How Nonprofits Can Grow Their Brand
Using Digital Marketing
Are you struggling to find the right marketing avenues for your nonprofit organization? If yes, the answer lies in digital marketing.
The most significant advantage is the cost-effectiveness of the online space. Unlike analog advertising, the organization can spend minimal amounts. Yet, it will achieve tons of visibility. This is good news for an organization that does not have huge budgets for marketing.
A solid digital marketing strategy is essential, but less than 50% of nonprofits have one. 68% do not have blogs, while 7 out of 10 lack a proper email marketing strategy. The interesting statistics don’t stop there.
A large percentage of nonprofits are on social media platforms. But few use them to the fullest. Only 41% use Facebook fundraising despite its effectiveness.
Without a doubt, many nonprofits are missing out on the benefits of digital marketing. If your organization does not use the platform, please read on. You will find out how your nonprofit can grow its brand using digital marketing.
1. Understand the Important Role of Digital Marketing
There are many benefits to nonprofit digital marketing. With the right strategies, the organization can:
- Attract funding from well-wishers to support the activities of the organization.
- Raise awareness of the nonprofit to global audiences.
- Build long term donor memberships, thus ensuring the sustainability of the nonprofit.
- Improve long-term visibility, that's ensuring it stands above the competition.
- Build credibility by positioning itself as an authentic reputable organization.
The marketing team needs to outline its goals and identify the right target audience. The next step is creating key messages. Finally, the teams must develop actionable strategies to reach target audiences.
2. Optimize Your Website for Search Engines
A website is one of the most powerful tools available to nonprofits. Do you want to know why? Well, we can summarize the advantages as follows:
- Setting up a website is not difficult or expensive. There is the option of using the free web builders available online. But, we would still recommend getting input from professional web designers. They are in a good position to offer critical advice on getting a high-performing website.
- The organization has flexibility with what it can do on the site.
- The marketing team can customize the website depending on whatever needs they have.
- Content generation is great for engaging with audiences, link building, and establishing authority.
- Optimize everything you do on the website for the search engines. The brand gets better visibility with good rankings on the search engines.
And, don’t forget to track website analytics. Tools like Google Analytics can help. It will let you know which content audiences are interacting with the most. The tool also measures bounce and stay rates, trends, and site traffic. The information lets you know what to change or improve to ensure more people come to the site.
3. Leverage on the Power of Social Media
Social media provides a fantastic way to engage with audiences. Creating accounts on different platforms gives immediate access to a broad audience base. The organization can connect with volunteers, donors, and other supporters.
Remember, social media users want engaging, exciting, and relevant content. As the name connotes, it is a social platform. So, when generating the content, a good mix of visuals, videos, stories, and graphics will help. Forget about long text because the audiences are not likely to read such.
Put links back to your nonprofit website from the social media platforms. It is an effective way of generating organic traffic to your site. Please keep up the engagement with the audience. Avoid the mistake of opening accounts then going silent.
Interesting campaigns that can increase engagement are a good idea. Trivia competitions, for instance, can increase interaction.
4. Maximise on Content and Email Marketing
Content marketing is a powerful tool for nonprofit organizations. There are so many vehicles available to the nonprofit marketing team.
These include blog articles, video content, research papers, and case studies. Such content can educate or showcase the work the organization is doing.
Guest posting on high-authority websites builds credibility and is excellent for backlinking. Further, when people share, comment, and subscribe, the brand gets visibility.
Email marketing works because it allows for direct targeting and is inexpensive. For the greatest efficiency, proper segmentation is critical. Next comes personalization, which improves open rates. The nonprofit reduces the chances of communication ending up in junk folders.
5. Create Brand Awareness with Video Marketing and Storytelling
Video marketing and storytelling work because people engage better with such content. It is not about an aggressive push for support. Rather, the teams use the mediums to foster a better connection with audiences.
Take advantage of existing platforms like Google for nonprofits for the greatest visibility. Signing up gives the organization access to YouTube for nonprofits. Upload video content, accompanied by a great narrative to showcase your work.
Embedding a donate button allows for people to donate right on the platform. Google takes care of the transactional costs. That means the organization collects 100% of what people give.
Other than the YouTube platform, the organization gets $10,000 worth of advertising value. This can go a long way in raising brand awareness.
6. Third-Party Endorsement to Create Awareness
Nonprofit organizations are not exempt from using influencer marketing. The teams can leverage the popularity of celebrities, bloggers, or other famous people.
The trick lies in finding an influencer whose values align with that of the organization. The advantage to the organization is direct access to the influencers' followers.
The fans have faith in whatever the influencer endorses. If the individual shows support for the organization, the followers are likely to do the same.
Public and media relations are another way to create visibility. Pushing stories to media outlets through press releases or editorial is quite effective. The teams must strive for newsworthy, relevant content.
The same applies to testimonials on the nonprofit's digital platforms. Stories from benefactors praising the nonprofit's work have the power to connect with audiences. It is more effective than the nonprofit talking about what they do for the community.
Final Thoughts
It is time to take advantage of nonprofit digital marketing to grow the brand. There are tons of opportunities and avenues.
Websites, social media, email marketing, and influencer marketing are very effective. With the right strategies, the nonprofit organization will achieve greater visibility.