Charity Online Marketing

by pkmcr

Marketing has changed! Charity Online Marketing offers a great and often free way for charities to connect with supporters and donors and spread the message about their work.

The slow economy of the last few years has hit many charities hard as donors have tightened their purse strings and government around thw world have reduced official support for many organizations due to spending cuts.

So, charities have been forced to find new ways to get donations and stay afloat to do their good work. Traditional advertising is expensive and often unaffordable for most charities.

The best and most cost-effective way is to harness the power of the Internet for charity online marketing. Asa someone with extensive experience of internet marketing and an on-going commitment to supporting charities, I wanted to offer useful tips on how charities can market themselves online to raise awareness and funds as well as get increased support from interested donors and well-wishers.

Charity online marketing needs plenty of work and your organization should ideally have motivated staff to do it. If not, you can hire volunteers looking for experience as well as those who wish to do their bit for society. Budding online marketers can build their portfolio by helping out a charity or two. Here's how to use the Internet to promote your charity.

Create a Facebook Fan Page

Gain Supporters for Your Charity Through Facebook

Supporters will not hesitate to click on the "like" button if they like the good work you are doing. Use your page to disseminate news about your charity's regular work and recognize the efforts of those who make it possible.

Your Facebook fans can contribute their mite by promoting your organization on their personal news feeds. This will help you get good publicity and raise donations.

If you have the funds, you can try a targeted advertising campaign on Facebook focusing on people with related interests and those who already support similar charities.

Facebook Marketing in An Hour a Day

Market Your Charity On Facebook
Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day

Tweet for Help

Use Twitter To Connect With Supporters and Spread The Word

You can use Twitter to share news, build support and comment on social issues. Use the 140 characters to post links and ask for contributions. You can also ask celebrities to support your cause by re-tweeting your messages.

How To Make The Most Of Your Website

Your Charities Website Is a Great Tool

As a charity your website is a valuable tool and can be used in a number of ways to connect with your audience and to let people know about your work.

Make Donating Simple

Make it as easy as possible to donate to your charity. The simplest way is to add a "Donate Now" button on all the pages of your website.

Request for Links

You can ask your supporters and bloggers to link to your website and request them to re-tweet your messages. This will boost your ranking on search engines and boost traffic to your site. The student community is a great resource waiting to be tapped. Encourage students to support your charity by volunteering and publicizing your good work among their peers.

Attract Search Traffic

Your website should have appropriate and attractive content to rank high for related search terms. So ensure there is good quality content and posts that interest your target audience and supporters.

Blog about Your Good Work

A great way to publicize the daily good work you do and its impact is to blog about your successful projects and the difference they make to beneficiaries. Readers will get to know your organization and its goals better and will become more motivated to contribute their mite. Good blog posts are also fantastic for search engine rankings. If you have celebrity supporters, you can request them to write a guest blog post about their positive experiences with your charity.

Go Viral

Use your presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to share a compelling video among your fans and well-wishers. Go viral with your good content to reach millions without the aid of an expensive TV or radio advertisement.

Build Partnerships and Links

Charities should actively partner with companies to build links and garner attention. A donor company can be given an appreciative badge to be displayed on their website. This badge could acknowledge their good work for society and also provide a link to the charity's website. Thus the charity obtains a valuable link and the company gets accreditation for their social service.

Digital Marketing Tips for Charities

Non Profit Marketing Strategies That Work

The following are just a few useful tips for charities to get their digital marketing strategy right to attract more supporters and donations:

Understand Your Target Audience

As mentioned earlier, it is important to understand your target audience and their motivations and interests to focus your digital marketing campaign. Tailor your strategy to guide and inform them by creating compelling content that can touch their hearts and make them open their wallets.

Use Your Information

Charities have a large amount of interesting and useful data such as how the money they raise helps beneficiaries. They normally provide lots of information in their leaflets, booklets, fact sheets etc. All this data can be repurposed and used in the digital campaign.

Use Google Grants

Eligible charities can get free pay-per-click (PPC) advertising allowance from Google Adwords. This scheme is called Google Grants and it offers up to $10,000 in free PPC advertising spend every month. Charities can effectively channel this scheme to attract digital donors.

YouTube for Charities

Non-profits and charities can use YouTube to influence viewers with a specific video strategy. The YouTube non-profit program can aid you as it provides help to improve your branding capabilities and upload capacity. Charities can use Video Annotations to add commentary to their videos and link to their website to attract donors. Many charities also effectively use the call-to-action feature to get donations through their YouTube video and channel.

How Charities can Effectively Use Social Media

Using Social Media for Charities

The following top tips for how Social Media for Charities should get you started on building and developing your presence on the various social media sites:

  • You can get a good idea of what supporters are saying and sharing about your charity and similar organizations.
  • Social media can be utilized to drive more traffic and donations to your website.
  • An active social media presence ensures a better ranking on popular search engines.
  • Surveys reveal charities are raising more money online with every passing year thanks to their digital and social media marketing strategies.
  • Your passionate supporters can be motivated to spread the word about your charity's motives and goals.
  • Social media can be harnessed to mobilize grass roots support for your charity's events and activities.
  • You can interact directly with your loyal supporters through dynamic two-way communication.
    Social media is one of the best and most cost-effective ways to acquire new supporters for your cause.
  • Use social media to increase loyalty and trust among your fans and well-wishers. Communicate honestly and openly with them and allow them to voice their opinions directly.

Summary

In this digital age, online marketing and communication is essential for any charity to raise awareness and funds, as well actively engage with its loyal and motivated supporters and fan base.

Charity Marketing Strategy Guides

The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause

A nonprofit's real-world survival guide and nitty-gritty how-to handbookThis down-to-earth book shows how to hack through the bewildering jungle of marketing options and miles-l...

View on Amazon

Strategic Marketing for Non-Profit Organizations (7th Edition)

Reflecting the most recent, relevant information in the field, this best-selling book offers readers a practical foundation for marketing in nonprofit organizations. Its coverag...

View on Amazon

Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits

The Father of Guerrilla Marketing, Jay Conrad Levinson delivers the first book to adapt the profit-producing principles of Guerrilla Marketing to the world of nonprofits. The no...

View on Amazon

Updated: 06/25/2014, pkmcr
 
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PeggyHazelwood on 05/05/2013

It really is amazing all of the online ways for charities and individuals to collect donations. The internet has truly changed our world.

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