Non-profit organizations exist to make a difference in society. That being said, every non-profit can gain something from marketing. Digital marketing, in particular, can help these organizations. However, non-profit marketing is in a different ballgame than others.
In non-profit organizations, individuals are more focused on certain causes rather than gaining financially. But, one thing still stands—digital marketing strategies are an invaluable part of each non-profit’s success.
While your organization may not exist for profit, it can still benefit from the awareness, traffic, and funds marketing offers. Now, it is understandable why you might see creating a marketing plan as an extra responsibility. After all, you are busy running your non-profit organization as it is. However, we are here to tell you why you should go for non-profit marketing.
But, before we get into that, let us first define what non-profit marketing is exactly.
What Does Non-Profit Marketing Mean?
This is the method of using marketing tactics to magnify an organization’s mission, obtain donations, and gain supporters. Online non-profit marketing focuses on making a strong impact on people and your organization by developing valuable experiences.
How Non-Profit Marketing Can Help Your Organization?
With help from non-profit marketing, your organization can enjoy these benefits:
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It promotes awareness.
Like any business or company, your non-profit organization is a brand. As such, you have to raise awareness about it. Marketing, therefore, can help potential supporters get the word about your cause.
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It can help you raise funds.
Non-profit marketing and fundraising are both connected. When more people discover your organization, there is a higher chance of bringing in more funding.
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It can encourage more volunteers.
Besides funding, non-profit marketing can also help your organization find volunteers. Every cause can use volunteers, right? Therefore, marketing is a great way to bring in more people.
Steps to Creating a Non-Profit Marketing Plan
With a well-designed marketing plan, you can raise awareness while having enough time to concentrate on running your organization.
Here are the steps you need to make your non-profit marketing plan a successful one:
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Identify your marketing objectives.
Your marketing plan’s purpose is to convert your non-profit’s cause and mission into calculated, workable objectives. When brainstorming ideas for this, think SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Timely
SMART goals can help you when the time comes for you to evaluate your marketing performance. Therefore, you should complete this first before proceeding with the next step.
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Get to know your audience.
Non-profit marketing differs from other kinds of marketing. Unlike other organizations, your non-profit needs to focus on numerous groups, such as volunteers, customers, and donors. You have to get to know your different audiences since your marketing will vary depending on who you are addressing. Our team recommends segmenting each group using Customer Relationship Management or CRM. This way, it will be easier for you to send marketing messages to a specific audience.
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Construct your key messages.
These messages should include what you want your audiences to know and remember regarding your non-profit. You should create your key messages before you start marketing because:
- They help your organization stay aligned. There is no need to worry about who is doing the marketing this way. You can have the peace of mind that the same message is being told and promoted.
- They make your marketing simpler. Since you crafted these ahead of time, you already have an idea about what message you want to relay.
- They help you manage different groups. When you run a non-profit organization, you are dealing with all kinds of people. You are probably talking to volunteers, donors, and your community. Creating key messages for each specific group helps ensure that your team is targeting the correct audiences.
Along with your organization’s mission and vision, your key messages will enable you to convey your non-profit’s aim and needs effectively.
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Pick, organize, and develop your marketing strategies.
Many marketers skip the other steps and dive right into creating and executing their marketing tactics. Do not follow in their footsteps! After all, marketing involves so much more than blog posts, advertisements, and events. You need to finish every step before this in order to be successful.
Once you have defined your goals, your audience, and your key messages, you can now identify your marketing tactics. Think of these as the ways you are going to relay your message to your audience. Marketing tactics involve channels such as social media, email marketing, and more.
No matter which tactic you pick, you have to do some comprehensive planning first. As you come up with this, think about the following questions:
- What is this marketing tactic’s purpose?
- What is so significant about this tactic?
- When should these marketing activities occur?
- Who will be in charge of these activities
- How much should we allocate for this?
- How does this relate back to our non-profit’s marketing objectives?
Strategic planning plays a significant role in your organization’s overall marketing plan. Your approach to your marketing strategies and how they affect your non-profit matter just as much as how you implement them. Also, you should see to it that your team has a firm grasp on these strategies before you execute them.
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Evaluate your marketing performance.
Now, you should not expect your marketing to be flawless right from the beginning. It is perfectly fine—and normal—to experience a few errors on the way. With routine reporting and analysis, you can discover which strategies are paying off and which need to be replaced.
Let’s go back to the goals you identified earlier. Can you still recall them? The purpose of assessing your marketing performance is to stay consistent with those goals. You can keep track of performance indicators with tools, such as Google Analytics and the analytics tools present in social media platforms.
