Marketing Tips (Top 5 for Year-End Fundraising)

This guest post was contributed by Shoes with Heart.

The best fundraising time of the year has arrived. So, this is your chance to make sure that your donors give you the most support possible. Don’t make any mistakes. Marketing is an essential part of fundraising. And understanding 5 of the best marketing tips will help your group achieve greater heights of success. As you know, you can have the best fundraising ideas, but if people don’t know you have a fundraiser for your cause, you won’t have much success.

Hopefully, you invest as much into your marketing efforts as you do to your fundraising. There are a few reasons why you should make sure you always pay attention to marketing. First, especially in the digital age, marketing provides you with an excellent chance to engage with the public and your supporters. Also, marketing informs people about what you do, and over time, it helps to build your reputation. Finally, there is really no success in fundraising without marketing. So, let’s get started on those 5 amazing marketing tips you can get started with today.

5 Great Marketing Tips for Your Nonprofit

1) Create Partnerships for Social Proof

Although we live in the real world, we also exist in the digital world. For instance, social media causes most of us to spend hours per week on social networking platforms. Because of it, we have an idea called social proof that should be of interest to you and is our first marketing tip. The vast majority get influenced by word of mouth recommendations of family, friends, or even strangers on social media. Meaning, when people see others publicly recommend a brand, it increases the chances they will take a look at the brand and support it as well.

2) A Tip to Cultivate Brand Ambassadors

On the earlier point that social proof works when done well, another excellent marketing tip is to encourage your supporters to promote your cause on social media. Thus, a great way to do it is to create an online community for your purpose. To get people on board in helping you spread your message, you should offer them incentives and encourage them. For instance, if any of your donors tag you and help you spread news, you can offer a discounted event rate. Or, you can give your community members a shout out on social media by tagging them and others in your posts.

3) Consider Paid Social for Boosting Great Content

We know that nonprofits typically operate with minimal resources. In other words, they don’t have a lot of spare money. But, let’s say that you have great content that is informative and of value for the public. Or perhaps, you have an awesome community-wide event, such as a 5K run for your cause. Paying to boost that content to audiences in your geographic area will go a long way toward the success of your fundraising ideas. If you have great content or a must-attend event, our marketing tip is to consider paying to promote it on social media. You’ll spend little, but raise lots of fundraising dollars from the exposure.

4) Make Sure You Have Your “Google My Business” Page

If you haven’t yet done it, you should do this marketing tip now, which is free. Get your Google My Business page. By now, you know that Google is the largest search engine in the world. Therefore, you should get in the habit of using its tools, including Google My Business. When you claim your page, it will help Google drive prospects and donors to your website. By getting a Google My Business page, you will have the chance to include your URL, contact, photos, and other relevant information. What’s more, people will have the opportunity to leave reviews and comments about your group. Yes, this is another social proof opportunity!

5) Use Low Cost or Free Conversion Tools

Nonprofits have to treat their donor prospects as small businesses handle their sales leads. In other words, you want to convert prospects into donors. So, for our final marketing tip, we suggest that you look into low cost or free conversion tools. For instance, you can check out Hubspot’s free marketing tool for lead generation. Alternately, you can also look at other platforms, depending on your needs. As an example, our marketing team uses CoSchedule’s free headline analyzer for content.

In sum, we hope that you’ve found these marketing tips to be of benefit to your nonprofit. All of these tips are things you can start today to ensure that your fundraising ideas for the year-end are as successful as possible!

About the Author: Kristy Fontelera, VP Marketing, Funds2Orgs

Kristy Fontelera is a creative professional with a background in corporate and nonprofit social media advertising, content creation, and brand strategy. As the VP of Marketing, she works with a suite of global fundraising brands as well as manages national and local social media accounts for clients and entrepreneurs. Kristy enjoys new books, traveling, Fleetwood Mac, and picnics with her pup. Most of all, Kristy is a passionate individual that loves nothing more than to help others make an impact in their market and the world.