Nonprofit marketing in the digital era can feel very complex. There are so many options for getting the word out about your organization that it can become paralyzing and cause you to do nothing. This is especially true for people who have been in the nonprofit space for several decades. They remember the days when some of the only options for marketing were sending out mailers, setting up a booth or speaking at events, or the occasional phone-a-thon. If you were part of a large nonprofit, maybe you ran some radio or television ads, but none of these things required you to be especially technologically savvy or stay abreast of the latest “trends” in marketing.
Nonprofit marketing is very different today. It can often feel like the online landscape is changing too rapidly for the average person to keep up. Just when you feel like you have a solid presence on a certain social media platform, people start favoring a different one, or when you start learning how to run effective digital ads, the rules or the process changes.
Unfortunately, if you want your nonprofit to grow, you can’t put your head in the sand and avoid it all, but you also don’t have to be an expert on every channel that’s available. Instead, you can focus on a couple of marketing channels, and navigate them really well.
Email is a very popular marketing channel for many nonprofits—and for good reasons. It’s very affordable, it’s not that complicated, and it can be very effective! As someone who advises nonprofits in their marketing efforts, I almost always recommend that they start with email marketing.
But it’s important for a nonprofit not to rely solely on email marketing. Not everyone takes the time to read every email they get. It’s also very easy for someone to unsubscribe from an email list. In addition, you need to find a way to always be collecting email addresses if you want your effort to be successful.
Email is great. It gives you the opportunity to tell stories, make appeals, and give updates about what your nonprofit is doing, but when a person receiving your emails also sees a short video on Facebook, sees a local celebrity talking about your organization on Instagram, or gets a SMS message to remind them to take a certain action, it is so much more effective than just email alone.
Nonprofit multichannel marketing is an approach every nonprofit should consider. By being active on multiple platforms, organizations can engage with a wider audience and build deeper connections with that audience.
It starts with creating a plan and then consistently executing on that plan. If this feels overwhelming to you, you may want to consider working with a nonprofit marketing agency that specializes in multichannel marketing. In this industry, there are options to work with a full-service agency—one that will help you set up a plan and then allow your team to execute it or formulate another type of approach that is customized for your organization and its needs.
At my nonprofit marketing agency, Beeline, we are always happy to have a (free, no-obligation) conversation with nonprofit leaders who are considering working with an agency for the first time. We can talk about the type of services we offer and see if we are a good fit for your organization’s needs.
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