5 Nonprofit Marketing Strategies to Drive Website Traffic

An illustration of website promotion items.

As a marketer for a nonprofit organization, it may seem that you spend half your energy on education and awareness and the other half on raising money. While there is undoubtedly more that you do, building awareness remains a big part of the job.

Driving traffic to your website is integral to increasing awareness of what you do and those you help. It's also necessary for converting casual website visitors into active members, volunteers, and donors.

To help, here are five tried-and-true marketing strategies to drive more traffic to your website.

1. Share Your URL on IRL Materials

Linking your website to social media, digital ads, and other digital platforms can help people find you, but don't forget about printed materials!

Include your URL or a QR code on tangible things that your audience may find in a non-digital space. Things like:

Mailers
Newsletters
Flyers
Posters
Business Cards
Letterhead
Swag Bags and Gifts
Invitations

Making it easy for people to find your website is a surefire way to drive traffic. Additionally, include a compelling call to action (CTA). Rather than asking them to visit, let them know what you want them to do or how they can help once they get to your website.

Consider creating landing pages for specific audience segments, such as event attendees or newsletter recipients. Landing pages encourage visitors to take action, such as signing up for your mailing list or donating to a fundraiser.

2. Create and Optimize Blog Content

Creating a blog for your nonprofit isn't new advice. But, it remains one of the most effective ways to drive traffic and establish credibility.

But, creating a blog isn't enough. You need a content marketing strategy. To successfully drive traffic to your website through blogging, you need to learn what your audience wants and establish your organization as a thought leader in that area. And for them to find your valuable content, there must be strategy behind it.

For example, your blog content must provide your target audience with useful information. Blog content should have SEO-driven headlines and be long enough that Google will crawl the page (we recommend over 1,000 words). Blogs should also include helpful links and keep visitors on your site so they can get to know you better.

3. Leverage Social Media to Drive Traffic

Social media is another marketing tool that can help you raise brand awareness. But, rather than focusing on increasing followers or social engagement, use it to drive traffic back to your website.

To use your social channels to drive traffic back to your website, promote blog posts, events, or premium content. Fundraising is another great way to use social media promotion to guide people to your website or donation landing page. Just remember to capture their email address or contact information to keep in touch.

Ideally, your goal should be to create two-way traffic. For example, you could share an infographic on social media with a CTA to check out a related video on your website. Once people have watched the video, ask them to share it with their followers to help raise awareness.

This traffic loop helps you raise brand awareness and reach a new audience organically.

4. Get Strategic with SEO and SEM

Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are similar and often conflated. While they serve different purposes, they work toward the same goal: to drive website traffic via search engines.

SEO includes organic tactics to help your nonprofit appear at the top of the search results, driving traffic to your site. SEM uses paid tactics to gain visibility and drive traffic to your site.

Developing an SEO strategy is essential for targeting your audience's search terms online. That SEO strategy should drive your content creation, headings, and meta tag content.

That strategy then feeds into your SEM strategy, which includes paid digital ads and backlinks from guest blogging or published articles.

Learning how to use SEO and SEM together will help drive more traffic to your website.

5. Get Help From Google for Nonprofits

Why not get help from one of the largest search engine platforms on Earth? Nonprofits are in the unique position to gain free advertising from Google to the tune of $10,000 per month.

When your organization registers for Google for Nonprofits, you become eligible for Google Ad Grants, which can help you raise awareness and gain brand recognition. While there are limits to the types of ads you can run using the grant dollars, you could see a real return on investment when used in concert with the other tips we've mentioned here.

Additionally, when you register, you gain access to YouTube for Nonprofits and Google Workspace. YouTube for Nonprofits has the functionality to fundraise right on the platform. And Google Workspace has a ton of valuable tools that your nonprofit can use. They offer security and two-factor authorization to help keep your passwords and data.

You can also access tools such as Analytics, Tag Manager, and Data Studio with your Google account.

Learn More Marketing Strategies to Drive Web Traffic

Hopefully, the marketing strategies we've shared here will inspire you to find new ways to drive traffic to your nonprofit's website. Whether it's to build brand awareness or crucial fundraising work, increasing traffic to your website is essential.

If you feel like you're just scratching the surface, register to access our webinar on Strategy and Branding for Website Redesigns for more strategies that drive website traffic.

Topics: Nonprofit Help