Nancy Padberg, MBA, is President & CEO of Catholic Education Arizona.
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The importance of digital marketing for nonprofits can hardly be overstated. In my years of experience from working as the global vice president of marketing for Scoopshot App to the current president and CEO of the nonprofit Catholic Education Arizona, digital marketing has remained a top priority. Here are a few marketing tactics I learned during that time that nonprofit leaders can implement to drive brand awareness and impact the bottom line.
1. Geofencing
Geofencing has been around for years now, but I've noticed it is still not frequently utilized by nonprofits. Geofencing is software that runs a pre-programmed action when a mobile device moves through a virtual boundary (or geofence) created around a physical geographical location. This pre-programmed action can take many forms. In the case of nonprofits, it would likely be to prompt push notifications or send targeted advertisements on social media or other websites. Geofencing galas is an effective way for any nonprofit to create brand awareness.
2. Retargeting
Retargeting efforts are a great way to follow up with your key target audiences and gently remind them of your mission, with a strong call to action. The way this works is simple. If someone visited your website in the past and your website has cookie-based technology, it will track what other sites the person visits. This cookie will let your retargeting provider know when to display ads. This ensures that your ads will only appear in front of people who have already visited your site. This tactic can improve your ROI on advertisements because only someone who has already demonstrated interest in your brand is seeing them.
In my experience, retargeting works best when used in conjunction with other marketing tactics that drive traffic. A broader ad campaign can spike initial interest, and a retargeting campaign can help to actually convert that new site traffic into sales or donations.
3. Responsive Web Design
Have you ever opened a site on your smartphone, only to find awkwardly shaped buttons and misplaced photos? Responsive web design, or RWD, ensures that on any device (smartphone, PC, tablet, etc.), the layout of the website remains consistent and aesthetically pleasing. This type of web design has a myriad of benefits such as saving on maintenance costs, optimizing page speed, increasing engagement time, increasing SEO and improving brand awareness.
Websites are a crucial place where brands can reach their target audience, so having an adaptable layout is invaluable.
4. SEO/SEM
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an organic strategy with long-term results, whereas search engine marketing (SEM) is a paid strategy with more immediate results. I've found these two strategies have the best results when they are used simultaneously. Utilizing keywords on your website while also implementing a targeted ad campaign can work wonders.
Overall, the goal of digital marketing is to reach your target market with effective brand messaging as many times as possible to prompt people to support your nonprofit. Combining these four tactics can help any nonprofit drive brand awareness and increase conversion rates—which in turn can impact lives for the better through the valuable work that nonprofits do each and every day.
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