Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Digital Marketing Strategy

Every business wants to grow.  When it comes to your nonprofit, that means increasing donations, recruiting volunteers, and scaling the work you do in order to make a real difference in the world.

That’s where a clear marketing strategy for your nonprofit comes into play.

There’s just one problem… 

As I started working with more and more great organizations over time, I learned that most people doing marketing for nonprofits were either passionate volunteers who became staff members or people who had been recruited from other areas of business or nonprofit management.  

Very few of them had an actual background in marketing.  

But that’s okay, neither did I!  

I spent 8 years studying philosophy and economics before launching my full-time business, which means the only thing I did for nearly a decade was read books and do math.

When I started as a freelance copywriter, I went through years of learning all about marketing, persuasion, and business growth.  In fact, I’m still learning every single day (that’s why I love my job).

If I can do it, you can, too!

That said, you don’t need to devote your life to marketing in order to set up a strategy that helps your business grow.

In this post I’ll dive into what a nonprofit marketing strategy is, why it’s important for your organization, what tools you’ll need (hint: not much), and more.

[If you need help getting started, make sure to sign up for my free email course at the bottom of this page. In less than 5 minutes a day over the next 5 days, you’ll learn exactly what you need to build a strategic marketing foundation.]

What’s a nonprofit marketing strategy anyway?

In This is Marketing, Seth Godin sums it up like this… 

“Marketing is the generous act of helping someone solve a problem. Their problem. Marketing helps others become who they seek to become.”

Gone are the days where marketing was about flashy promotions and sleazy tactics.  

Modern marketing, by contrast, is about building relationships with other people.  It’s about designing, promoting, and yes, SELLING a solution that truly changes someone’s life.

Donald Miller of StoryBrand says that marketing is when you tell someone to buy your product and why they should buy your product.

He says a major mistake businesses make is not directly telling customers about their products — even if they’re great products to begin with.

The same goes for nonprofits, social enterprise, and any other donation-based organization.  If you’re not actively communicating your impact, staying “top of mind” with your audience, and ASKING them to make a contribution — you’ll lose.

Marketing is telling someone how your offer helps them.

So what’s the key to both of them?  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: You MUST. ADD. VALUE. to your audience.

Solve their problems.  Help them survive and thrive.  Be the catalyst for their transformation from who they are now to who they want to be.

Whether you’re looking to sell a product, increase donations, recruit volunteers, or something else entirely, you always need to explain how it helps overcome your audience’s problems and challenges.

But how do you do that?

That’s where your marketing strategy comes in.

Marketing strategy is a plan for how you’ll consistently raise awareness, build trust, and inspire others to take action.  And digital marketing strategy is how you’ll do that online.

Why is marketing important to nonprofit organizations?

Most nonprofits treat marketing, fundraising, and communications and PR as three separate things.  But actually, they’re integrated parts of a composite whole.

At the heart of it all, especially in mission-driven spaces, is cultivating relationships with your audience by inviting them to become part of a story — a story where they are the hero.

Raising awareness, getting the message out there, and building support for your cause all rely on telling great stories, keeping in touch, and doing remarkable work.

So why do we still treat all those things like they’re separate?  Why silo these into separate departments with varying budgets and resources?

Whether you want to inspire people to take action by volunteering their time or money, retain previous sponsors or donors, advocate for public policy measures, or offer a product or service as part of your earned revenue, the foundation is the same.

So when I say that marketing is important to nonprofits, I mean that a great strategy will boost ALL of these efforts and strengthen the core of your brand.

What are the parts of a digital marketing strategy?

You might have all sorts of different marketing “channels” within your overarching digital marketing strategy.  These can be things like… 

• Content marketing.  Blog posts, lead magnets, and other resources that use original content to connect with your audience and help them solve a problem.  This is where the magic happens!
  

• Email marketing.  Email is the cornerstone of online marketing.  It’s how you keep in touch with your audience, stay top of mind, and ask for support when the time is right.
  

• Video marketing.  57% of people who watch a nonprofit video go on to make a donation, so this is naturally something nonprofits are starting to invest more heavily in.
  

• Social media marketing (SMM).  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, TikTok, you name it… How you engage users on social media is all part of SMM.
  

• Search engine optimization (SEO).  Getting your content to rank on Google involves keyword research, getting links back to your site, and designing your website to be “search-friendly.”
  

• Pay-per-click ads (PPC).  These include things like Facebook ads and Google ads where someone clicks through to your website after seeing an advertisement online.
  

Further, your underlying marketing strategy might be split into “inbound” and “outbound” strategies.

Put simply, inbound marketing draws people in.  They might find a blog post you wrote (content marketing + SEO) or see something on Instagram (SMM) and decide to check you out.

Outbound marketing flows in the other direction.  It’s when you go out to meet your prospects.  Think advertisements (PPC) or cold calling.

But remember, all of the strategies all revolve around the same core: building relationships by adding value.

Where should you start?

Here’s the problem a lot of businesses have when it comes to marketing… They slap random 500-word blog posts up on their website and call it a day.

That kind of marketing DOESN’T emotionally engage or connect with your audience.  The time and money spent producing content that’s off the mark can be costly.

That’s why effective marketing starts with clear messaging.

