Nonprofit Digital Marketing: 4 Strategies for Success

To achieve any measure of success on the internet today, a strong digital marketing strategy is essential. While advertising and marketing, in general, are primarily thought of as for-profit business concerns, it is just as important for nonprofits to invest in a marketing plan.

After all, while your company’s focus might not be the bottom line, you still need enough funds coming in to pay staff and, more importantly, power the critical work you’re doing to help others.

With that in mind, here we go over four digital marketing basics to help you get a head start on your fundraising efforts.

1. Social Media Matters

A nonprofit’s social media channels can be a powerful tool for user engagement and conversion when used correctly.

• Nonprofits should aim for a mix of donation requests and positive success stories. Too much of the former and you risk AD fatigue among your followers. Not enough of the latter and your nonprofit might be losing potential donations or revenue.

• Try to keep your tone positive overall, focus on what donors can do to help, and make it actionable.

• Don’t bombard your followers, stick to one Facebook post per day, three to five Tweets and Instagram posts, and around one to two LinkedIn posts per week.

• Make it easy for users to click through to your business or donation page. Use quality copy to engage users and convert them to donors.

2. User Experience Can Make or Break Your Donations

Let’s suppose you’ve followed the tips above and a new potential donor is on your nonprofit donation page and ready to help out. If your website’s user experience leaves a lot to be desired, there is a high chance your donor will walk before making a financial contribution.

• Make it easy for users to make a donation: require a minimal amount of personal information from donors.

• Keep the design simple and clear, users getting lost on your site is not conducive to donations.

• Consider implementing several payment options such as credit card, PayPal, Venmo, and others so users choose what suits them best.

• Offer several donation amount buttons, from smaller to larger, to expedite the process but also offer users the chance to choose their own donation amount.

3. Follow SEO Best Practices

Much like your nonprofit’s social channels, any content you publish online has the potential to turn readers into donors. But reaching your target audience is harder than it may seem, particularly if your company operates in a crowded marketplace.

Standing out from the pack is tricky but not impossible. One way to ensure your content gets the best chance of being read is to utilize solid search engine optimization (SEO) practices.

• Find out what your keywords are and what your target audience is searching for. If your team doesn’t know how to perform keyword research, consider hiring an SEO professional if the budget allows.

• Don’t keyword stuff your content, remember that you’re primarily publishing for people, not algorithms. Aim for a keyword every hundred words or so and make sure your lead keyword is in the title and the first paragraph.

• Diversify your articles. Google rewards unique content, so make sure you’re actually adding to the conversation instead of paraphrasing existing content.

4. Stay Secure

Your nonprofit’s website should feature a clean, simple interface, be responsive, and just as importantly, be secure. Remember that users want to know that their personal data is secure and safe, if there’s a data breach, your nonprofit stands to lose valuable financial contributions and client information.

• Downloading a VPN app is one easy way to encrypt data transmission when you’re working on your nonprofit’s site.

• Make sure your website has proper HTTPS protocols in place, HTTP is now outdated and users may not want to make donations if they can’t see the lock icon in the address bar.

• Make sure your nonprofit’s data and privacy policy are available for users to read.

Is your nonprofit boasting a strong digital marketing presence? If not, try the tips above to get your marketing efforts off the ground and working on your organization’s behalf.