You now know what non-profit marketing is, how it can help your organization, and how to develop an effective marketing plan. So, we can now discuss the online marketing activities you can use for your non-profit.
Recommended Non-Profit Marketing Strategies for Your Organization
Want to learn how to execute the right marketing strategies for your organization? Before anything else, you should know that the following strategies will overlap. While you should use them together, our recommendation is to start one strategy at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Here are the marketing strategies you can use for your non-profit organization:
- Email Marketing
- Video Marketing
- Social Media Marketing
- Website
- Content Marketing
- Retargeting
- Artificial Intelligence
- Search Engine Optimization
- Pay-Per-Click Marketing
- Blogging
We will be discussing each strategy in detail. By the end of the discussion, you should probably be able to determine which one (or which combination) is right for you. Let’s get started, shall we?
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Email Marketing
You may already be using email to verify a donation or call for volunteers. But, you can do so much more with email. Email can be a powerful marketing resource for your non-profit. Your subscribers will, for one, appreciate its personal touch.
Here are some ways you can use email marketing to attract your audience:
- Send emails with donation needs and opportunities every month.
- Make a weekly newsletter containing your organization’s latest updates, volunteer needs, and content.
- Create an email template thanking new subscribers for signing up and being interested in your non-profit.
- Set up an email template thanking people for their donations and providing further ways they can support your cause.
- Share updates about your mission and the beneficiaries.
For this to be truly effective, we suggest adding information on your website instructing readers to sign up for emails. You can put this on your homepage. Also, your emails must contain a powerful call-to-action button that will guide subscribers on which step to take next.
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Video Marketing
Many people opt for video content, whether the information they are looking for is for school, work, or recreation. Video marketing is definitely an effective way for your organization to garner interest among your target audience.
The following are just some of the reasons why you should use video in marketing your non-profit:
- It is educational. To gain support and funding, a lot of non-profits need to raise awareness of their causes to their respective communities. This can be made possible with video.
- It is visual. People process visual content more quickly than written content. Video content can also stick to their minds longer.
- It is shareable. People on social media enjoy sharing videos, especially if those videos move or leave a lasting impact on them.
- It is personal. Video lets people feel something, making them empathize with what they are watching.
- It is interesting. Video is one of the best methods for keeping your target audience engaged.
When creating videos, do not forget one important thing—use strong imagery. This will make people more likely to donate to your organization.
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Social Media Marketing
Many non-profits make social media a part of their marketing strategy because of the different benefits it can offer. It gives organizations the ability to exhibit their brand and engage with their supporters.
These are just a few ways your organization can use social media:
- Fundraising
- Announce updates about your non-profit and cause
- Promote brand awareness and recognition
- Give recognition to employees and supporters
- Recruit team members and volunteers
Here’s another social media marketing tip—curate content from your supporters. User-generated content can make a big impact. Plus, it makes your work easier. You can start your user-generated content campaign by asking your audience to share images, videos, and stories. Also, create a hashtag that your followers can use. This will let you know when new user-generated content comes in.
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Website
No non-profit organization would be complete without a website. Think of a website as your organization’s digital headquarters. It should contain all the vital information that readers need to know about your non-profit, such as your cause, why it matters, and how they can be part of it.
Your non-profit website should also contain key elements such as event information, blogs, videos, social media streams, and the like. Each of your marketing strategies can be included on your website. Finally, remember this—your website is a reflection of your organization. That being said, you should relay information in a way that engages your audience and inspires them to take action.
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Content Marketing
Content is valuable for any industry and organization, especially non-profits. How is this so? See the reasons below:
- Content can help you land new visitors, leads, volunteers, and donors.
- It informs your audience about your cause and vision as well as industry news.
- Content can be used as free PR since your audience can share it with their friends.
Perhaps the best thing about content is that it can be repurposed and transformed into all kinds of media. For one, you can use it to promote your cause over and over again. You can also save a lot of money by choosing to repurpose your content instead of creating entirely new ones.
Here are some ideas for repurposing your content:
- Combine it with related posts.
- Make an infographic with post information.
- Use a short version for newsletters or emails and add a link that redirects to the full post.
- Make a reaction to the first post.
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Retargeting
Want to give people a reason to go back to your website and interact with you more? Retargeting can help you. In the past, you may have noticed that some visitors made donations, while others opted not to. With retargeting, you can have the opportunity to convert these individuals who did not commit at first.
If your retargeting ad entices a visitor to make a donation, take them out of the email list to prevent spamming. We recommend using these kinds of ads for emergency appeals or special campaigns. Don’t forget to thank supporters for donating!
