Rethinking Online Marketing: Using Inbound Marketing to Grow Your Fundraising

transcript

NO BOUNDARIES

Rethinking

Online Marketing

Presented by:

Jono Smith October 24, 2010

#Convio10

Session Objective & Outcome

• SESSION OBJECTIVE:

– Strengthen your effectiveness in online marketing

• SESSION OUTCOME:

– A few good ideas to test when you get back to the office

• SESSION AGENDA:

– Inbound & content marketing defined

– Inbound & content marketing in 5 steps

– Content marketing examples

• INTENDED AUDIENCE:

– Beginner to intermediate

Who‘s here?

Executive Management

Unit Directors/Managers

Inbound, Outbound, or both?

Outbound: Interrupt

• Buy: Advertising

• Beg: Public Relations

• Bug: Telemarketing,

Direct Mail

Inbound: Earn

• Develop great content

(podcasts, white papers,

webinars)

• Amplify content with social

media (blogging & RSS

syndication)

• SEO (Make it easier for

people to find our content

Downturn Strategy: Maximize Net Revenue

Before you spend another dollar on your existing online

marketing programs, I would ask three questions:

1. Does it increase donations?

2. Does it boost net revenue?

3. Does it protect an existing revenue stream?

Some nonprofits don't measure net, they measure gross. And so

they may be thinking they're producing a lot of money, but

they're actually losing money.

So how do I become an

inbound marketer?

Time out. First things first.

10-Point Website Check-Up

1. Is your URL guessable?

2. Do your publish your URL on every

communication, both online and offline?

3. Do you use website design strategically?

4. Do you provide relevant content that tells your story through

words, pictures, videos, or podcasts?

5. Can you collect email addresses on every page of your website?

6. Do you use social, email & search marketing to drive traffic back

to your website?

7. Is your Donate Now button above the fold?

8. Is your donation page optimized?

9. Can people find your website in search engines?

10. Do you have your social icons on every page of your website?

Why is this important?

• Usability is the ‗donation killer‘

• Turn-off factors:

– 20% of people can‘t find where to donate

– 40% don‘t donate because of poor design, cluttered

pages and unintuitive layouts.

– 40% can‘t find the information they need or find the

website content unclear.

Why is this important?

• On average, over 45% of

online giving is during December.

• In December, nearly half of the donations for the

month are in the last 6 days, when each day

Convio is processing more than $1 million in

donations.

• Average donation is 40% higher in December

So how do I become an

inbound marketer?

Marketing needs to become a

content creation engine.

Content Marketing Strategy

• Inbound Marketing is a subset of Content Marketing

• Content marketing is the art of understanding exactly

what your target audience wants to know about your

mission and delivering it to them in a relevant and

compelling way to grow our business.

– Develop great content

– Make the content easy to find

– Provide opportunities for engagement

– Capture prospects, cultivate prospects & convert prospects

Measure Everything

Website

Google

Indexed

Monthly

Unique

Visitors

Inbound

Susan G. Komen 99 3,010 201,281 180,230

National Breast

Cancer Foundation

98 20,100 38,097 51,161

Data from website.grader.com and compete.com

Ok, you have committed to Twitter…

So what are you going to Tweet about?

Get Into the Content Mindset

• Make emails into blog

• Turn forum posts into

blog posts

• Shoot videos at events

• Interview supporters for

your blog

• Do podcasts with your

program & executive staff

• Share lessons you learn

Content Marketing Strategy There are four components to a content marketing strategy:

1. A relevant issue of interest to your target audience

– i.e., breast cancer, microfinance, conservation, etc.

2. A strong point of view

– We are the only nonprofit advocating for a better way to create neighborhoods nationwide by promoting conservation subdivisions

3. Research that supports the point of view

– Conservation subdivisions preserve 50% - 70% or more of the buildable land, plus unbuildable wetlands, steep slopes and floodplains.

4. Case examples that validate the issue

– The same number of homes can be built as allowed in conventional "cookie-cutter" subdivisions.

Here’s the problem.

It is not enough simply to

identify a global or regional

issue that your constituents

are facing and develop

content that explains it.

What Makes You Different?

• You need to take a strong point of view on why it is an

issue, what is going to happen, and how to deal with the

ramifications.

• Your point of view should be differentiated from

competitors' views, original, and hopefully counter-

intuitive.

