Nonprofits run on tight budgets and it can be tricky to raise awareness for your cause with limited funds. Thankfully, there are marketing strategies nonprofit organizations can implement to get the most out of their money.
This article shares tools to develop a marketing strategy, engage with your audience and hopefully find new supporters and donors along the way!
Take Advantage Of Nonprofit Programs And Content Marketing Resources
How would your nonprofit like to have $10,000 a month to spread the word about its cause? For qualified organizations, the Google Ad Grants program does just that.
Take advantage of content marketing resource for your nonprofit.
Running and managing Google Ads takes some backend savvy, but it is worth the effort to take the time to learn how to share your story and mission.
Remember to use all the money, as it does not accrue. Be sure to make every dollar count by using best pay-per-click practices, and have your volunteers learn how to use keywords, including short-tail, middle-tail, long-tail and negative keywords to make the most of your advertising dollars and reach the right audience.
There are certain requirements to qualify for the Google Ad Grants Program, such as holding a 501(c)(3) status, having a website with a domain-owned name and providing detailed and clear information on the nonprofit organization. There are also terms to agree to about receiving and using donations. Certain organizations, like hospitals, schools and government organizations do not qualify, but there is a separate Google program for education.
Promote Your Nonprofit On Facebook
2.89 billion people use Facebook monthly. A nonprofit page can share your message all over the world. Nonprofits should also consider creating a dedicated group for their supporters. This allows them to use Facebook’s fundraising tools to collect donations. Another benefit is access to donation transaction reports, available in the reporting features.
Promoting your nonprofit on Facebook is a free way to get a large audience.
If you are wondering if Facebook is the right social platform for your nonprofit, here are stats from Nonprofits Source:
- 18% of donors worldwide have given through Facebook fundraising tools
- 88% say they are likely to give through Facebook fundraising in the future
- 84% of Facebook users share to show their support for a cause and highlight issues that are important to them
- Facebook refers 29.4% of traffic to donation pages on #GivingTuesday
Similar to the Google Ad Grants Program, there are criteria nonprofits need to meet.
The Impact Of Visual Content
Whether a nonprofit has been approved for the Google Ads Grant Program or is developing content marketing for social media channels, high-quality visuals are essential to any successful marketing campaign. According to HubSpot, 65% of people are more likely to retain information that includes visuals.
What types of visuals should you share? At the core, you’ll want to focus on images that convey the nonprofit’s mission and its impact. However, images can also speak to the many aspects of the nonprofit, such as staff and volunteers who work behind the scenes and those who have benefited from the nonprofit’s goals.
Instagram is an image-centered social media platform and 71% of U.S. adults between the ages of 18-29 use it. This age group and millennials are known to be very active in giving to a cause that means something to them, and appealing to them on a platform they use could generate new supporters and donors. Nonprofits don’t have to spend much money to create eye-catching graphics. Free programs like Canva have hundreds of templates. Before you begin, decide on fonts and use color schemes that match your nonprofit’s brand.
Blog To Spread The Word
Blogging is a great way to drive consumers to your nonprofit website.
While nonprofits are not companies in a traditional sense, they do want to drive consumers to their websites and create awareness for their causes and missions. One way to think of consistent blogging is as a free publicity tool that provides opportunities to share information with consumers who might be potential donors or volunteers, and as a way to make the nonprofit an authority on the subject. Another benefit of regular blogging is that it provides more content for search engines.
With a blog, nonprofits can tell their story without focusing solely on the organization. Think creatively and strategically about ways to share the story from multiple angles, such as:
- Share milestones
- Post about breaking news and your organization’s take on it
- Promote upcoming or past events
- Share stories, behind the scenes and highlight those in the forefront
- Feature stories about supporters who have helped your nonprofit’s cause
- Embed videos
- Share stats in digestible infographics
A blog’s versatility goes beyond a post on your website; it is a powerful leveraging tool to share on social media, in email campaigns and monthly newsletters, and can be shared and re-shared by your followers.
Connect With Your Supporters
Email is one of the most effective marketing strategies because it taps into a captive community, whether for a business, brand or cause. Investing time into an email campaign and a monthly newsletter can go a long way to increase brand visibility, engage with supporters, find new supporters and raise donations.
After you send out the email, remove any hard bounce emails and review reporting data to find out what recipients are responding to and ways to improve the newsletter and its content.
Email and newsletter design are vital to audience engagement as users size up an email in less than a second.
What Should You Share In A Newsletter?
Design is very important when making a newsletter for your nonprofit.
- Upcoming events
- Blog posts
- Powerful images
- News about volunteers
- Updates about the cause or those affected
- Call-to-action buttons
- A sense of urgency for time-sensitive donation requests
Constituent relationship management systems (CRMs) streamline staying in touch with subscribers. You might have heard of MailChimp and Constant Contact, but there are CRMs that offer pricing and unique features for nonprofits like Salsa CRM, Aplos and NeonCRM. You can learn more here.
Be Savvy With Social Media
Social media is a way for nonprofits to connect with their supporters and engage with them daily. Businesses are often tempted to be on all platforms, and with stats like these by Hootsuite, you may think that is the way to go.
Choose the social media platforms that fit with your nonprofits audience.
However, to be savvy with social media businesses need to be choosy. With limited funds and volunteer resources, a nonprofit will first need to cater to their current customer base and their platform of choice. When adding additional social platforms, take the time to understand each platform, who uses it and then review how the organization’s resources can be allocated.
Build A Marketing Strategy
With these programs and tools, you are now ready to brainstorm ideas, understand your audience, assess your resources and budget and build a marketing strategy with SMART goals:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Timely
Once your marketing strategy is in place, check in after the first quarter to review the data and see if your plan is meeting the nonprofit’s goals and make changes if necessary.
Ask Three Girls Media How We Can Help
In many cases, nonprofit organizations have volunteers to help with digital marketing tasks, and while their budgets are tight, hiring a digital marketing firm with extensive knowledge of current trends, branding and more, could save a nonprofit hours of frustration and launch a content marketing campaign in the right direction, even if it is just for consulting.
If you are a nonprofit in need of assistance, contact our team at Three Girls Media. We love helping nonprofit organizations navigate content marketing and creating awareness of a nonprofit’s mission or cause through blogging, social media, emailing marketing and more!
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Sign up for a complimentary consultation during December and receive an Annual Marketing Planning Guide valued at $475! We offer a 30-minute phone consultation with our CEO, and can answer your questions and discuss your specific marketing needs - no strings attached. Call 408-218-2391 or contact us today to arrange your consultation!