The Importance of Nonprofit Marketing
If you’re in the nonprofit sector, you probably really enjoy helping people, animals, or the environment. Your drive to help and make a positive difference is one of the most unique qualities about you. Other people, both in and out of work, notice it and admire it. You too probably admire it about yourself- and rightfully so! So, it’s only natural that you’re in the line of work that you are.
You were taught many things when you pursued your education. What you likely weren’t taught, however, was how to market a nonprofit. Across the board, this is often where nonprofits fall short for a variety of reasons. Sometimes agencies utilize out-of-date marketing strategies. Other times, there are almost no marketing strategies utilized. This is a problem for one reason: along with a lack of funding, one of the most common contributing factors to nonprofits failing is a lack of community awareness about the services the nonprofit offers.
Nonprofit marketing enters stage left
Nonprofit marketing is quite the undertaking. It involves a social media presence, community involvement, showing up on Google, establishing KPIs, and managing fundraising events just to name a few. While there are many different options to pursue, we’ll discuss one of the best places to start for nonprofit marketing: getting your website up to snuff.
Spruce up your website with SEO
Let’s just get to the point. If your website hasn’t been updated since 2017, it’s been time. We all know that we’re living in the digital age and websites make a serious impact. Websites can tell us so much about an agency. This includes who they serve, the services they provide, where they’re located, who their partners are, and who their providers are. Sprucing up your website is much more than changing the color or design, it’s making sure that your website is showing up on Google and found by the people who need you.
What is SEO?
SEO, or search engine optimization, is one of the more intimidating forms of marketing and one of the most important marketing efforts. SEO is important because it helps your website (and agency) show up on Google. SEO is a strategy that focuses on tailoring websites to reflect what your ideal client is looking for. For instance, let’s say that you offer support to people experiencing food insecurity who are pregnant. You refer to this program as “food assistance for pregnant people” on your website because that verbiage makes sense to you. However, your ideal population isn’t searching for that on Google. Instead, they’re “food resources pregnancy” (yes, I know that’s not grammatically correct. But for real, how often are we grammatically correct when we’re Googling something? The answer is rarely!)
Why does nonprofit SEO matter?
It may not seem like a big deal, but it is in Google’s eyes. SEO is focused on providing the user with the best experience possible, so it will pull up resources that match what we search for. If we do not include the words that people look for on our website, they will not find us. Let’s remember one of the contributing factors to nonprofits' failing: the community not knowing about the nonprofit, therefore the nonprofit being able to secure funding for services provided to the community. We know that one of the most common methods of finding organizations is searching on Google. If we’re not showing up, we’re not serving our intended population. If we’re not serving our intended population, we can’t keep our doors open.
“What should I do next?”
If you’ve gotten this far, you’re probably wondering: How do I know what people are searching for? I’m glad you asked! At Linger, we pride ourselves on being well-versed in SEO and utilizing the best tools available to ensure that we are up to date on our SEO practices. Our content creators excel at including the words that your ideal clients are looking for and making them fit for your agency while not sounding like an SEO robot. Our biggest priority is to ensure that your values are reflected in your marketing. In addition to the words on your website, we ensure that your website’s functionality reflects best practices for SEO, including accessibility and website navigation.
Let Linger help with your nonprofit goals
At Linger, we are passionate about helping people reach their goals for their business. We achieve that through a variety of avenues and ensure we create a marketing plan that fits your needs. If you’re ready to begin marketing for your nonprofit, follow these steps:
3. Reach your nonprofit marketing goals with the help of SEO.