5 Key Tactics for Improved Visibility and Awareness for Your Nonprofit

Getting the word out about your nonprofit and all of the great work you are doing is an essential part of continuing to attract and retain donors. After all, if no one knows about your organization or what you're doing to solve problems and effect change, you will, unfortunately, cease to exist. 

Luckily, there are a few digital marketing tactics that you can use to gain visibility and build awareness of your nonprofit and all your hard work. If you're not using all of these tactics, you may be missing out on opportunities to get in front of the right people. Or you may be spending money you could use toward other things, like working toward accomplishing your organization's mission. 

Use All the Nonprofit Tools at Your Disposal

We don't mean to alarm you, but you may be spending money unnecessarily. There are so many nonprofit tools that can help your day-to-day operations that don't cost a thing! Taking advantage of these free digital marketing tools is keeps your donor's money in your pocket instead sending it to a software vendor.

Advertising

Did you know that you could get up to $10,000 in ad spend from Google? What would that be worth to your organization? Now that we've got your attention let us tell you about Google Ad Grants for Nonprofits. Google offers ad grants to nonprofit organizations that meet their criteria, which means you must be a 501(c)(3). After applying and creating your Google Ads account, you can get started with a new ad campaign on Google's dime.   

Video Sharing 

You can share your video storytelling with a global audience with YouTube for Nonprofits. YouTube wants to make it easy and affordable for nonprofit organizations to get their message out and reach as broad an audience as possible, like the 1.5 billion monthly viewers on YouTube. Along with increased visibility and reach, there are several features that YouTube offers to nonprofits to help them in their missions. Take advantage of Link Anywhere Cards, Content Optimization Help, and Dedicated Technical Support. So, what are you waiting for?

Business and Marketing Operations 

What about the tools your organization uses on a daily basis, like word processing, spreadsheets and slides? Guess what? Google's got your back with all that and more with Google Workspace for Nonprofits. Get free access to all the software your nonprofit uses on a day-to-day basis, including:

• Gmail
• Meet
• Calendar
• Drive
• Docs
• Sheets
• Slides
• Chat
• Forms
• And more!

Additionally, Google has lots of great tools to help your marketing and digital teams get the most out of your campaigns and website. Also, check out Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Google Data Studio. 

Promote Your Nonprofit on Social Media

Social media usage has skyrocketed in the past two years. So now, more than ever, it's time to start leveraging these platforms to promote your nonprofit organization through digital marketing.

Free Promotion and Sharing

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn all allow you to create a profile and start connecting and growing your community for free. You can craft and create posts to share daily, respond to comments and questions and use their backend analytics tools to track engagement. If you follow social media best practices, you should have a growing and engaged audience in no time!   

Paid Promotion and Advertising

These same social media platforms also allow you to boost posts or create ads to reach an even larger audience. You can even take a high-performing post and use it as an ad to reach more people. However, this extended reach comes at a price. Most platforms will require you to set up an ads account and to pay for the ads you run. This can quickly get expensive, so be prepared with a budget and a planned campaign before you get started. 

Lean Into Impactful Visual Content

As internet speeds and mobile bandwidth increase, both nationwide in the U.S. and globally, visual content has taken off. Today's social media platform content leans more heavily toward photos, videos, memes, infographics, and other visually exciting content. 

The amount of information that can be conveyed in a single piece of visual media differs. From highly produced videos with an emotionally stirring score and heartstring-pulling visuals to an Instagram post featuring a single data point or statistic. Both can be impactful and get people motivated to contribute to your cause. Still, the shorter content is more easily shared, which is an important consideration. 

Try playing around with different types of content in your digital marketing to see how they perform and aim to craft eye-catching and shareable posts. And regularly encourage your community to share. This helps to spread awareness to their followers and people who may otherwise be beyond your reach. 

Start Blogging to Share the News

Odds are, your staff has a wealth of information about your mission and cause. So put that knowledge to use in creating a blog that you can share with your donor community. Starting a blog doesn't have to be a huge undertaking. A simple web page will suffice, then get writing. 

To get started, speak with your team to brainstorm topics your community might be interested in, upcoming events you are hosting, or background on how you got started or what inspired your organization to tackle a specific issue. 

Create a content marketing strategy that includes your blog posts so you can coordinate your social media efforts and drive traffic to your website. You can also link to your recent blog posts in weekly newsletters. 

Blogs may seem like a lot of work. But once you get started and realize how much information is at your fingertips just waiting to be written, you'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner. And leveraging that content to feed other channels makes your overall marketing efforts that much easier.  

Use Email to Connect with Your Community

Email is still the most effective way to reach your audience. You most likely collected email addresses from past donors or others who have already interacted with your nonprofit. So, you have a "warm" audience at the ready for fundraising efforts, events, and volunteer opportunities. 

A weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly newsletter will keep you in inboxes and, therefore, in people's minds. It's also a great way to share the latest news, progress reports, and other things your organization has done to achieve your goals and serve your community. This information sharing not only proves your accountability but it helps to deepen your community's trust in you. 

Marketing Improves Your Nonprofit's Visibility and Awareness 

These digital marketing tactics will help improve the visibility and grow awareness of the fantastic efforts of your nonprofit. And getting the word out about your nonprofit and the work you do also shines a light on your donors and the generous community you rely on. So be sure to use some of your efforts to say "Thank You" as well. When they feel appreciated, your community will be that much more willing to give back.