Nonprofit Marketing: [Webinar] The Must-Haves!

March 3, 2021

We know you hear it all the time—everything’s continually changing. But it makes sense to pay attention. You see, technology and social media are developing, growing, and improving at an unprecedented rate. As a result, approaches you took a year ago may no longer work a year later. So as we move forward with our on-demand webinar series, we continue to listen to what you need to know. Nonprofit marketing is essential for cause-related fundraising, and one of the things we love about it is that it’s never dull because of the continuous change.

Before we get to the nonprofit marketing webinar, we always want to share some links to recent episodes. When you click below on any of the topics, you’ll land on the article. And within each post, you’ll see information to obtain the FREE related webinar, which also includes a PDF deck and other resources you could refer to whenever you want. So check out these past posts with webinar information in case you missed them.

For the recent nonprofit marketing webinar, please click this link to our Dropbox with those materials. Again, you’ll find the full webinar, deck, and other resources. Alright, let’s take a deeper dive now into what you need to know about nonprofit marketing.

Marketing Shifts With Changes in the Social Good Sector

During the past year, we’ve seen 3 nonprofit trends that affect marketing for cause-related groups. It’s essential to stay on top of those trends because they affect how organizations promote and even the way donors support a good cause.

1. Virtual Events & Fundraisers

As we know, the pandemic changed how we communicate in a way probably nothing else could have done. In other words, because people found themselves socially distancing, so much of how we work, live, and communicate went digital. Of course, that affected cause-related groups because they still had to figure out how to raise money in this type of environment. Enter virtual fundraising ideas! What’s more, groups discovered that virtual marketing and fundraising had much lower costs.

2. Nonprofit & For-Profit Collaborations

As those who work in the social good industry know, corporate social responsibility by for-profit companies isn’t just for corporations anymore. In short, people want to patronize companies large and small that are good citizens in their communities. Many are now becoming social enterprises. This trend for public and private partnerships will only grow. So, look into partnering with for-profit groups for mutual marketing purposes. You amplify your brand, as well as your partners.

3. Strategic Digital Marketing

Finally, because so much went digital in 2020, it’s essential for nonprofit marketing to have a strong presence online. Unfortunately, those organizations that didn’t have a robust presence digitally (e.g., social media) were caught off-guard in 2020 with a significant revenue loss. Therefore, it’s crucial to develop and nurture your connections with supporters—online. You’ve got to meet them in the digital platforms and places where they have a presence.

Segmentation is Vital for Successful Nonprofit Marketing

One of the essential activities your nonprofit marketing team needs to master is segmentation. Yes, we know you know that, but it really matters today. When you have artificial intelligence that could write thousands of letters for one mailing, and each is personalized (e.g., name, paragraphs, messaging) to each donor, it’s a sign that you need to amp up your segmentation. As more cause-related groups obtain these abilities through tech platforms, donors and supporters become used to receiving communication almost entirely tailored to them, personally. In short, you can’t skimp on this and have to find tools to allow you to do as much segmentation as possible.

However, 3 rules apply that you need to keep in mind when doing marketing and segmentation:

1. Begin with Basic Segments for Marketing and Fundraising

Again, the marketing tools nonprofits could use now have become much more potent than in years past. Moreover, the platforms are much less expensive as technology gets democratized and continues to expand. So, next time you’re looking at any platform, be sure to understand the functionality for segmentation. For example, tools should have the capacity to segment related to age, location, areas of interest, gender, education level, religion, race/ethnicity, income, engagement preferences (text, email, website use, etc.) lastly, giving history.

2. Make Your Segmentation Seamless

Once you’ve got your groups segmented, you have to ensure that everything’s consistent across platforms. You have to use the themes, ideas, and messages you use in one platform or marketing method in a multi-channel process. In other words, if you create a marketing campaign promoting a new initiative, you want to have all your nonprofit marketing efforts echoing the same theme. Remember, what this does is reinforce the messages you send. Further, you never really know the moment that your message gets on the radar for any given donor, which compels that person to donate.

3. Perfect Your Marketing Messaging

You’ve probably heard it often; practice makes perfect. That’s also true in nonprofit marketing. Different people respond to different messages at different moments. Because of it, you continuously want to A/B test as much as you can. For example, testing one email in comparison is vital. On social media, you may want to test one message, photo, video over another. Fortunately, technology’s allowing much more measurement and functionality. And from a marketing perspective, that’s great. In short, you have the numbers to prove or disprove what people believe with concrete numbers and facts.

Final Must-Haves for Nonprofit Marketing

Again, if you want to know everything from our latest webinar on nonprofit marketing, click this link to our Dropbox. You’ll get all of the information. In the meantime, for this article, we have a few final takeaways.

1. Flexibility is Essential for Marketing

If nothing else, in the last year, we all learned that flexibility is essential. And because of technology and its power, uncertainty’s baked into the business environment, including for cause-related groups. So in all your efforts, including marketing, keep flexibility top of mind. Cause-related groups could now include businesses as consumers push for purpose and not just profit. And that means more competition for your dollars!

2. Social Media is Only Getting Bigger

Social media is a primary, if not the primary, tool for communications. Fortunately, there are many great tools for you to use to manage and ensure everything’s up to snuff. We want to share with you some of our favorite tools. If you want great images and design on an easy platform, check out Canva. As marketing teams know, videos and Instagram stories are essential, and we recommend Mojo App. And for vlogging, we suggest using VlogEasy and Later for scheduling content.

3. Building Marketing Content for Social Media

Finally, for your nonprofit marketing, we have a few takeaways for social media. When someone goes onto your social, you want to have a consistent look and feel to it. So, make sure to curate your graphics, photos, and videos carefully. Take the time; it’s worth it. Don’t forget to use Facebook’s fundraising tools. And always include a call-to-action (CTA). No, don’t always ask for money, but always ask your supporters to do something (e.g., comment, like, share, take a survey, etc.).

To discover more about nonprofit marketing and fundraising, check us out on our YouTube channel or follow our Facebook page.

 

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