WPblab EP65 – Nonprofit Marketing With WordPress w/ Nathan Porter

This week on WPblab we’ll be speaking with Nathan Porter on how you can use WordPress effectively to market your nonprofit. Nathan is CEO wannapixel and cofounder of ukuupeople. Interact with him on his personal blog.

Components of a Nonprofit running WordPress

Intranet – their internal company site

Nonprofits are just like companies in that they have specific niches they are working with

Nonprofits have two separate spheres they have to operate in – one is fundraising – the other is their cause, can be difficult to balance

Marketing – “Who is it that we are trying to target online and what action is that we want them to take?”

GiveWP only runs with WordPress – it is difficult to market something that only works if you have something else – important to educate (how do you start a site, buying a domain name, setting up WordPress) https://givewp.com/

Build Infrastructure

CRM plugin for WordPress – help to keep your contacts updated. Everytime they interact with your WordPress website and provide more information, their contact info is updated. http://ukuupeople.com/

You need to have the infrastructure in place to be able to do good marketing for your nonprofit

Storytelling

When you are close to the organization, it can be harder to tell your story in a way that makes sense to outsiders, so….

Landing page content is important – needs to make sense.  What is it that you (or your company) does? It needs to be clear … not ambiguous.  Know who you are targeting.  If you are trying to talk to everyone, you are talking to no one.

Put your fundraising message front and center.  Tell your story effectively – have to figure out how to get someone from just discovering your organization, to understanding, to connecting and to wanting to be a part and to support it

Don’t just assume you know your audience – track your stats, check analytics, find out who your real demographic is and then you can figure out the best way to reach them

Kevin Hoffman: ​I think sometimes WP devs choose proprietary software because they need out-of-the-box solutions and don’t have time for setup/integration.

So my question is, what can marketing do to make the benefits of a WordPress solution more appealing than the convenience of an alternative?

Screen recording QA solutions

Marketing with WordPress.org

Donations

The thing that can be hardest for nonprofits to understand is the investment in marketing and the return they will get for that investment (often a long term investment)

Don’t increase your donation levels to increase donations, it’s counter-productive.  Instead, lower the donation levels, make it so easy to do that people don’t even think about it and your donations will increase.  Also, think about offering subscription donations, so that people don’t have to remember to come back and donate.

CRM

Having a CRM allows you to keep track of who’s giving what, and who’s been in contact with who – very important to keep track of who’s given during a campaign so you don’t ask twice. Also helps you track personal details and help you to make a more personal (“Human!”) approach.

Website is the center of the spoke – focus on the core

Social is the outer edges

Google Grants

Social Media

Landing pages for non profits?

Think strategically about where you efforts are best placed, is a landing page the best idea for your organization?

Stay true to who you are as an organization, if it feels uncomfortable or awkward – don’t do it!

The way that you engage with an audience is much the same as the way you engage with your friends – don’t go for the “shiny new thing” – think of it on a personal level, how you would relate face to face

Marketing is a long term investment – you may not immediately see the payoff, but need to stick with it

Use Hootsuite for social media and do post approvals from your social media volunteers

Google Sheet for building out posts for social media

When developing your ‘voice’ for social media, it’s a good idea to do ‘peer reviews’ of the posts at the beginning to ensure consistency

Wendy’s Roast me

It’s hard to be trustworthy and snarky on social – better to avoid posts that would lead your trustworthiness to be questioned. Exception would be if you are an edgy company that deals in snark on a regular basis.

By 2030 You Will Lose Your Chance to Engage Millennial Donors

Millennials are largely interested in furthering their own personal cause – they are not interested in an organization that has been doing something for 100 years unless it fits with their own specific cause. They are not likely to be won over to another cause – it’s much easier to target them based on their specific (niche) interest

Special thanks to all these folks helping us with our show notes this episode

James Tryon – @jamestryon

Cheryl LaPrade – @YayCheryl

Sherie LaPrade – @HeySherie

Marisa Porter – @VirtuallyMarisa

 

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Weekly Watercooler Discussions about WordPress and it’s community.

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