If you haven’t yet taken the time out to learn how to market your non-profit, then you could be missing out on important opportunities that could greatly benefit your organization. Updating your website regularly and holding the odd fundraiser is certainly effective, but there is a lot more you can do to help expand your customer base and increase support for your cause.
It may sound daunting, but marketing your non-profit doesn’t have to be a scary challenge. Here are some tips that you may find useful:
Know your target audience
Before you begin to market your organization, you will need to identify who your target audience is. Age and gender are always two good factors to start with. Having knowledge of your audience’s income level can also be useful if you are wanting to ask people for a donation.
If you want to gain volunteers or people to spread the word of your organization, then it will be beneficial to find out what social media platforms people are using. Social media is a hugely powerful tool and can allow you to benefit from free marketing when people share your content.
Try to tailor your content to people who will be interested in what your organization stands for. If you’re struggling, it can always be beneficial to check out other non-profits to see how they market themselves.
Set goals
You should always plan what you want your non-profit to achieve. Setting yourself goals will give you a good sense of what needs evaluating and what is already working. When setting your goals, you should ensure that they make sense with regards to your mission.
If you’re struggling to know what goals you should set for your non-profit, then do your research. There is nothing wrong with keeping an eye on other non-profits. Donation goals can always be a good place to start. You can share these with your supporters, in the hopes that they will help you reach them.
Utilize emails
Email marketing for non-profits can be crucial in helping you grow and maintain your customer base. Creating marketing campaigns can be a clever way to reach a large audience and encourage them to support your cause. It can be a great way to update your supporters on how well your organization is doing and you can disclose whether you have reached your target fundraising goals.
Emails are vital because you can personalize them which can be effective when you are trying to recruit new supporters. It helps establish a relationship between yourself and them. Email campaigns are often a lot more cost-effective as they don’t require a huge team to create them.
Create a social media campaign
Social media is a huge platform for encouraging people to buy a product or a service. For non-profits it can be useful in gaining supporters for your cause. Taking your time to create high quality content for social media can be the missing piece to your marketing puzzle. Not only will it help to engage your supporters, but it can also help you spread your message to a huge audience with the help of social media influencers.
Celebrate your successes
Whether you’re looking to gain more volunteers for your organisation, or you’ve hit your monthly donation goal, you should always celebrate the successes that you have. Members of your organisation can feel motivated to keep supporting you when they hear success stories. Depending how big your success is, it can also help you attract media coverage.
There are a number of outlets where you can share your successes such as email, press releases, website updates, news outlets and local or national events. You should never be shy to share this information loud and proud.
Optimize your website
If you want to maximize your online presence, then you want to make sure that you are creating a space that can bring everyone together. A website is the perfect way to achieve this. You can use your website to give your supporters more information on how you help your cause and why your cause needs help from the public.
If you are smart with the content you produce, then you can further encourage people to engage in discussions surrounding your cause. This can help create a sense of community between your supporters and it allows people to have a freedom of speech in sharing their own opinions or experiences which makes them feel your cause is close to their hearts. Many people may feel sympathetic towards your cause, and this can encourage them to donate and become a supporter.
Try to utilize online platforms to reach more people around the world. Don’t be afraid to set yourself big goals. After some research and trying it out for yourself you’ll realise that marketing your non-profit is not as difficult as you might have thought.
