Friday Five 003: The Art of Storytelling & Utilizing Online Resources

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: “Letting people know what we do, why we do it, how we do it, and the story behind it all.” – Chica, Renew Richmond

Our Solution: This is where the art of storytelling comes into play. At the core of storytelling should be your why. Why is your organization doing what it’s doing? Then dig into what you do and next, how you do it. Utilizing a storytelling framework will help you better portray the Renew Richmond story. Another great way to tell a story is to document your organization’s journey through instantly accessible platforms like Instagram stories and Facebook Live. Stories can be told through an array of lenses, so just find the one that works for you and your organization and give it a go.

Read more on how to utilize storytelling in our first episode, Friday Five 001.

2) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “Not having time.” Samantha, Common Good City Farm

Our Solution: You have to make the time. Making time for marketing is something that will payoff in the long run, while it might seem hard to manage in the short run. If your organization is not growing, it’s potentially dying. Online and digital is where people’s attention is at and you need to be innovating in different channels. What can be taken off of people’s plates? What can be transferred? And what can be trashed completely? It’s time to let urgency or needing to post and get on the marketing train conquer the fear of it being absolutely perfect prior to doing so.

Read more on how to let urgency conquer fear in our recent blog, How to Apply Jean Case’s 5 Principles to Your Nonprofit’s Marketing Strategy.

3) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “Social Media. Reaching new audience members and donors.” – Angela, Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus

Our Solution: Trying to reach new audiences donors and members on social media requires creating a really compelling, creative and newsworthy campaign. Social media is becoming more and more of a pay to play platform, while utilizing ads on spaces like Facebook and Instagram will allow you to reach new donor audiences.

4) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “Lack of knowledge and experience.” – Andrew, The Ability Experience

Our Solution: In this day and age, there are so many tools out there that support education and learning on the digital front. Utilize the accessibility of audibles, audiobooks and podcasts. There are so many niches that you just have to hone in on what you want to learn more about and find the resources that really nail in on what you most want to educate yourself on.

Check out these resources for 6 Book Recommendations For Every Nonprofit Marketer to Find Value In (which includes a larger 106 Book List) and the Best Nonprofit Podcasts.

5) Your Biggest Marketing Challenge: “New audience acquisition, specifically for our do it yourself fundraising program at JDRF Your Way.” – Christie, JDRF International

Our Solution: People go to Google to learn about resources for things like Type I Diabetes. One of our biggest recommendations is to utilize the Google Ad Grant, if you are not already. The Google Ad Grant is $10,000 of in-kind advertising that Google offers to nonprofits across the board. While there are stipulations in a Google Grant account, there are so many benefits of utilizing such a platform – brand awareness and new audience acquisition included. Whether people are searching for resources for themselves or for loved ones, the JDRF International ads can pop-up on relevant T1D Google searches, creating relevant exposure to a new audience.

Read more about the Google Ad Grant in our blog, Google Ad Grant: What It Is, How It Works and Where to Get Started.

Cameron Ripley