Gone are the days when outdated Web sites were simply a lost opportunity for successful marketing. In today's world of Internet and media savvy consumers, Web sites must be relevant, unique, targeted, and personal, with built-in tools to capture user information and to obtain their permission to keep the conversation going.
The Web has the potential to be one of your most cost-effective outreach tools ever. How well is your site doing the job? In 2008, I challenge you to meet these 5 resolutions to help your nonprofit grab and keep the attention of your top audiences.
Resolution #1: Make your Web copy relevant
The importance of writing Web content that is relevant to your target users (content that speaks specifically to what a group needs or wants) is nothing new. However, many organizations still list quality Web design and copy writing low on their priority list.
Take that marketing plan back off the shelf and review your organization's target markets - who are the top three visitors you want coming to your site, and what do they want to see or read when they get there? Next, create market-specific content (copy, images, and/or interactive graphics) for each of your target markets. At a minimum, add this content to the top-tier pages of your Web site this year (those pages that have the highest number of hits such as your homepage). Even if you do nothing else to drive more traffic to your site, the visitors you DO receive will now be much more likely to connect with your organization.
Resolution #2: Boost your online social savvy
Gone are the days when Web sites had the monopoly on online interactions. A revolution in online social networks has emerged that is changing the face of how individuals and organizations interact on the Web. To stay competitive, nonprofits must stay up to speed on the latest tools of social marketing, and understand how these tools may (or may not) grab the attention of their target markets.
Have you considered the impact that tools like a blog, community forum, video, or other interactive media may have on the effectiveness of your Web site as a marketing, public outreach, or fundraising tool? If your organization struggles enrolling people into what you do, these interactive media may be do the trick far better than static copy ever could.
Resolution #3: Ask for permission
As marketing guru Seth Godin explains in his books "Permission Marketing," and "The Purple Cow," media-savvy consumers simply don't want what they didn't ask for. Gone are the days of email harvesting and seemingly cheap email campaigns to get the word out - and for good reason. In fact, most e-marketing and e-newsletter distribution vendors (companies that provide a web-based infrastructure to distribute emails or e-newsletter to your database of contacts) will not allow you to use their service unless you sign a waiver confirming you have permission to contact everyone on your list.
In this permission-only world, it's critical that your organization have a plan to ask visitors to your site for permission to continue to communication. Adding such a "lead capture tool" to your Web site is now easier than ever.
In fact, most email distribution services (such as aWeber, CoolerEmail) can help you add a lead capture tool to your site in a manner of minutes, even if you are not technically savvy.
Remember - the best lead capture tools offer something of value in exchange for gathering the user's contact information. For instance, a subscription to a valuable e-Newsletter, a relevant white paper download, or a resource guide.
Resolution #4: Get noticed
With the right positioning on the Web (matched with relevant content and permission-based lead capture), nonprofits can cost-effectively find new customers, donors, members, volunteers or advocates. And in turn, they can also boost their market share, revenue, funds, membership lists, and even amplify their success with national outreach campaigns.
Resolution #5: Track, track, track
Even with the wealth of free or inexpensive tools available to track response on all of your electronic communications (Web site, email, e-newsletter), many organizations still do not track how well these tools are doing the job.
If you use an email distribution service to distribute your publication (such as aWeber or CoolerEmail), your service typically includes response reports for each publication. You can track who opened your publication, how many bounced (indicating either a bad email address of the user hasn't approved your address to get past their spam filters), which links were clicked on, etc. This data can be very helpful to determine the relevancy and perceived value of your publication's content. And, it can really help you determine the coming year's editorial calendar.
The same is true of tracking basic Web site analytics - this data can tell you a lot about user behavior, and which pages are or are not working effectively to generate the response you're looking for.
Don't worry - tracking Web analytics doesn't have to be time-consuming. Focus on analyzing basic traffic data every quarter or so, such as: hits per month; average page views per visitor, conversion rates (ratio of hits per how many people took the action you wanted them to take, like make donation, purchase a product, or sign up for your e-newsletter); and referring sites or keywords (these tell you how people are finding you).
Regardless of where you are in your marketing or fundraising program development, keeping these five resolutions could be one of the best things you'll do for your organization this year.
Tiffany Meyer is president of Numa Marketing, and the author of Writing a Results-Driven Marketing Plan. Find more information about her nonprofit marketing services, register for her affordable nonprofit marketing e-courses, or sign up for her monthly e-zine The Smart Nonprofit at www.numamarketing.com. ©2007 Tiffany Meyer
