Make Web, Email & Social a Classic Combo for Your Nonprofit

By Kelley Peterson 

 

With fundraising for the new year in full swing and our stress levels on the rise, let’s talk about how to efficiently and consistently get important messages out to donors by making your web, email and social a classic combo for your nonprofit. 

 

Your Website

Are you familiar with the expression, “Bread and butter”? It’s used to describe the essential, sustaining element of something. This idiom alludes to a basic food, in this case, it’s bread… But from a marketing communication standpoint, your website gives your brand the nourishment it needs to survive.

 

Your website is the first place donors go to qualify, or disqualify you as a place they’d like to give money to. Plus, online giving has been steadily growing over the last few years, and it’s booming during the pandemic. 

 

Your Email

So, if your website is your bread, then email has to be your “butter”… your peanut butter!

 

Benefits like cost savings to send your message electronically vs. snail mail AND ability to track emails received, address bounces and who clicked on what, make email a good tool. Using online communications, like email to support your tried-and-true fundraising efforts and your strategies, it really works. 

 

According to Blackbaud, joint online and offline campaigns improve donor engagement. People who give both online and offline are more likely to keep giving than those who exclusively give either online or offline. So, this is great food for thought, and gives us reason for you to keep on engaging your donors through their physical, and also their virtual mailboxes.

 

Your Social

If your website is your “bread” and your email is your “peanut butter”, what is your social media? I’m thinking it’s like “grape jelly” or “strawberry jam”.


 People have been jamming out on social media since 2003. That seems like eons ago, but that’s when LinkedIn and that Myspace hit the scene. In 2020, LinkedIn had more than 740 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.

 

Today there are more social media flavors to choose from than ever before. The most popular in 2021 are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube.

 

Social media is an increasingly important channel for brands, especially non-profit brands. Not only is it the number one reason people in the US use the internet today, but a promising 55% of those who engage with your organization on social media eventually take further action – donating, volunteering or attending an event.

 

Classic Combination
 You get it! There is a lot of value in using your website, email and social to tell your nonprofit’s story but it’s a juggling act.

 

It’s hard to find the time and resources to write blogs, newsletters AND social posts! One way to save time and money is to plan your messages, create them once and serve them up on multiple marketing mediums. 

 

So how do you turn your web, email and social into a classic combination like the infamous PBJ? 

You need to connect the dots between these marketing mediums and leverage the messages and content you create. 

 

One of the most effective things you can do is drops some balls. You heard me right! Let go of thinking about juggling all these “things” (blogs, newsletters, social posts) and think about it as one story/message you want to tell your audience and then slice it up into bite size pieces. 

 

Blogs

Think about it this way; say you have a quarterly e-newsletter, and the content outline is: Article one, tell a brand story. Article two, tell a success story. Article three, tell a fundraising story.

Turn this newsletter content from a one-time use, to an all-time use by creating blogs on your website first. Then write short teaser articles for your newsletter emails, that link to those blogs, that contain more detailed content on your website. 

 

Newsletters

By short, teaser articles, I mean just a couple sentences and that’s it. Don’t tell the whole story on your email, lead them to your website for more. And then you’ll have content planned for your quarterly email newsletter.

 

In addition to linking readers to the blogs within each newsletter article, you can also add “call-to-action” buttons that link viewers to places inside your website as well – so they can learn more or donate, etc.


 For a few example, call-to-action buttons from a recent Snow-Redfern Foundation email newsletter:

  • Branding Article (about what Snow-Redfern does)
    CTA button is [See How We’re Helping Kids] linking to a page that says what they do
  • Fundraising Article (about a Board Member who is also a monthly donor) 

CTA button is [Donate Now] linking to the donation page

  • Success Story Article (about the impact a funded program is making)
    CTA button is [See How We’re Making Impact] linking to a page with their annual highlights like # of kids served, # of nonprofit awardees, # of dollars granted

 

Posts

Once your newsletter has been sent, you can reinforce your messages on your social media channels. Using information, you’ve already created, you’ll have content planned for at least six social media posts.

 

You’ll have three posts, one linking to each blog, and three more that use content from your email newsletter articles that link to each one of the three call-to-actions. 

 

It really is a classic combination, using simple ingredients, that you can make again, again with what’s already in your marketing cupboard. 

 

By connecting the dots between your website, email and social you have a way to efficiently and consistently help you tell your nonprofit’s story…that will save time & money. Which is the ultimate classic combination!

The post Make Web, Email & Social a Classic Combo for Your Nonprofit appeared first on KidGlov.



source https://kidglov.com/make-web-email-social-a-classic-combo-for-your-nonprofit/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Ways to Humanize Your Direct Mail

The key word in direct mail is “direct”. According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of direct mail is papers containing advertisements that are mailed directly to people’s homes. According to the US Postal Service, 98% of people check their mail daily and Americans spend upwards of 30 minutes with their mail on a single occasion. Many people, like me, love direct mail is because we can touch it, it comes to our homes, and it cuts through the digital noise that many of us experience while at work. Some even say that being able to touch and feel direct mail incites more human emotions than digital platforms do. It’s simple really. Anything you can do to make your direct mail feel like it was sent by a human vs. a robot, the better. Here are three ways you can give your fundraising appeals a friendly, human touch. 1) Humanize Your Direct Mail Through Personalization Using variable data printing is a great way to address donors and potential donors by name instead of the form letter...
Read more

KidGlov’s Katie Ripa Inducted into AMA Lincoln’s Hall of Fame

For anyone who knows KidGlov Vice President Katie Ripa , it’s no surprise that she was honored as the American Marketing Association (AMA) Lincoln’s latest Hall of Fame member. We’re not saying this to brag (okay, we’re bragging about her a little ), but simply put, Katie’s dedication to giving back is the stuff of legends. From her experiences as chair of Lincoln’s Young Professionals Group Leadership Council to traveling across Brazil with Lincoln Rotary Club 14, Katie exemplifies KidGlov’s value of courageously believing we can change the world. The KidGlov team was honored to celebrate her latest achievement at the 2023 Prism Awards in May. “Katie embodies what the AMA Hall of Fame is all about,” said Lyn Wineman , KidGlov’s chief strategist. “She’s an accomplished marketer who gives of herself to others, the marketing community, and the community at large. She was also the president of Lincoln AMA the first time the organization received the prestigious National Chapter Excelle...
Read more

Lincoln LOVs KidGlov

We love Lincoln! It’s why we set up shop here more than 11 years ago and why we were pleased as punch to be named one of its Best Places to Work in June. Lincoln’s Best Places to Work is sponsored by Woods Aikens LLP along with the Lincoln Human Resource Management Association and the Lincoln Journal Star . The awards recognize Lincoln businesses and organizations that have a proven track record of supporting and engaging with their employees. For the third time since 2017 we were honored in the small business category. “Culture has always been our key focus at KidGlov,” said Katherine Warren , our chief operating officer and head of culture. “Our manifesto focuses on giving our team the time and space they need to do the work they LOV for clients they LOV with a team they LOV.” Now in its fifth year, Best Places to Work administers an employee engagement survey to measure corporate culture to help pinpoint top workplaces. The survey, from Quantum Workplace, measures a wide range...
Read more