Local digital marketing for nonprofit organizations

As a nonprofit organization, you are always faced with the challenge of tackling very important and complex issues while maintaining a fraction of the budget that most for-profit businesses have at their disposal. Due to the budget restraints, if you want to grow your cause, gather more support, and increase donations, your organization must prioritize the most effective channels and tactics to have your campaigns succeed.

This decade alone has seen a drastic increase in registered nonprofit organizations. While many of these organizations support worthy causes – this also means that your organization needs to find new ways to stand out in the crowd. Since pretty much everything takes place online, your charitable or religious organization needs to have a great online presence if you want to attract donations and support.

How nonprofit organizations benefit from digital marketing

Having a good online presence is important for your nonprofit organization’s growth. Since your organization relies on individual support to spread your cause, potential donors and supporters will want to be assured that your organization is legit by researching you.

Digital marketing for nonprofit organizations offers some of the best benefits to get the most value from your marketing strategy without making a dent in your budget. With the right digital marketing strategy, you can build your organization’s online presence, drive quality traffic to your website, and generate leads who can convert into donors or volunteers. With digital marketing, the overall cost to implement strategies is lower, the time to market is faster, and you can find a huge target audience based on their common interests and beliefs.

Here are a few results that your organization will obtain:

• Building a strong relationship through consistent personalized communications
• Boosting brand awareness by reaching your audience’s network through share buttons and email forwarding
• Increasing donations from simple payment solutions
• Measuring impact and engagement from your efforts
• Adapting easily to expand your reach with a reduction on your marketing spend

6 digital marketing strategies for nonprofit organizations

1. Search engine marketing (SEM)

With SEM your nonprofit organization can utilize pay-per-click ads to reach your target audience who want to support your cause. With SEM you can pay for keywords that your target audience searches in order to quickly spread your awareness and aid in your fundraising goals.

Majority of search engines and social media platforms have specific grant programs to allow your organization to gain exposure without spending a lot on pay-per-click advertising. For example, the Google Ad Grants program offers up to $10,000 of in-kind advertising every month on Google Ads if your organization qualifies for the program.

2. Email marketing

Email marketing is one of the best cost-effective channels to attract, engage and retain volunteers, donors and supporters. Through email marketing, your nonprofit organization is able to keep your audience engaged by providing mission-driven storytelling and progress updates through a channel that is nonintrusive and used by almost everyone.

You can easily segment your audience into different lists and grow donor retention by creating campaigns specific to those audiences beliefs and values. Email marketing campaigns are an excellent way to deliver beneficial information, reach a bigger audience all at once, and build engagement and relationships with your audience.

3. Social media

Social media works great as a channel to reach and engage individuals who are passionate about causes they hold dear based on their beliefs and interests. These platforms allow you to tell your organization’s story and build awareness to followers who are willing to share your message because it’s a way to support a cause they care about. They also allow you opportunities to connect with supporters by responding to questions and comments or joining in group conversations. With a good social media strategy, you can establish a dialogue and build a relationship where supporters don’t feel like they are only cash machines.

4. Content marketing

Content marketing is a worthy investment for your nonprofit organization because it is needed to achieve long-term and sustainable growth in the form of donations and awareness. Most organizations invest resources to focus on their mission and value statement, but these statements alone will not drive donations rather content that resonates with your audience will. By having a content strategy that is targeted to your audience’s values, this will allow you to deliver stories in the form of blog posts, videos, podcasts and infographics which will turn your visitors into supporters of your cause.

5. Search engine optimization (SEO)

Your nonprofit will have a hard time growing if it can’t be found on the internet. SEO is a practice that helps improve your website’s design and pages to get your content to rank high on Google or other search engines. Optimizing your website will help bring the right audiences to your content, and increases the likelihood that they will take action and contribute towards your main goals. Whether your organization’s goal is to raise awareness about an issue, manage your online reputation, increase online donations or increase volunteering sign-ups, having an SEO strategy can help you get there.

6. Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

If you are looking to maximize lead generation and donations, then you need to have a website that is clear and easy to navigate. By utilizing CRO tactics, it will make sure that your landing pages are optimized based on your visitor’s preference. Also, tailored pop-ups to your website can get visitors to sign up for your e-newsletter and provide you with contact information that you can use in your campaigns.