exhibition. Enabling users to zoom into visual details and even share minute aspects of paintings via Instagram. It would be unlikely that users would use this experience again if they didn’t have a good experience on mobile, which could greatly affect online visitor numbers. 

There are many ways that organisations can generate revenue through digital content and other virtual experiences. Attention has been shifted to engaging with audiences online by using other platforms. Giving people access to different forms of digital content is a great way to generate revenue. 

Some examples of such content include:

All of these examples are great ways to encourage people to support your organisation and potentially keep your brand in their minds for when people are more comfortable about visiting physical locations.

An example of a good initiative to generate revenue is Birmingham Museums On Demand. They have set up a subscription fee where people can sign up for exclusive monthly content. This idea helps to safeguard the future of Birmingham Museums Trusts. They are offering talks and lectures that focus on areas of different collections as well as discussions that give a deeper insight into the works of different artists. 

Due to the previous restrictions, organisations had to find ways to stay open without actually opening their doors. Virtual reality is reshaping the way museums and galleries provide virtual tours. The use of VR is said to increase with a further 60.8 million people using it in 2022. VR is being used to create museum tours, interactive exhibitions and bring new experiences to people across the world.

The Louvre is an example of a museum that is currently offering VR tours. People can interact with objects in a new way and can do it from the comfort of their own homes. The Tate Modern is another example of a museum embracing VR. Visitors can immerse themselves in a 3D model of Modigliani’s studio in Paris. The museum created a recreation of the artist’s studio as it would have been 100 years ago. Embracing the potential of technology and using it to your advantage will help visitors immerse themselves in an exhibit. This means they will not have to visit in person, and is a great way to keep interacting with your visitors.

There are many other ways you can increase your digital presence online and transform the way your museum or heritage site works. As the use of technology increases, more organisations are taking the leap to start incorporating other ways for visitors to interact with their business. 

Digitally transforming your heritage organisation isn’t always going to be a straightforward task. This is where Heritage Creative can help. We can work with your organisation to create a fully functioning website to help bring you into the digital world.