Friday Five 030: Making an Impact
3 min to read ✭ Join us in Episode 030 of the Friday Five, as we cover the best ways to make an impact using social media, ads and personal outreach.
What is the Friday Five?
Each Friday, we will be answering your most pressing questions from our Digital Marketing for Nonprofits Facebook group. If we don’t cover a challenge that you or your nonprofit colleagues are facing, drop us a comment below or tweet us @CommunityBoost and we’ll add it to the queue.
Let’s dive in!
Nonprofit Marketing Challenges
1) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “Engagement with content, shareability of content, navigating content creation for different target audiences.” – Aishah, The Praxis Project
Our Solution: What it comes down to is making more content, finding what works and trying new things. Typically, launch more that is less polished and focus on documenting the journey. Empower your staff to also curate content. That can be very advantageous in scaling the amount of content you have to use. They are in the field and working on the programs, so content from them can be very valuable. Consistency is key. Also, be sure to communicate with your audience and ask them what they want to see or learn more about.
2) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “Knowing the best content to display on an ad.” – Jiaren, Connected Hearts Ministry
Our Solution: The most creative platform right now, arguably, is Facebook and Instagram ads, so for this platform we would strongly recommend using video creative if possible. Imagery is key. It’s often why ads work or don’t work. Test a ton. Try static ads and we’ve also seen a lot of success using carousel ads recently. See what really resonates with your audience and then triple down on that creative.
3) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “Making a large impact using free tools (Facebook without paid ads, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter).” – Lindsey, Walk with Me Community Improvement Center
Our Solution: Unfortunately, the social world is becoming more play to pay, but with this, we are seeing even the smallest ad budgets help greatly extend the reach of your content. We highly suggest trying to secure some paid ad spend. If you’re going to test at all, test at year end, so you can show that you can get ROI and secure a 2020 budget. Nonetheless, content is king and great content can gain traction. Encourage social sharing and if you can curate an advocate network or a Facebook group, that can go a long way.
4) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “Strategy to raise contributions from corporate donors.” – Chantelle, ConnexionWorks
Our Solution: Try to have your development team or your partnership team connect with relevant contacts on social, particularly on LinkedIn. From there, it’s about building a relationship. Don’t immediately go for the hard sell, instead create custom messaging outreach to get those initial meetings. Try testing videos—create a short custom video telling an organization why they can make a difference for you. If you send those videos out, some people will respond, but make sure to follow up to those who don’t. It’s not just one message or one email, it often takes multiple touchpoints.
