Museums and cultural organizations, like the family of Smithsonian institutions and others we’re fortunate to work with at Forum One, have a wealth of opportunities when it comes to digital engagement. But that diversity brings complexity and a lot of tough decisions, particularly for smaller arts and cultural organizations that to balance engagement across their online presence, physical collection, events, and more. For today’s arts and culture organizations, we’re distilling five strategies for digital engagement that meet the needs of audiences with lasting impact. 

Consider all the ways that museums engage online. Their websites draw potential visitors in and provide valuable information on hours, exhibits, and other logistics. Since most visitors travel with their phones, exhibitions in the physical space of the museum can incorporate digital interactive elements to add context and engagement during a visit. And, for the millions of people who will never step foot in the museum, digital collections, educational resources, and online interactives can help share the content and information to which the museum is dedicated. Driving and sitting across all these types of in-person and online interactions are digital marketing, social media, and advertising.

So where to start, and how to focus? Later this month I’ll speak at the Museum Computer Network (MCN) conference with leaders of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum about community co-creation and digital marketing. In advance, I’d like to share some of the top trends and strategies that are bubbling up from our work with a wide range of museums and cultural institutions. 

1. Invest in omnichannel campaigns and paid marketing

Most museums only have so much time and budget to reimagine their websites—a full redesign might happen once every five years at most. In between all-consuming site reboots, omnichannel campaigns can refresh digital experiences and draw in new audiences.  

An omnichannel campaign is one where an organization’s presence is coordinated across multiple touchpoints, so that audiences are seeing a consistent look, tone, and message in every interaction. The scale of omnichannel campaigns can vary, to include social content, paid advertising, web content, and even in physical displays.  

We help museums create these campaigns. Beyond the creative content in the campaign itself, we help research, understand, and make decisions about how to invest strategically to make the campaign a success. We look at aspects including: 

• How all the various touchpoints a visitor might interact with connect, and how they can play off each other with specific content strategies for each platform.
• How to boost social content so people will really see it. Organic social reach is limited and diminishing over time. Social ads, beyond just boosting posts, can be highly valuable to ensure greater reach. 
• How to understand the difference in engagement between paid search and other channels; for example, whether to prioritize clicks over impressions. 
• How and when to focus on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)  vs. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) .
• Whether and how  to prioritize marketing for a public benefit—for example, to spread the message or intention of a cultural exhibit—versus marketing to attract new audiences and increase ticket purchases.  
• How to judge the value of Google Ad Grants, which most nonprofits and cultural organizations use to some degree, versus paying for “regular” Google Ads. Both have benefits and drawbacks, and choosing the right strategy is key for reaching audiences with intention.

2. Design experiences with efficiency and flexibility in mind 

When it is time for a new website, we draw heavily on our experience with nonprofits and government agencies of all sizes to advise museums and cultural institutions on the most efficient, flexible, and cost-effective ways to approach a new or redesigned site. 

Composable or “headless” architecture approaches with open-source content management systems provide organizations with the flexibility to scale and adapt their online operations, without getting locked in to a single platform.  

The Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, which won’t have a permanent physical location in Washington DC for years to come, launched in March 2024 with its first exhibit, the online only “Becoming Visible: Bringing American Women’s History into Focus,” a compelling story-driven digital experience developed in partnership with Forum One. The site uses a lightweight, headless approach built on a Next.js front-end that utilizes Vercel for content delivery and Vercel Blob for media. This approach allowed us to focus time and effort on the interactive nature of the exhibition and launch quickly with limited overhead and cost.

3. Make accessibility second nature

We’ve prioritized accessibility for years in our partnerships with mission-driven organizations in the social impact space. Many were ahead of the curve in understanding how digital spaces need to be as accessible as physical spaces for people of all abilities. 

The growth in understanding of accessibility, with many museums prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility  (DEIA) in their hiring and operations, alongside federal regulations that require any publicly-supported website to comply with 508 standards, has driven ever more attention to the practice.

Rather than think of accessibility as an add-on or a checklist for compliance, we encourage all museums and cultural institutions to incorporate accessibility as a fundamental design process. Launching projects with accessibility in mind means understanding accessible principles upfront and working with a partner who knows how to best navigate digital solutions with all users in mind.  

4. Harness AI for digital collections

The strength of many museums and cultural organizations lies in their unique archives and collections, but many struggle with how to share the information, objects, and research they have with the world, either in their physical spaces or online.  

Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers new opportunities to manage, filter, and present digital collections online. AI-powered image recognition can help identify artworks and artifacts to assist museum staff in cataloging and organizing collections more efficiently or help curators create new, thematic exhibits by identifying connections between pieces.

With the vast potential to sift through reams of data and make connections for users that they might not see or know to search for, AI-driven recommendation systems can create personalized tours based on visitor’s interests, previous searches, or preferences. 

5. Strategize for the effects of AI on search and traffic

While AI offers a vast array of opportunities for museums and cultural organizations, it’s also already reshaping how people find and access information, with undoubtedly more change on the horizon. 

For example, we’ve explored the basic idea that AI may severely disrupt the way people search online. Potential site visitors may increasingly be able to find and learn about an object or collection directly from Google or another platform without ever clicking through to the organization’s website. While this may serve a mission objective (more users finding more content more easily is a good thing!) it could severely limit web traffic and force institutions to dramatically reconsider the goals and purpose of their websites. We don’t yet know all the implications of AI, which means this is a time for strategy. Museums and cultural organizations ready to be nimble and adaptive to the changes introduced by AI will fare better than those who rigidly adhere to established practices.