In Part One of this series, we discussed the variety of ways that digital marketing can drive donations to your organization.
Another way you can generate meaningful content for your website is with blogs and videos. We're going to discuss ways to integrate both into your marketing efforts to increase your ROI.
Blogs should be a big part of your digital marketing strategy as it is a great way to share your message.
Blogs are an easy way to keep your website content up-to-date and increase your SEO. Here are just some of the topics you could cover with blogs posts:
• Letters from staff & volunteers
• Photo essays
• FAQ about specific causes or aspects of your mission/organization
• News updates
• Impact stories
• Vlogs (video blogs)
• Celebrate milestones and supporters
• Discuss partnerships
• Introduce members of your leadership team
• Event promotions/recaps
Video is a great medium used to convey a lot of information in a short amount of time. Wordstream recently stated that 64% of consumers say that watching a video on Facebook influenced them in the decision-making process.
So how do you incorporate it into your digital marketing strategy? As platforms like Instagram continue to gain in popularity, the means to create a quality video on a low budget has increased.
Here are just a few techniques you can use to add videos to your social media and website:
Instagram Stories accrue 250 million daily users and offer a host of benefits when it comes to sharing content.
• Only available for 24 hours—adding to the urgency of seeing it before it's gone
• Photos and videos shared to your "Story" only exist in the story portion of the app, not in your feed
• Can be a series of 15-second videos or stand-alone photos, but you can add as many as you want
• Stories aren't as "polished" as the photos you would typically post to your feed, so they come across as more authentic
• You can tag your Instagram Stories with a hashtag, encouraging engagement
• Business accounts are free and allow you access to several useful tools, including analytics and a Contact button
This medium could be used to generate donations by sharing content at a fundraiser or volunteer event encouraging people to donate on your website.
As we've stated before, video is a social trend you don't want to miss. Live streaming is a great video option as it allows your viewers to engage with you in real-time. Here are just a couple of examples of video types you could use with live streaming:
• Explainer/how-to videos
• Testimonials
• Live events
• Important announcements (think breaking news)
• Interviews
• Behind-the-scenes
• Q&A sessions
You can live stream on multiple platforms—the most popular include Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.
If you want to plan a major live stream event, plan a big media push ahead of time to gain traction, create a unique hashtag, perhaps even a paid social campaign. Depending on how much engagement you want to attract with this live stream video, the more you can promote it, the more people are likely to see it.
Live streaming is a great fundraising option: think of Public Television Phone-a-Thons. Now turn it on its head: instead of people answering phones, perhaps you are interviewing volunteers or other donors. You could live stream at an event, on the way to a volunteer opportunity. These are just a few examples of ways you can incorporate live streaming into your fundraising efforts.
To stay up-to-date on digital marketing tactics for your organization, we encourage you to follow The Buzz: a LinkedIn page that focuses exclusively on nonprofit education, best practices, and tips.