Nonprofit organizations do more with less. Every email sent, letter crafted, or social media post shared has the potential to make a difference. Small marketing and communication teams work hard to make every message count.
Below are a few tools that every nonprofit marketer should be thinking about and hopefully using.
1 // A Website Built on a Content Management System
Having a website that staff can easily update is powerful for many reasons, but two, in particular, can help move your organization forward.
- Give stakeholders a reason to engage and return to your website. If they see the same messaging and visuals every time they visit, they might stop coming to your site and miss out on new opportunities to get involved. Give people a reason to return. A website built with a content management system (CMS) enables staff to update website content regularly. We recommend WordPress, but other examples include Drupal and Joomla.
- Enhance your search engine optimization. Search engines rank websites on many factors, but on-page factors are some of the most important. On-page factors include things like, how the content on the page is optimized, the ease with which others can link to your content, and the freshness of the content on the page. Fresh content attracts new readers, those that may just be learning about your organization. You have the opportunity to keep them engaged with new content. Fresh content gives more for search engines to digest when they hit your site. It’s important to keep the search engines engaged too. Content systems like WordPress integrate with user-friendly plug-ins for SEO like Yoast. This plug-in is free (though they have a paid version) and helps you affect your SEO and stick to best practices.
2 // A Social Media Management Software
Most organizations manage multiple social media channels. It can be challenging to keep track of activity, schedule posts, and report on growth without a social media tool to manage it all in one place. Some of our clients use Hootsuite, but others include Tweetdeck, Buffer, Social Oomph, and Sprout Social. Some of these are free with a paid version that includes extra features. Explore options and select the one that best fits your budget, your team size, and your social media workflow.
These tools allow you to manage multiple social media accounts, schedule posts in advance, organize conversations, track mentions of your organization, and include reporting so that you can analyze engagement and other key metrics.
3 // Email marketing system
Email marketing campaigns can increase the effectiveness of a fundraising campaign, increase event sign-ups, or drive action for an awareness campaign. Choose an email marketing system that integrates well with social media and your website. Consider integrating the email system with your fundraising software. It will take some technical know-how, but some email platforms have an open API that can be used to connect the two systems and have information flow with ease.
We like Mailchimp and Constant Contact, but there are many platforms to explore. To decide what system works best for your organization consider how the platform handles pricing, how it enables email creation, what automation features are available, and how easily it integrates with your other communication tools.
4 // User-friendly Online Donation Process
Nothing turns off a potential donor faster than a poorly designed, cumbersome, not mobile-friendly online donation process. Integrating an offline campaign with the ability for an individual donor or corporate sponsor to contribute online can mean the difference between a so-so campaign and a successful one.
There are several options when it comes to taking donations online. A WordPress website can integrate with a payment gateway like PayPal or Stripe. Your organization’s current donor database may have options to integrate with your website, but additional resources may be necessary to set up or embed donation forms.
5 // Take Your Assets Digital
We collaborate with our nonprofit clients to create impact and annual reports to document stories and successes. To keep costs down, some clients are moving to a more digital forum for sharing those reports and doing a limited print run to have copies on hand for meetings and events.
More and more, people want to reference something they’ve heard about and are likely to search for that content online. Make sure that content is easily accessible on your website. Examples of downloadable assets to have on your website include annual reports, program brochures, and event literature.
We help clients design and set up marketing tools like mentioned in this post. If you need some help with any of the above, give us a shout.