• Your online value proposition represents the

principal means by which to differentiate yourselves

against the online competition.

Crafting Your Online Value Proposition

• Mission Statement: Our mission describes what we do. It is factual, not aspirational—we can substantiate it every day.

– Our mission is to empower people to work their way out of chronic poverty, transforming their lives, their children’s futures and their communities.

• Vision Statement: Our vision describes our ultimate goal.

– Our vision is a world in which all people have the opportunity to provide for their families and build a fulfilling life.

• Value Statement: Our value proposition is an internal expression of our most compelling differentiator.

– We are the only nonprofit providing lending, savings, insurance and training to emerging entrepreneurs in more than 20 countries who want to work their way out of chronic poverty.

What makes you the only?

• Complete this sentence:

– My nonprofit is the only ________ that __________.

• For example:

– Malaria No More is the only nonprofit applying business methods to the malaria fight.

– LandChoices is the only Michigan land protection organization creating nature neighborhoods.

– Baltimore Furniture is the only furniture dealership that sells sustainably manufactured furniture.

What‘s your ―onliness?‖

• If you can‘t say why your nonprofit is both different and

compelling in a few words, don‘t fix your statement... fix

your nonprofit.

• Once you‘ve defined your nonprofit‘s onliness, you‘ve

got a decisional filter for all your online marketing

decisions.

• By checking back against your onliness statement, you

can quickly see whether any new marketing campaign or

initiative will help or hurt, focus or unfocus, different or

me-too.

NO BOUNDARIES

Content & Inbound Marketing

in 5 Steps

#1 The Goal

Focus on a single focused goal to provide direction,

motivation, and operational guidance A focused goal

comprises five elements:

#1 The Goal

Align Content Marketing with your 2011 Strategic Plan

1. Examine your 2011 goals

2. Pick one where content

marketing can have an impact

3. Focus on content & relationships,

not tactics & technology

4. Adopt Google‘s mantra:

―Fail fast, fail smart.‖

#1 The Goal

• Listen to your community

• Help your constituents connect with each other

• Influence event participation

• Build thought leadership

• Improve constituent relationships

• Improve recruiting

• Improve search engine rankings

• Influence fundraising

• Increase media coverage

#1 The Goal

Finish the sentence:

―We will know our inbound marketing efforts are worth

further investment if…‖

• Facebook fans become donors.

• Twitter followers become volunteers.

• LinkedIn followers become event participants.

• Blog readers share our content.

#2 Research Your Audience

Think of donors like readers.

What do they need to know to

be happy and successful?

What are their pain points?

#2 Research Your Audience Demographics

e.g. Where are moms online?

Psychographics

e.g. Who are moms influenced by?

Source: ―Digital Mom,‖ RazorFish and CafeMom, 2009

http://digitalmom.razorfish.com/publication/?m=4248&l=1

#3 Understand the Value

What‘s the value of a fan or follower?

#3 Understand the Value

•Page Impressions, Visits, Unique Visitors

•Time Spent, Pages per visitor

•Emails opened, click-throughs

•Videos viewed, audio plays

Engagement & Reach

•Number of Mentions, Posts, Comments

•Recommendations

•Mentions-per-user

•Send This To A Friend

•Inbound links

Word of Mouth

•Offline media mentions

•Online media mentions

Earned Media

•Higher search results

•Greater search results “share”

•3rd party results

•Customer/stakeholder feedback

•Product sampling

Research

Search Visibility

#4 Choose the Tactics

―We should blog & Tweet!‖

1. Are you listening to your online community?

2. Do you have something unique to say?

3. Are you willing and able to say it?

4. Are you willing to be challenged and criticized?

5. Are you willing and able to dedicate the resources to succeed?

#5 Develop a Content Calendar

• Every good publication has an editorial calendar.

• The calendar-planning exercise generates a wealth of ideas.

• Since some of the content we offer as marketers is ―evergreen‖ (i.e., the topics will be as relevant next year as they are today), there‘s no reason not to have a plan for content.

NO BOUNDARIES

How Content & Inbound Marketing Strategies

Fueled the Growth of Fundraising123.org

Case Study

Fundraising123.org

• The mission of the

Network for Good

Learning Center is

simple: to provide

nonprofits with free

access to the best

available online

fundraising and nonprofit

marketing training and

resources.

