Whatever type of company you work for, you want to make sure that you’re making the most of your marketing dollars, and this is especially relevant if you are part of a nonprofit organization. However, just because you are on a limited budget doesn’t mean you can’t market your organization successfully.
Below is a comprehensive guide to help you craft your nonprofit marketing plan along with ideas to make it happen.
While your business is nonprofit, a smart marketing plan — as it does for all businesses — will give you a set of tools to communicate your mission, fundraise for donations and approach volunteers and advocates that will help you run your organization. This is what you can achieve with nonprofit marketing:
Here are a number of marketing channels and ideas that can inspire you when drafting your own marketing plan.
Your website is like your online slice of real estate — a place to showcase all your initiatives, success stories, encourage people to support your cause and direct them to your social media channels to stay top of mind and on top of their feeds.
Research from Hubspot shows that 73 percent of millennials prefer to receive communication from organizations via email, which is why email is a great avenue for regular updates and boosting engagement. Create a cadence of emails so every person in your database stays informed and engaged. Set up a content calendar to send out regular newsletters.
Video content is visual and dynamic and likely to grab your audience's attention. It can be educational, emotional, and it’s shareable. You can create a video of the grassroots events you put on, your speaking engagements, testimonials from your supporters, or call out a donating challenge campaign where you spur your audience to hit a certain contribution target. This campaign, featured on Forbes magazine, did that to support a recovery fund for the bushfires in Australia.
Check out templates like Red and White Environment Nonprofits & Activism YouTube Video Outro and White and Blue Solo Travelling Travel & Events YouTube Video Intro.
Using social media channels is a great tactic to engage your community of supporters on a daily basis. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram have different audiences, values, and functions. Twitter is ideal to share ideas, Instagram is a much more visual platform. Here are some creative ideas for different social channels.
Peer-to-peer campaigns on Facebook
A good example is the Malala Fund. Start a peer-to-peer campaign through Facebook to launch a fundraising campaign via your followers’ birthday, graduation, or any other special day. Remember that Facebook has a “Donate Now” button that you can include on your posts for a clear call to action.
Live Instagram stories
With 500 million daily active users, Instagram Stories should be in the mix of social media tactics. Why not try a live event or a Q&A session like this one by Stand Up for Cancer - an interview with a documentary filmmaker, which got over 1 million views.
Stand Up For Cancer
Create your live event invitations in Canva with templates like Salmon Abstract Food Influencer Freestyle Art Instagram Story Set and Pink and Gold Artistic Fashion Influencer Instagram Story Set.
Twitter thumb-stopping graphics
Engage your social audience by disrupting their social feed. Try giving them something to respond to by creating eye-catching graphics that have an interactive element, such as a fill-in-the-blank challenge.
DoSomething.org invited people to guess how many drivers don’t use their seatbelt, with this graphic:
Launchcampaigner toolkits
Campaigner toolkits are downloadable assets that anyone can use to launch campaigns on behalf of your organization. They put the power in your supporters’ hands to help spread your message and increase your reach. And if you want to increase that reach on social media, then include some ready-made social graphics in that toolkit.
Create your own campaign posters in Canva with templates like Red Hearts Human Rights Poster and Red and White Hands Photo Human Rights Poster.
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