Inbound Marketing for Nonprofits: How to Make It Work
Inbound Marketing for Nonprofits can be an arduous task, especially if you don’t have a lot of marketing experience on your side. Nonprofits represent good causes but have limited funds and a small workforce to actually do the kind of marketing work that helps them to be successful. Instead of investing in traditional inbound marketing, nonprofits often have to create stunted campaigns that don’t do much to bring the right kind of attention.
So how can a nonprofit compete for online attention and earn the ability to collect valuable donations while recruiting more people? Nonprofit inbound marketing seems to be the best solution that very few charities and nonprofits try to use.
Nonprofit inbound marketing is a tool that can be tough to use, but thankfully some tools and services can help you to make the most of it.
Inbound Marketing for Nonprofits is a set of strategies that allow a brand to get attention from potential donators and volunteers through promotion or content marketing. Nonprofit inbound marketing online generally refers to social media marketing, search engine marketing, blogging, and producing similar content. This is different from other types of marketing where you must purchase the attention of your leads.
In general, inbound marketing is a softer way to market and appears more natural to the outside world.
Yes! Outbound marketing is a great strategy when used correctly. If you are looking for more information about outbound marketing strategies, including a way to get $10,000 per month in free advertising from Google, click here to read more about our Google Ad Grant and PPC services.
The best inbound marketing strategies for nonprofits include many things you are probably already doing; they just need to be tweaked slightly so that they work for you:
Social Media: Do you have Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts? How about a SnapChat? Have you ever used Instagram Live? Social media is a fantastic resource for you to establish an online presence and draw in donors and volunteers. Use these resources to increase engagement for your events, earn donations during hard times, and reach out to more people to help.
Managing your social media is essential, you want to ensure that you reflect your brand and that the people posting on your pages do the same. You’ll have to monitor comments, ratings, and discussions quite regularly.
Blogging: Does your nonprofit have a blog? It might seem simple, but adding a blog with some great photos and some inspirational text can really go a long way to bring in donations and improve your website’s SEO ranking (more on that below). Nonprofit inbound marketing can use your blog to draw the right kinds of people in – and if you use it properly, can be an excellent resource for your social media as well.
However, some of the best inbound marketing strategies for nonprofits include things you aren’t already doing as well. These include:
SEO (Search Engine Optimization): If someone is looking for a specific type of nonprofit, they will go to Google to search for it. SEO ensures that you are one of the top search results on Google. SEO is a set of tactics we use to move your ranking up Google, making it easier to find you. The way your website looks to Google will improve your rankings, and the way it performs will help you once potential donors get to your website.
Some of the steps for SEO include keyword research, building branded content, linking to other pages, optimizing images and videos, building a homepage, meta descriptions, and more.
Email Marketing: We all send emails, but do your emails work for you? Email marketing not only sends out timely, appropriate emails – it tracks those emails to see how they perform, who donates, and who even opens them. It is a fantastic way to keep your brand’s reputation at the forefront of your marketing campaigns.
Video Production: Have a smartphone? You are already halfway to having a great video. Next time you go to an event, pull out your phone and take some video. Eventually, you can transform these clips and pieces into something that you can put on your website for people to watch and get a better understanding of your mission.
Sound confusing? It isn’t so bad, though inbound marketing techniques can take years to learn and perfect. That’s why JSA Interactive works with nonprofits and charities to help them put their best foot forward. If you are interested in learning about our nonprofit inbound marketing services, give us a call today.
Arik Benari
Owner, BenariLaw
Dan Stockmann
Owner, Stockmann Law
Jackson Madnick
CEO, Pearls Premium
Craig Rovere
VP Marketing, All Metals Forge Group
Todd M. Grant
Vice President of Marketing, LogicBay