Most small and medium NGOs rely on traditional marketing, despite proven efficacy of digital marketing. They use events, telemarketing, email blasts, outreach for CSR and the like to raise funds for their cause.
A non-profit organization can implement digital marketing to great benefit at a nominal cost and best ROI. This includes an optimized website, SEO, social media marketing, PPC ads and email marketing.
For smaller non-profits – NGOs, charities, orphanages, old age homes, campaigning organization – running operations, getting committed volunteers and raising funds is an ongoing challenge. Surveys have revealed that in developing countries like India, adoption of online marketing is poor in the non-profits sector. Many organizations do not even have a website. They rely on word-of-mouth and print media to disseminate information and get donations. Some use email marketing and telemarketing to get donations; the success rate of both this tactics is poor since the message is unsolicited and target audience resents spam.
Digital Marketing Tips for Nonprofits
Establish an online presence with a website. If budget for web development and hosting is an issue, then creating a simple site in free blogging platforms like www.blogger.com and www.wordpress.com is easy.
SEO For Nonprofits
Make sure your website is search engine friendly. Using a CMS like WordPress, which is search engine optimized out-of-the-box, makes it easy.
With an effective SEO strategy, your website will rank higher in search results. Potential donors and volunteers will be able to find you easily and engage with you. When you write original, interesting, trust worthy content for your website, people interested to in a specific cause will find you online and reach out.
Optimize Page titles, meta descriptions, headings and content with targeted keywords. Image file names and meta tags should have the primary keyword. Search engines prefer content which is at least 500 words, and answer the intent of the visitor.
Create or claim your listing in Google My Business, to be featured in map search and local search.
Backlinks are a critical SEO factor. Get backlinks from local directories and websites related to your niche. Companies which have invested in CSR projects with you will be happy to feature the project on their website with a backlink. Invest in press releases around your events and milestones. Newspapers and other publications may publish your story online, earning you a backlink or at least a citation.
Make sure that your NAP (Name, Address, Phone) citations are consistent across all sites.
Get a Google Search console (formerly Google Webmaster) account and verify your website. Google will provide valuable insights about the performance of your website including crawl issues, mobile friendliness, and search queries.
Social Media Marketing for Nonprofits
Establish presence on social media : create a Facebook Page, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram profiles.
Be clear about your objectives on social networking sites. Are you recruiting volunteers? Cultivating activists? Motivating people to donate? Your fans welcome updates and information about your success and new campaigns. Create posts specifically for Facebook with not just text but also photos, videos. Do not ask for a donation directly, but talk of your case studies and work.
Publish interesting content, videos regularly with link to your blog posts.
Google Resources and Grant
Check out Google for Nonprofits Page for insightful tips and resources. Ad Grants provides access to $10,000 USD of in-kind advertising every month for text ads.
Google for Nonprofits is currently available in 50+ countries. Including India.
The YouTube for Nonprofit Program helps nonprofits connect with supporters, volunteers, and donors. and Nonprofits with over 1,000 subscribers can gain special production access to shoot or edit your videos at YouTube Spaces across the globe. YouTube has designed a course in the Creator Academy specifically for nonprofits.
Email Marketing
The typical model is to collect email addresses in bulk, and send email blasts for all in the list. This amounts to spam and is a formula for failure.
To be successful in email marketing, you should adopt inbound marketing best practices. Email database should be created though a subscription form for visitors on site and offline events where people have expressed interest in your NGO. The database should be segregated into lists based on person’s interest expressed during subscription.
Email content should be share valuable information and encourage action. Each email campaign should be sent to selected lists based on interest. Option to opt out is essential good practice.
Special offer for Nonprofits from Ananya SEO Services
Currently we are offering up to 75% discount for nonprofits in India, those who offer free assistance to the poor, disabled, elders and other needy sections of populations.
