Are you looking for a way to encourage or attract more donors to your brand’s site? You’ll need a nonprofit marketing plan.
A marketing plan offers clarity to your team members about the primary mission of your nonprofit organization. It can also help you reach more donors and increase brand awareness. In addition to this, it makes it easier to keep important tasks organized and managed during a charity campaign or fundraising event.
This article’ll review the steps to create a nonprofit marketing plan for your charity organization.
#1. Define goals
The first thing you want to do is define your nonprofit marketing plan’s goals and what exactly you’re looking to achieve. Do you want to create a nonprofit marketing plan to attract more site visitors? Or do you want to attract more attendees for your next live event?
Knowing your end goal is essential for ensuring all marketing efforts are practical and successful in helping your nonprofit grow. It’s also important to remember that you want the marketing goals you set to align with your overall business goals. In other words, if you’re a nonprofit that builds schools across Africa with the help of donors, the marketing goal should be to attract more donors.
Performing an audit of your brand’s existing marketing efforts is another way to set goals for your nonprofit marketing plan. With a better understanding of which strategies have performed the best in the past, you can better evaluate what strategies are more likely to bring success. It also helps in identifying the most effective marketing channels for your business.
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#2. Research target audience
Now that you have an end goal with your nonprofit marketing plan in mind, it’s time to start thinking about who you want to target and encourage them to donate. Knowing your target audience (i.e., the people you want to introduce to your nonprofit organization) is vital for the success of your marketing strategy.
Start by segmenting the types of users you want to attract with your nonprofit marketing plan. You can also segment users based on your end goals. For instance, you might only want to attract people who attend live events and events in the industry.
Let’s talk about some of the ways you can segment your target audience when creating a nonprofit marketing plan for your business:
- First-time donations. These are the users who are first-time donors, and segmenting them makes it easier to offer promotions or “deals” to people who are new to your brand. Sending personalized messaging is vital for making sure first-time donors turn into repeat donors.
- Corporate donors. Organizations that make donations to your cause should be in a separate group because you don’t want to send the same messages to your corporate donors as your private donors. This is because the promotion strategies you would use on individual donors would not be practical for organizations and companies.
- Celebrities and influencers. If your nonprofit brand works with celebrities or has big names in the industry supporting your brand’s goals, segmenting them separately is a great idea. This is because you want to keep such connections highly personalized and ensure you’re not sending them irrelevant promotional messages.
- Users who might donate. If people don’t make donations the first time they find out about your brand, it doesn’t mean they don’t plan to in the future. Segmenting them in a separate list makes sending promotional messages and deals easier, encouraging them to become donors later down the line.
#3. Publish high-quality content
A great way to ensure your marketing plan successfully generates organic traffic is by publishing high-quality content.
Create high-quality content that resonates well with your target audience to increase the likelihood of new users discovering your nonprofit’s site. You can share compelling statistics, case studies, and photos of your organization’s work.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the content types you can publish to create more awareness for your nonprofit organization:
- Video content combines visual learning with an interactive user experience, making it the perfect option for quickly informing your target audience about your brand’s goals and plans.
- Infographics effectively display important information or details about your brand’s ongoing project more visually pleasingly than publishing the same information in basic text form or as a blog post.
- Blog posts and articles. Blog posts or articles can be great tools for covering specific topics or pain points in detail. They also help inform your target audience about important ongoing events and make encouraging users to take action or donate easier.
On top of creating and publishing high-quality content to create awareness for your nonprofit, you also want to help users make the final decision quickly. Create content that prompts readers to act on your conversion goal quickly.
For instance, you can create content answering common questions such as “How much is a good amount to donate?” or “What payment methods do you accept?”.
#4. Optimize your site
Optimizing the user experience on your nonprofit’s site is essential for encouraging more donations and helps improve site discoverability. If users find it easier to navigate your site, there’s a higher chance they’ll donate or visit again to go through more content.
While the user experience on your brand’s site may also play some part in encouraging site visitors to donate, you want to ensure your brand’s site is optimized in other ways.
For starters, you want to ensure essential pages, such as your site’s landing page or donation payment page, are fully optimized. Ideally, you want to make it easy for users to donate, even if it’s their first time donating to your brand. Landing pages and lead capture forms also help brands collect information on users who might become future donors.
In addition, optimizing loading times across your site and improving the user experience also helps enhance SEO performance. In simpler words, this means search engines will showcase your site’s pages higher in users’ search engine results which helps improve site discoverability.
#5. Implement paid ads to grow to reach
While improving organic traffic reach is a great idea, you also want to implement paid ads marketing strategies to grow reach.
You can use paid ads to send messages to your target audience directly and paid search campaigns to get your brand’s site in front of the eyes of more people.