Call it what you want — brand positioning, brand messaging, brand strategy — they’re all about identifying what your audience wants, what’s standing in their way, and how you can offer to help them overcome it.

When I do consulting calls or onboard new coaching clients, I use the StoryBrand framework and help businesses craft their BrandScript and one-liner.  It just works, and people love it.

But ultimately I think it matters less about what kind of framework you choose to use and more about getting your audience’s dreams and fears right from the start.

People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.

You can use a key messages approach (check out this handy guide from Prosper Strategies), repurpose your nonprofit’s logic model and/or theory of change, or start even simpler by identifying your golden circle.

How can you prove nonprofit marketing ROI?

ROI is a sensitive subject for a lot of marketers.  

It’s not always easy to get executive buy-in or prove to yourself that the time you spend creating blog posts, publishing videos, and spending time on social media is actually improving the bottom line.

And it becomes all that much harder when you don’t yet have a proven track record or a backlog of analytics data.

In fact, providing return on investment internally was cited as a major challenge when The NonProfit Times reported that 56% of nonprofits were testing a content marketing strategy in their organization.

If you don’t yet have Google Analytics set up on your website, do it now.  The best thing you can do is take a data-driven approach to growing your business.  This will make things much easier for you in the long run.

How to prove your marketing ROI (especially for content marketing) is a topic I want to write more about in-depth in the future.  For now, I’ll kick it over to a few of the experts:

• How to Explain Content Marketing ROI to Win (or Keep) Buy-In
  

• How to Measure Your Content Marketing ROI + 7 Metrics That Matter
  

• Why Marketers Should Keep Sending You Emails (email marketing ROI)

What tools will you need?

The tech aspect of executing a marketing strategy can be intimidating if you haven’t done it before, so here’s a list of some of my favorite tools to get you started.

Many of them are free, but remember that you don’t need to do everything at once!

• Project Management: Trello, Asana, Monday, or even Excel
  

• Analytics: Google Analytics (and Squarespace Analytics if applicable)
  

• Blogging: WordPress or Squarespace, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, or even Scrivener
  

• Email Service Provider: MailChimp or Convertkit (Infusionsoft when you’re much larger)
  

• SEO: Ahrefs, Ubersuggest, Buzzsumo, SEMrush
  

• SMM: Preview, Buffer, or Later
  

• Images + Design: Unsplash, Canva or InDesign
  

• Video: iPhone or video camera, Camtasia, Adobe Premiere, or Final Cut Pro
  

It’s worth mentioning that the specific apps and resources you use are almost never as important as picking something and getting started.  It’s not the tool that’s going to make a big difference — it’s your strategy!

Focus on what really matters instead of obsessing over apps.

Who executes a nonprofit marketing strategy?

“Zach, all of this sounds great,” you might say, “but I don’t have time / budget / a marketing background.”

I get it, taking the time to follow through on your marketing strategy can seem like a luxury.

While I’d like to convince you that this is one of the best ways to be spending your time if you want to grow your business, I also want to remind you that you don’t have to do all of this yourself.

In fact, 57% of the "Most Effective" nonprofit professionals outsource some aspects of content creation, according to Winspire.

Here’s a few types of people who can help you move the needle forward in your marketing efforts:

• Freelance copywriters, designers, videographers, etc
  
  

• Junior staffers or interns
  
  

• Digital and creative agencies
  
  

• Senior staffers
  

Yes, I said it!  If you can spare 1-2 hours a week for even an insightful blog post, or a thoughtful email, or a short video, you can develop a library of assets over time.

Remember that you can always delegate certain parts of a task, just like I do.  I might handle writing a blog post, for example, while my assistant helps out with images and publishing.

However you do it, always keep in mind that you need to be consistently showing up and moving forward if you want your marketing strategy to get results.

Recap: Common Objections Answered

The hardest part really is getting started, so no one’s going to blame you if you feel some hesitation or confusion.  Here’s a few common objections I hear most often:

• I’m short on staff.  Outsource! It’s often much more efficient than you think.  See section above.
  
  

• I don’t have the budget.  You can make a TON of headway doing mostly free things with mostly free tools.  Improving your website copy is free.  Blogging is free.  Repurposing what you already have is free.  Creating helpful videos is free or cheap.
  
  

• I don’t know what to write/post about.  Answer common questions.  Tell a great story.  Find out what people are searching for with keyword research (or get someone else to do this for you).  Document what’s happening in your business as it relates to your audience.
  
  

• I can’t get buy-in without ROI.  Set up Google Analytics right away and refer to the section above.  Mimic what your competitors are doing, but do it better.  Summarize industry trends and explain the reasoning behind them.
  
  

• I need more training/knowledge first.  First of all, the most important thing is GETTING STARTED.  Do things before you’re ready.  (You can also sign up for my newsletter for actionable tips and resources.)
  

You CAN do this, and you absolutely need to if you’re looking to grow your organization and scale your impact.

That’s why I created a 5-day email course that teaches you how to build a rock solid strategic marketing foundation — even if you have a small budget and no idea where to start.

You’ll learn what to focus on (and what you can safely ignore) to start engaging your audience online.

All you have to do is enter your email below and I’ll send it to your inbox right away.