When the goal of your organization is to increase awareness about a social or environmental cause, you may wonder how much the latest marketing technology has to do with helping your organization meet its goals. Well, a lot, actually.
Nonprofits can take full advantage of new trends in marketing strategies to increase their donor base, raise awareness about their cause, plan fundraising campaigns and improve both the quantity and quality of their communication with the public.
Social media, SMS marketing and mobile apps are all ways for you to get your organization’s message out. Nonprofits should particularly keep an eye on the increase of mobile use. Did you know that 51% of people who visit a nonprofit’s website do it on a mobile device? How about the fact that between 2015-2016, mobile donations increased by 205%? These and other stats showcase the fact that nonprofits will be more successful if they increase their mobile presence.
Here are seven tools for nonprofits to maximize their marketing success:
Razoo
This crowdfunding platform is a great place for nonprofits to engage with their donors. Razoo has been around for 10 years and during this time they have helped their participants gather about $500 million. Impressive, right? This tool is easy-to-use: users are able to craft their own fundraising pages within a few minutes. You can make use of their donation widget and place it on your website or Facebook page.
Shop2Give
A mobile app that connects to over 100,000 major retailers’ customer bases in order to make them aware of different causes. Each time one of your supporters makes a purchase at one of your partner retailers, you get 2% back on their purchase at no extra cost, even when purchasing at a physical location. Your supporters can also make extra donations to you through the Shop2Give app. Your branding message and media are used on the app’s interface, increasing your organization’s exposure and maintaining brand consistency.
IFTTT
Integrate your internet and social media activities through “recipes” that allow you to post, share and respond across various platforms. It basically allows you to merge all of your major communications media (Dropbox, Google Spreadsheet, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, mobile photos, mobile notes, and more). That way you can memorize common ways that you interact with these media to create “recipes” in order to make the process easier and faster. A major time-saver for whoever manages your organization’s social media content.
Facebook for Nonprofits
The social media giant has turned its attention to nonprofits this year. In order for your organization to capitalize on the popularity of this social media platform, Facebook provides you with tips on how to:
- Increase your page’s popularity.
- Design and run a fundraising campaign that will attract donors.
- Take advantage of peer-to-peer fundraising.
- Set up ads for your organization to reach even more people.
- Create and publicize events and ensure a great turnout.
Perhaps their greatest contribution to nonprofits is the addition of a Donate Now call-to-action button that you can feature on your organization’s page, making it easy for supporters to click to donate.
TextMagic
This bulk SMS service provides businesses and nonprofit organizations with text marketing solution. Nonprofits can benefit from adopting a text marketing campaign in lots of ways:
- Texts have a much higher open rate than any other form of marketing outreach, therefore, you can be certain that your supporters are reading your messages.
- Text messages can help your organization achieve increased attendance at events, increased support and donations.
- Texting can also be used to coordinate activities among volunteers and staff members.
Text Magic offers prepaid texting at affordable prices, free account creation with no contract.
WPtouch Mobile Plugin
The world’s most popular blog platform offers this plugin that allows you to optimize your WordPress site for mobile use. This tool is able to tell the difference between a desktop and a smartphone. It automatically formats pages opened by a mobile user and leaves your regular theme’s URLs intact. You can also choose among multiple extensions to add: for example, Responsive Images which re-sizes your images and uses them for mobile-optimized website version.
Appmakr
Now apps gain momentum and they are often the preferred way of communication for mobile users. A simple DIY mobile app for nonprofits, this free and easy-to-use app creator that allows you to:
- Create your organization’s app(s) in just minutes with its drag & drop system.
- Include RSS feeds.
- Send alerts to your supporters with in-app messages.
- Load podcasts to be played from your app.
- Share photos and videos of your organization and its events.
- Access important analytics about your app’s performance.
- Get feedback from users.
Use these tools to help your organization meet its goals by taking advantage of the growing success of mobile platforms, SMS marketing and social media optimization. Good luck!