Humanistic We started by researching our audience and developing personas

• Offline Ozzie: Ozzie is deputy director for a small, child services nonprofit that has a one-page web site that doesn‘t really work, and his organization has done so little effective online marketing that existing efforts have not yielded any real results.

• Technophobic Tina: Tina works for a small- to medium-sized nonprofit that is eager to raise money online, and she‘s in charge of doing that as a development officer or marketing director. But she‘s totally intimidated by technology.

• Overthinking Alex: Alex is executive director of a smallish nonprofit that has a modest web site, but he‘s got big dreams. He‘s ready to get a donation processing tool and an email tool.

• Corner-cutting Candace: Candace is an accidental techie at a small- to medium-sized nonprofit with a web site with big potential. She is somewhat tech-savvy but also overwhelmed.

• Savvy Samantha: Samantha is a web developer working full time at a medium-sized nonprofit that is growing fast. She‘s quite pleased with the system she‘s created – she has Basic or maybe even Custom DonateNow, Constant Contact for emailing donors, and an Excel list of donors.

Actionable, Clear & Happy • Vision: To make our customers, partners, and partner‘s

customers wildly successful, fundraising and marketing superheroes.

• Micro goals:

– Capture email addresses and grow our house list

– Gain top 25 placement for our target keywords

– Drive traffic back to the main website

– Build deeper relationships with influencers

• Marco goals:

– Creating awareness of the need to facilitate online giving, building trust in the brand, and generating revenue through new subscriptions.

Testable

• Ran a four month test

Lessons Learned

• Avoid the measurement for measurement‘s sake

challenge – know in advance what you‘re measuring and

• Creating a fact-based, predictive culture requires a

willingness to experiment

• Carry out pilots and small-scale experiments before

committing the big bucks

Results

Fundraising123.org (2008-2010)

• 471,000 AUVs

• 1.6 million page views

• 3 mins avg time on site

• 2.1 avg page views

• 21,000 inbound links

• Google Page Rank: 7/10

• Grew house list from 30,000 to 150,000

Results

Fundraising123.org (2008-2010)

• Traffic Sources:

– 46% Referring Sites

• 1) Blog

• 2) Facebook

• 3) Twitter

• 4) StumbleUpon

• 5) Email Marketing

– 29% Direct

– 23% Search Engines

NO BOUNDARIES

How Twitter generated more than 11,000

website visits and exposure to more than 1.2

million Twitter users for the Atlanta affiliate of

Susan G. Komen for the Cure

Tweets for a Cause

Campaign Overview • Goal:

– Generate awareness, registrations and donations for Komen Atlanta and its upcoming annual Race for the Cure

• Strategy:

– Engage active Atlanta Twitter users to spread the message ―8 Ways Your Mom, Wife, Sister May Have Breast Cancer‖

• Tactics:

– Landing page with strong call-to-action

– Komen Atlanta notified their individual Twitter followers about the upcoming initiative.

– A modest PR push targeting local Atlanta media, along with national breast cancer and charity bloggers complemented the program launch.

What worked?

• Simple message

• Clear call-to-action

• Strong landing page execution

Measurement Within 24 hours, TFAC significantly increased awareness for Komen Atlanta and its mission as measured by the following engagement metrics:

• More than 300 retweets of the message ―8 Ways Your Mom, Wife, Sister May Have Breast Cancer‖

• 5,000 total link clicks to the educational landing page including 2,900 link clicks in the first 20 minutes after the initial tweet

• Exposure of Komen Atlanta to 1.2 million twitter users

• 11,000 visits to the Komen Atlanta Web site

• Mentions of Komen Atlanta by targeted power-twitters including @mashable

• Editorial coverage of Komen Atlanta and TFAC‘s collaboration on CNBC.com, BreakingTweets.com and other media outlets

Three Final Thoughts…

There is no silver-bullet

marketing tactic. In reality,

you need a combination of

on- and off-line channels

to create awareness and

drive fundraising.

Everyone should stop

doing inbound marketing

until they know what they

want to do with inbound

marketing.

What if your supporters

spread your content to

prospective supporters for

you - essentially becoming

your marketing arm?

Contact Information

Jono Smith

Event 360, Inc.

Washington, DC

773.247.5360 x130

jsmith@event360.com

www.event360.com

Rethinking Online Marketing: Using Inbound Marketing to Grow Your Fundraising

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