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Artificial Intelligence
Marketers use artificial intelligence in campaigns to give users a one-of-a-kind experience. AI helps them understand end-user behavior and adjust to changes. Furthermore, using AI can lower marketing costs and avoid message overloading. It is easy to understand, therefore, why AI is gaining popularity.
Artificial intelligence helps you customize your website’s user experience. It can also develop personalized offerings built on your visitors’ unique behavioral preferences.
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Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization is a great way to get more people to visit your website. With well-optimized web pages, your organization’s online presence can keep gaining traffic even years after they were published.
However, this means that your SEO tactics are never finished. There is always room for improvement when it comes to SEO. For one thing, you need to keep adapting to Google’s updates. Your pages also have to be updated to reflect alterations to your keyword strategy.
So, to keep your SEO strategies effective and up-to-date, we recommend the following:
- Come up with a new set of keywords.
- Check your non-profit website’s present SEO status.
- Add backlinks.
The thing about search engine optimization is that you can never be content. You cannot afford to. With Google’s constant algorithm changes and your own organization’s updates, you will never run out of ways to improve your SEO game.
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Pay-Per-Click Marketing
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising helps in directing traffic to your non-profit website. It is typically associated with top search engines such as Google. When using PPC, the gathered data can be used to determine what your visitors like or do not like. This data includes engagement, bounce rate, and pages visited.
You can use PPC to enhance your website copy as well as the other marketing materials you use. Furthermore, you can convert what your visitors respond to through PPC and integrate it into each marketing channel. This helps ensure that promotion and interaction stay solid.
As a non-profit organization, you can benefit from the Google Ad Grants program. This can provide you with $10,000 a month if you qualify. With this advertising, you can spread the word about your mission and:
- Raise awareness
- Gain donations
- Obtain volunteers
It may take some backend expertise to run and operate Google Ads, but the effort will be worth it.
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Blogging
While your non-profit is not like most companies, it still needs to draw in people and get the word out about your mission. Try blogging on a regular basis. It pays off well. Blogging gives you an avenue to tell your audience about your organization’s story. Plus, blogs are easy to share among your supporters.
Posting blogs once a month or more can drive traffic to your website. This free publicity tool can also spread awareness to possible volunteers or donors. Furthermore, when you blog frequently, you get to be seen as an expert on the cause you are advocating.
When blogging, you can tell your story. But, your organization should not be the only topic you concentrate on. Think outside the box and come up with ways to share your story using different angles, such as:
- Promoting events
- Posting about the top news and what your organization thinks about it
- Sharing behind the scenes stories
- Features on individuals that have helped further your cause
- Sharing statistics through infographics
Your blog is more than just a post on your website. Beyond that, it is a versatile tool that can be shared in email campaigns, social media, and monthly newsletters. Make your blogs worth sharing and re-sharing!
Wrapping Up
Your organization does not have to be a for-profit one to benefit from marketing. Marketing, after all, can help you tell the world about your mission and gain more supporters. For your non-profit marketing to pay off, always go back to your cause and what it is all about. This will make it easier for you to plan and execute your marketing strategies.
We hope reading this has inspired you to begin your non-profit marketing strategies! Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or input you would like to add.
Start Promoting Your Cause with Proweaver
So, have you decided which marketing strategies you would like to implement for your non-profit organization? Whether you want to build a custom website, improve your social media game, or create thought-provoking videos, choose Proweaver. No one does digital marketing the way our team does! We can help you spread the word about your cause to more people.
There is a good reason why Proweaver has been around for more than a decade! Our team of designers, developers, and content writers can all come together to help realize your organization’s objectives. Trust us, there is no group more competent to handle your non-profit marketing needs.
When you choose Proweaver, you are choosing the best for your non-profit organization. We can offer you expert assistance and excellent results—all at a price that you will love. There is a reason thousands of clients rely on us to handle their marketing needs, after all. Nothing makes us happier than meeting and exceeding each client’s expectations.
But, let us not get ahead of ourselves. Experience Proweaver’s distinct brand of digital marketing messages for yourself! All you have to do is simple. Just tell us about your organization, what its purpose is, and how you want to get your message across. From there, we can help you determine the ideal marketing strategy for your non-profit and execute it correctly.
With Proweaver in the picture, you can have the peace of mind that your non-profit marketing is in good hands! Our team will see to it that the strategies you choose pay off. We will handle getting more donors and volunteers onboard your cause while you concentrate on making a difference in your community.
Reach Out to Us
Let us get started on marketing your non-profit organization today! Please feel free to get in touch with our team for further details. One of our representatives would be happy to assist you with your questions.