Marketing for Nonprofits – 5 Strategies You Need to Implement

Marketing for nonprofits is not all that different than traditional marketing for any small business looking to gain some momentum online. However, there are many perks you should be taking advantage of!

1. Get FREE AdWords with a Google Grant

Many nonprofits do not take advantage of this great PPC opportunity with Google Ads simply because they do not know about it, or the word “Pay” in Pay-Per-Click scares them away immediately.

However if you simply apply, your nonprofit may (most likely) receive a Google Grant of $10,000 per month to run AdWords Campaigns. Yes, that’s $10,000 per month, free. Could your nonprofit’s website use an extra few thousand visitors a month for free?

It does sound great, however there are some restrictions. Google will limit you to a $2.00 max bid per keyword. What does this mean? It means if your nonprofit’s industry is competitive when it comes to PPC & AdWords, then that $2.00 bid limit may decrease the effectiveness of your ads.

But, if you are not in a competitive marketing, that $2.00 keyword bid may earn you a top ranking for your ads. Take for example Pin Cancer. Pin Cancer is a nonprofit that VisionThat works with. They unite the wrestling community in the fight against cancer, and they receive $10,000 a month from Google for their AdWords campaigns. Being a nonprofit in the wrestling space is great as there is not a lot of competition. The result, their AdWord’s campaigns drive over 3,000 new visitors to their site each month, for FREE!

2. Create a Small Budget for Facebook Ads

You would be surprised just how much you can increase traffic, engagement, followers, and donations just by launching a few Facebook Ads.

Please understand, we do not mean “boosting posts” on your timeline. But, creating and managing the right ads that are targeted to your audience will result in a higher ROI. Statistically, the highest ROI of any online marketing today to be exact.

If you do not know how to create and track Facebook Ads, contact VisionThat today and we would be more than happy to mange those for your nonprofit.

3. Invest in Email Marketing

If you do not have an email marketing strategy in place, get one! Staying in front of donors is a great way to turn a one time donation into a reoccurring donation.

Automation is also a great tool to turn your website into an automated, lead capturing, converting machine! Do you have an automatic “Thank You” that is sent to a new donor, thanking them for their generosity? Perhaps a new visitor has visited your website and is about to leave without making a donation or getting involved, an exit pop-up is a tool we used to attract those about to leave your site. Does it work? Yes! We currently help Pin Cancer collect 50 new leads per month using this strategy. Those 50 new leads, once collected, are then sent automatic emails to nurture them through the organization’s sales process.

4. The Power of Video Storytelling

Video is an extremely effective marketing tool that many companies, not just nonprofits, leave out or don’t utilize.

Video is becoming the new age marketing for online strategies. Why? Because a video can tell you more in less than 60 seconds than this entire blog post can by the time is takes you to his the bottom of this article.

• First, create a YouTube page for your nonprofit.
• Second, tell your story. Try to keep it under 60 seconds.
• Third, use a decent camera to shoot your videos. You don’t want to come off as unprofessional.
• Lastly, use your video for SEO purposes, content, email, and social media sharing!

5. Social Media Influencers

Many companies use “Influencers” within their industry to promote their services, products, or cause. These influencers typically have a lot of social media followers and are paid to post specific “ad like” content in order to boost that company’s traffic, sales, and reach.

Being a nonprofit though has its advantage here. Why? Because you probably wont have to pay for an influencer to post about your nonprofit. Simply recruit them as an ambassador of your cause and recognize them for it. Send them a t-shirt and have the post about why they support your cause.

Again, this is something we handle for Pin Cancer and it is very effective. Their organization has multiple Olympic and NCAA Champions that back them. All are pictured on their Instagram accounts, and most have over 5k-10k followers. The result: Pin Cancer continues to grow its Instagram and currently is closing in on 23k followers.

Cheers!

Dan