“Is there a difference between marketing for nonprofit organizations and for-profit businesses?” This is one of the questions frequently asked to so many professional digital marketing services providers.
The answer is quite simple. The latter leverage marketing strategies to promote their brands and sell their products and services. The former use it to spread the word about their cause and raise funds to sustain their activities.
Broadly speaking, the marketing strategies for nonprofits are no different from any type of business. But the challenge is many of them are strapped for cash and don’t have the budget for marketing activities as their profit-oriented counterparts.
7 Useful Marketing Strategies for Nonprofits to Create Awareness and Build Trust
This blog post discusses seven cost-effective and reliable marketing strategies that nonprofit organizations can use to create awareness and build trust and emotional connections with their target audience.
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Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is extremely effective to market nonprofits. Many organizations use leading platforms to grow awareness for their causes, connect with their followers, and raise funds. They also leverage top social networks to promote new initiatives, previous works, and engage with their supporters.
However, social media marketing does not just mean uploading random photographs and writing some witty captions. It’s an expert’s domain. The person handling a nonprofit’s social media accounts must know the nitty-gritty of social media marketing. If an organization does not have a social media expert, then investing in professional digital marketing services is better.
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Content Marketing
One of the most valuable assets of nonprofit organizations is their story. A good story and the ability to tell it well can strike a chord with their target audience and build emotional connections.
Here is where the role of content marketing comes into. It comprises blogs, e-books, newsletters, SEO, and many more resources that are extremely valuable for all nonprofits.
High-quality and carefully crafted content informs the target audience about the cause, mission, industry trends, and news. It also drives new visitors, donors, subscribers, and leads. The best part is the content can be repurposed and recycled to create more engaging and insightful resources.
Although the strategy is not complicated, it is best left to professionals with the right expertise and experience. Hiring a digital marketing company in India can help nonprofits to craft earnest and persuasive content with high emotional appeal.
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Visual Marketing
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a minute-long video is worth over a million. Visual marketing not only involves creating and promoting videos but also shorts, GIFs, images, and memes.
When done right, this marketing strategy is a sure-shot way to pique the interest and hold the attention of the target audience.
It enables nonprofits to showcase their activities, behind-the-scenes works, team members, impact, and the difference they are making in the world.
Though it is simple and easy, some aspects of the marketing strategy require a mix of expertise and experience. Such as optimizing for search engines, evaluating performance, and monitoring key metrics.
The in-house team can shoot and upload short videos and behind-the-scenes pictures. But organizations can benefit from the expertise of professional digital marketing services.
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Paid Advertising
Many nonprofit organizations are not interested to use paid advertising due to many reasons, one of which is lack of budget.
But this marketing strategies allow them to reach a highly targeted segment and offers an excellent return on investment.
Google Adwords’ cost-per-click ads only require nonprofits to pay for the total number of clicks on their advertisements. Apart from that, the paid ads on social media are highly targeted and reach their
Apart from that, nonprofits can apply for Google’s Ad Grants program that offers a monthly grant of up to $10,000 in search ads and will display their advertisements to Google Search users.
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Word-of-mouth Marketing (WoW)
Did you know that word-of-mouth marketing is more effective compared to paid ads and influencer marketing? As per a Nielsen study, nine in ten people believe recommendations from family and friends more than advertising.
This marketing strategy in nonprofits can go a long way in creating awareness, building trust, and retaining partnerships. The best part is it is free but extremely valuable for organizations that don’t have a marketing budget.
The key to effective word-of-mouth marketing is to make sure that the donors, volunteers, and supporters are involved in the organization’s activities.
When constantly kept in the loop, they are more likely to spread the word about the organization and encourage their family and friends to contribute.
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Event Marketing
Event marketing strategies present non-profit organizations with the chance to build authority and credibility. It is one of the most fun and smart ways to create awareness for the cause, raise funds, engage with the community, build trust on a personal level, and generate goodwill.
Events offer excellent opportunities for nonprofits to show that they are genuine. But hosting events entail huge costs and massive efforts. However, the good news is nonprofits don’t have to organize their events. They can partner with other organizations and take part in local events that are relevant to their cause.
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Public Speaking
Public speaking is one of the most effective ways for nonprofits’ founders and key members of the management team to create awareness about their cause and mission. Though somewhat similar to event marketing, it has many differences.
The only thing it has common with event marketing is that the team member(s) get to speak to a large group of audience. But unlike the latter, there is less interaction between the speaker(s) and the audience.
To be effective, the speaker need not be an excellent orator or extremely eloquent (though some degree of articulation will help). But the speech must come directly from the heart and emotionally connect with the audience.
Finally, it may be concluded
Nonprofit organizations don’t have the budget for marketing and promotion as for-profit businesses. Fortunately, some cost-effective marketing strategies can enable them to connect with their community and create awareness. It is extremely crucial for them to be innovative and optimally use all the resources they have to gain the most out of their promotional strategies.
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