Businesses today can’t survive without an online plan. This includes nonprofits. Would it surprise you to learn that 54 percent of US households donate to charity and 33 percent of all online donations are made through mobile devices? You’re missing out if you don’t have a dynamic nonprofit marketing plan. It is more crucial than ever.
Why a Digital Marketing Plan Is Important for Nonprofits
Does your nonprofit organization have strategies and tools to reach and engage your supporters? Of course! Engagement is vital to a nonprofit’s success. Yet what once worked in local communities is now shifting to the online world.
A digital nonprofit strategy lets you stay focused on the actions necessary for your fundraising and donor engagement goals. It builds a plan to combine both online and offline marketing efforts to maximize your nonprofit’s impact. Digital strategies include:
- Website: Nonprofits can’t survive without a robust website. A site sits at the core of your online engagement and is likely the first place people go when they want to find out more about who you are. They can read about your mission and find upcoming events. More importantly, it provides a place for people to give.
- Online fundraising: It’s crucial to accept online gifts from your supporters. These tools should accurately capture donor data, engage with them throughout the year, and protect their sensitive data.
- Email: Sending marketing materials to your supporters through email helps you quickly get word of upcoming campaigns out to those who already love what you do. The more personalized you make your email funnel, the more your donors will connect with you.
- Social media: Social media has something other online tools don’t—shareability. This provides a way for your social media posts to connect with donors, create likable content, and expand your audience through simple clicks.
5 Steps to a Robust Nonprofit Digital Marketing Plan
Are you ready to begin? Every nonprofit digital marketing plan starts with a core set of goals. Define these carefully, and you’ll be on the road to success. This approach will help you scale your nonprofit efficiently and keep your team and resources on track.
Step 1: Set Goals
Every strategy starts with establishing your goals. This is the foundation of your entire strategy. Begin brainstorming through a few questions:
- What do we want to accomplish?
- How can we increase awareness?
- How much do we want to grow our audience?
- How much money do we hope to raise?
These questions allow you to build your basic structure. From there, fill in the details and make them actionable. Make them ambitious but realistic.
Step 2: Define Your Audience
This step can help even if you already have a defined target audience. Sometimes, online targets can differ from your more traditional base.
Are you trying to reach donors? Volunteers? Stakeholders? Create an online persona for each. You can use tools like your website, Google Analytics, and email marketing metrics to understand better how supporters have engaged with you in the past. You can also look at your competition to see how they’ve targeted their materials to their audience.
Step 3: Create Your Message
Because you’ll be utilizing a variety of team members to get the word out, you must develop a core message for everyone to convey. This ensures consistency regardless of who handles the message and simplifies the process whenever a new marketing message is created and delivered. It also helps you segment your audience and tailor the information to ensure the right message gets to the right audience every time. Include:
- Clear and concise copy: Whether crafting a flyer or writing a blog post, your copy should motivate your audience.
- Appealing visuals: Catchy images and graphics help capture readers’ attention.
- Stories and social proof: This is highly effective for nonprofits. Highlight other supporters for powerful stories.
- Calls to action: Understand your goal is for action. Include “Donate Now” or “Volunteer” buttons on all you send out.
Step 4: Choosing The Right Digital Marketing Tools
Yes, the internet provides an abundance of tools, many of them free. It’s easy to get pulled in by the numbers and statistics:
- Facebook is the largest social media platform globally, with 3.065 billion active monthly users.
- Right now, 2.11 billion users access Facebook’s platform every day.
- That’s followed by 2.5 billion monthly YouTube users and over one billion on other social media sites like Instagram, WeChat, and TikTok.
There’s a reason not to go all-in on every platform: time and energy. Instead, find the platforms you’re most likely to use and that will pull in the supporters you’re trying to reach.
We suggest starting with a list of technology solutions you already are using. This includes free and paid platforms. Identify how each tool is being used and what they do for your nonprofit. Then, identify where your weaknesses are. What are you missing? You can also gather insights from everyone on your team to ensure their specific needs are met.
Step 5: Monitor Progress and Adjust
Establishing checkpoints for your original goals will help you track key performance indicators (KPIs). With digital tools, many resources and platforms make this easy. Here are just a few of the metrics you can track:
- Website traffic
- Website bounce rates
- Email subscriptions
- Email open rates
- Social media engagement (likes, shares, comments)
- Completed donations
- Volunteer applications
Each of these can point you to problems with your approach. It can lead you to areas where refinement and tweaking can have a big impact.
It’s Time to Optimize Your Nonprofit Marketing Plan
Online marketing offers many opportunities to attract more traffic and expand your donor and volunteer base. With so many online tools available, it’s easier than ever to find many new ways to identify and connect with your supporters.
We understand that designing and implementing a marketing strategy for your nonprofit may sound daunting and require you to ask more questions than find solutions. Do you have the right platforms? Are your digital tools in place? How confident are you that you’re doing all you can do?
We have a solution—don’t do it all alone? As digital marketing experts, we are well-versed in creating nonprofit marketing solutions that help you accomplish your goals. We can help you every step of the way.
