What’s your current Nonprofit Marketing Strategy? 

With online engagement platforms in constant flux, to continue (or start) reaching your target audience effectively, you need to know where your efforts will leave the greatest impressions and how to communicate for impact.

Seven primary areas to consider for 2017:

1. Personalized Communication

• Look into implementing personalized marketing to foster your relationships with supporters.
• Create a deeper personal connection via your communication style and modes of outreach.
• Incorporate storytelling into your marketing strategy.

2. Mobile Fundraising

• If you want people to make online donations, they need to be able to engage with and donate to your cause from a mobile device.
• Make sure the website you use for online fundraising has a responsive design.
• If your personal website isn’t responsive, consider using a modern fundraising platform, and provide a link to it on your website – this way people can donate to your organization from their preferred device.

3. Email Outreach

• Unless you’re paying for ads or paying to “boost” your social media posts, there’s a good chance that your target audience, even those who have chosen to “follow” you, may never see them.  This is due to changes in the algorithms used to determine how posts will be displayed, many of which are now determined by what you pay.  Unfortunate as this is, you can still use email to your advantage!
• Email revenue increased by 25% in 2015 and the number of email accounts is projected to rise to 5.59 billion from 4.35 billion this year.
• Incorporate your personalized communication strategy (mentioned above).
• Include clear calls to action (CTAs).
• Include compelling visuals (pictures of your beneficiaries).
• Delight them, too – give them something to smile about!
• Learn how to create your best fundraising email in 5 steps.

4. Social Media

• Rely on email more, but don’t neglect social media altogether.  If you can afford to, look into paid promotions for your most important communications shared through social media.
• Facebook is still number one for nonprofits – and most for-profits, too! There are over 1.71 billion users who are active on Facebook monthly, so if you’re going to hone in on a social media platform, Facebook is still the place to go!
• Instagram is also growing in popularity among nonprofits and is already set up to be integrated with Facebook accounts.  And with its emphasis on visual marketing, it’s a great tool for organizations that take a lot of their own photos.

5. Website Performance

• If you want people to be able to find you easily online, you should look into optimizing your website for search, otherwise known as search engine optimization (SEO).
• A great way to do this is through starting a blog and following SEO guidelines provided in the article:  Blogging for Nonprofit Website Optimization.
• Remember to always take into consideration the mobile fundraising guidelines mentioned above.

6. Visual Marketing

• Visuals matter: Content with images see 94% more viewers and 180% more engagement.
• With websites that provide free stock photos (like Unsplash) and free photo editing sites (like Canva), it’s easy to get more visual with your communications.
• Data around visual marketing reveals its rising popularity.
• People are 85% more likely to purchase something after watching a video about it – how could you apply this to promoting your cause for a campaign push?
• Learn how to record and upload a campaign video with your smartphone in under 3o minutes.

7. Donor Stewardship

• How you delight your supporters needs to be highly personal if you want it to leave a lasting impact that keeps them committed to your organization.
• Learn how to make stewardship a priority at your organization.
• Consider all the ways you can delight your supporters.
• Make your donors feel like heroes of your nonprofit’s cause.

Following these seven guidelines will help set you up for success in 2017!

More Marketing Tips blog