Managing a non-profit is not just tackling that all-important mission—it’s about running an entire business operation and still managing to tackle that mission. So let’s talk about one thing that can hold back many budding nonprofits: a poor web marketing strategy.
A web marketing strategy is a plan to get visibility and traffic to your website. This is absolutely critical to a non-profit since they mainly operate on donations. The more eyes on your site, the more funding you can potentially receive. Because of this, having a solid web strategy in place can make all the difference.
How to Know if You Need Help With Your Web Strategy
When you’re having trouble with your car, it’s pretty obvious that you’ll need a mechanic. But how do you know when you need help with your web strategy? Here are three main reasons you may want to partner with a marketing agency:
1. You’re Not Sure What You Need to Do
Developing a web strategy has everything to do with marketing your business. If you do not have a good base of marketing knowledge, you’re going to struggle and spend an exponential amount of time compared to a marketing guru. Having a marketing agency on your side means that you’re getting expert advice and assistance. Let’s cover some of the jargon-y things that your partner agency will help with.
SEO, ROI, & Other Scary Acronyms
A professional marketing agency will be an expert in all things digital marketing, so you don’t have to be. First, however, let’s cover some terms you’ll need to be familiar with.
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of measuring how your website ranks on search engine results pages (SERPs). You want to get as close to that number-one slot as possible to maximize your web traffic. When was the last time you clicked through to the tenth page of Google results? That’s exactly why SEO is so important.
CTA, or call to action, is the part where you entice your audience to do what you want them to do. These statements can be as simple as “Donate today!” or “Follow us on Instagram!” Just be sure to attach a hyperlink to the goal location within the CTA because humans are more apt to do things the fewer steps they have to take (which is why I avoid baking).
ROI, or return on investment, is a measurement of what you get back versus what you put in. Your investment can be time, money, or both, and your return can be profit, engagement, or visibility. ROI statistics are used to create and modify marketing techniques to maximize your visibility and engagement.
KPI, or key performance indicators. This is a step before ROI. Of course, it's pretty easy to tell if your organization is getting more money, but (unfortunately) it doesn't happen overnight, so KPIs can be a helpful way to gauge if your metrics are on track, or if your tactics or overall strategy need to be adjusted in order to result in a return on your investment.
Content Creation & Management
Content creation is a fancy catch-all term for the process of creating any content that provides informational value to a targeted audience (like what I’m aiming to do with this blog riiight now). It can take many different forms, including social media posts, videos, articles, infographics, and more. Your site’s content needs to provide unique informational or entertainment value (or both), as well as maintaining your brand voice. Your content functions as the heart of your nonprofit’s digital presence, so it has to be good. In addition, having a consistent flow of new and updated content is vital to boosting your visibility.
As a member of your non-profit’s leadership team, I am positive that you can passionately speak or write about your organization at length—which is phenomenal! However, it’s not always easy to seamlessly incorporate necessary SEO keywords into your piece. That’s where a marketing agency comes in! They can take your heartfelt blog posts and add just the right amount of SEO spice to attract more donors and volunteers to your site. Or, since content creation tends to be very time-consuming, a marketing agency can completely take over the process so you can fully commit your time back to your nonprofit’s mission.
If you find yourself struggling with content creation, here’s a quick rundown of what a marketing agency can do to help with content creation:
- Create a content map, strategy, & calendar
- Create content such as social media posts, blog posts, emails, & more
- Optimize any provided content for SEO
- Use analytics to adapt future content for greater ROI
- Implement seamless CTAs to drive engagement
Website Improvement & Implementation
Your website is basically the world wide web’s version of a social media profile. It needs to look good to draw people in and offer enough value for them to stay. As a side note, if you have yet to create a website for your nonprofit, you need to make that your main priority. Your website is where potential investors can go to learn about and connect with your company. They should be able to see the history behind what you’ve done, see the past and future projects, and provide information on how they can best get involved. Your marketing partner will ensure those boxes are checked and that your home base is SEO-friendly to increase that much-needed website traffic.
2. You’re Not Seeing Results
Remember that ROI stuff we mentioned earlier? Well, if you aren’t seeing positive results from all the hard work you’ve already sunk into web strategy, it’s time to mix things up. Not seeing favorable results may mean that you’re taking the wrong approach. You could be marketing in the wrong places, using bad SEO, or just not creating content that benefits your intended audience. Partnering with a marketing agency can take away all the guesswork and errors that are holding you back. We’ll be able to provide you statistical results based on ROI values, website traffic, engagement percentages, and similar processes. When in doubt, ask a marketing pro.
3. You Don’t Have Time
Running and operating a non-profit is no walk in the park. There are a ton of things to do, and a great majority of them have nothing to do with your organization’s actual mission. However, these things are just as critical. But what if you simply don’t have the time to follow through on that web strategy? Spending ten hours a day working on your nonprofit-related projects only to have to spend three more on researching and implementing a successful strategy would break the best of us. And you can’t just ignore it and hope it takes care of itself.
In these cases, it’s time to call in the big marketing guns. A marketing agency will have all the know-how needed to implement a web strategy successfully. This can even save you money since what may take you six hours and a headache to complete, may only take us one to two hours tops—time to take back your day.
Conclusion
If you are struggling to maintain a steady, successful web strategy, you may need to consider partnering with a marketing agency. You’ll be getting an expert, a diversely-skilled team that can cover any marketing task you throw their way. If you’re interested in chatting about how Tribute Media can help you, let us know! Let us take care of the marketing so you can sit back and watch your organization grow.
Written by Caty Zimmerman
As the Director of Client Services and Account Manager, Caty's ongoing goal is to define client delight at Tribute Media and help our clients become heroes in the eyes of their customers.