For instance, you can research high-priority keywords and use paid search ads to generate more traffic on your site. Ultimately, this helps you receive more donations and makes it easier for your nonprofit to reach your goals quickly.
#6. Choose effective marketing platforms
You also want to consider the marketing platforms or channels that work best for your nonprofit organization and the goals you’re trying to achieve. For instance, if you want to gain more followers on your brand’s social media accounts, using social media platforms for paid ads and promotion will work better than using Google Ads.
Here are some of the most effective marketing platforms and channels nonprofit organizations can use:
- Social media. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter offer an excellent opportunity for nonprofit organizations to reach new audiences and gain a loyal brand following.
- You can also use your brand’s website as the main driving force behind your marketing plan and use paid ads to attract more users to support your goals.
- Email marketing strategies also work great as they help brands develop a more personal connection with their audience members. You can send personalized messages to your donors and inform them about your brand’s ongoing projects.
- Google Ads. Google Ads is another influential tool nonprofits can use when attracting new site visitors. It helps you directly promote your content or donation pages to your target audience and encourages more users to donate to your brand’s cause.
#7. Keep up-to-date with industry trends and news
You also want to stay updated with the latest industry trends and news. This can help you deliver more relevant messages to your target audience.
For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, nonprofit organizations collected donations to help hospitals purchase more medical equipment. Similarly, in case of an earthquake tragedy, nonprofits will gather donations to help those in dire need.
#8. Build a marketing calendar
One of the most essential steps to creating a nonprofit marketing plan is ensuring everything is organized and on time. You can create a calendar that marks specific timelines of your marketing efforts and plans.
For example, you can add dates for publishing important video content on your website to encourage more donations. Similarly, you can add dates for when your social media accounts go live or publish content promoting the nonprofit goal or donation cause.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is a nonprofit marketing plan?
A: A nonprofit marketing plan is a strategic document that outlines the goals, objectives, and strategies a nonprofit organization will use to promote its mission, attract donors, and raise awareness about its programs and services.
Q: Why is it important for a nonprofit organization to have a marketing plan?
A: Having a marketing plan is important for a nonprofit organization because it helps define the organization’s target audience, identify marketing strategies, set goals, allocate resources effectively, and measure the success of marketing efforts.
Q: How can I create a nonprofit marketing plan?
A: To create a nonprofit marketing plan, you can follow these eight steps:
- Define your objectives and goals
- Identify your target audience
- Create a marketing budget
- Choose your marketing strategies
- Develop your marketing message
- Implement your marketing activities
- Evaluate and adjust your marketing plan
Q: Is there a template available for creating a nonprofit marketing plan?
A: Yes, there are many templates available online that can help you create a nonprofit marketing plan. You can search for “free nonprofit marketing plan template” to find one that suits your needs.
Q: What are some recommended marketing strategies for a nonprofit organization?
A: Some recommended marketing strategies for a nonprofit organization include digital marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, content marketing, and event marketing.
Q: How can a nonprofit marketing plan support the organization’s fundraising goals?
A: A nonprofit marketing plan can support the organization’s fundraising goals by attracting new donors, communicating the organization’s impact, creating marketing materials to promote fundraising campaigns, and building relationships with potential donors.
Q: What is the role of a marketer in creating a nonprofit marketing plan?
A: The role of a marketer in creating a nonprofit marketing plan is to research the target audience, develop marketing strategies, create compelling marketing messages, implement marketing activities, and analyze the results to make necessary adjustments.
Q: How can nonprofit digital marketing be a part of a nonprofit marketing plan?
A: Nonprofit digital marketing can be a part of a nonprofit marketing plan by utilizing online platforms such as websites, social media, email marketing, and online advertising to reach and engage with the target audience.
Q: What is a smart goal in the context of a nonprofit marketing plan?
A: A smart goal in the context of a nonprofit marketing plan is a goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Smart goals help ensure that marketing efforts are focused, trackable, and aligned with the organization’s objectives.
Q: How can a nonprofit organization streamline its marketing and fundraising efforts?
A: A nonprofit organization can streamline its marketing and fundraising efforts by integrating the marketing plan and fundraising plan, coordinating marketing and fundraising activities, aligning messaging and branding, and leveraging technology to automate and streamline processes.
Conclusion
An effective marketing plan is essential for reaching your nonprofit organization’s primary objectives and goals.
However, creating a solid nonprofit marketing plan can be challenging, especially if this is your first time doing so. You must consider crucial steps like defining goals, researching your target audience, choosing the best marketing channels, optimizing your site, and building a marketing calendar.
What are some other essential steps for creating a solid nonprofit marketing plan? Let us know in the comments box below.
