Admin eSolutions: Blog

A recent report from analyst firm Forrester is predicting that by 2014 non profit organizations & small businesses will spend over $1.2 billion on email marketing in the US alone – an 11% compound annual growth rate.

Yet it also predicts that much of this spend will be wasted as messages are targeted inappropriately or not at all.

Your Email Marketing Campaign's purpose is to drive people to your site
That's it, it's a pretty simple purpose, just drive traffic to your non profit website. If you don't give them any reasons to go to your website, they won't. If you send an article or a blog, just give them half, or just the title + the opening paragraph and to read the rest you need to go to the website. The Email Marketing is the lure, your website is the fish!!

An email marketing piece is not a flyer or a poster
Here is a fact: 70% of people have the images blocked by default on their email reader. So guess what happens to your giant jpg of a flyer...most will delete. Email was designed for text, it's quick & easy to read, get to the point in half a page or less. If you have a flyer, you can send a link to it so people can print it and post it somewhere, but the content of your email should be mostly text. A small header & an accent picture to support the text is all that is needed.

Values based vs. Sales driven
If you have to sell, do it softly. Most people are bombarded by offers for this & that all day long and most are just about numb. Focus on the value you provide, be helpful, provide tips that will demonstrate you expertise in your industry.

Have a compelling subject line
According to studies 65% of people will delete emails based on the subject line alone. If your subject line is not compelling, they won't even open it. Spend more time on the subject line than you think, it could simply double your open rate.

Use a real name & real email address
After checking the subject line, people will look at who sent the email. Generic names such as company names with info@ or sales@ will get deleted just as quick. So if you make it with a great subject line, don't blow it with using a company name instead of a real person's name. It doesn't matter if they know that person or not, you are much more likely to delete an email coming from "Marriott Hotels" than if it's coming from "Julie Drew"

Here is a couple of example with a bad & better email marketing:

• Bad: Marriott Hotels - sales@marriott - 10% discounts at the Spa if you book your meeting now
  (Clearly an advertisement, clearly trying to sell you, don't have time for this....click DELETE)
• Better: Julie Drew - julie.drew@marriott.com - When did you enjoy your last massage?
  (This one is more like: "who's Julie Drew? and yes....when was it the last time I got a massage....way too long ago if you ask me...click OPEN)

and here is one for a meeting:

• Bad: Association ABC - events@aabc.org - Register now for the annual meeting
  (It really feels like you are bossy me around, I have enough people telling me what to do....click DELETE)
• Better: Michael Johnson - michael@aabc.org - Learn, Network & Have fun...see you in Vegas in October
  (this one is telling me what's in it for me and yet all I can see if Have fun in Vegas....yeah baby...click OPEN)

Make it easy for visitors to your non profit website to find information on how they can get involved. There are plenty of people out there who might not have the money to make a donation but are still passionate about what your organization is doing.

Whether you provide detailed information about volunteering directly, steps people can take on their own, or just contact information for your volunteer organizer, make sure you don’t overlook this crucial bit of information.

Providing multiple means of contact makes it easier for volunteers to get in touch, so include an email address, phone number, and a web contact form if you can.

A volunteer friendly non profit website should have the following:

• A calendar showing all the upcoming opportunities to volunteer
• An easy form to fill out so volunteers can sign up
• Have the form pre-qualify volunteers by asking:
• Area of expertise
• Hours available
• Days available
• An online photo album of pictures showing past events and volunteers in action...potential volunteers will relate to that a lot more
• A phone number & a contact, some people still prefer the old fashion phone call rather than filling out a form

With the holiday season fast approaching, take a look at your website and make it easy for people to interact with your non profit organization.

Most organizations are keen on having social networks links on their updated non profit website. Certainly, it's important to consider social networking and inbound marketing in your web redesign. But don’t just do it because all the cool kids are doing it.

Make sure you have an overall social media strategy in place, or at least an organized approach to the big four: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn & YouTube. You would never put out an event or service that you had no intention of supporting. If you won’t be monitoring or engaging with potential customers on social networking sites, or don’t think you have the time to do that, hire someone that will, or wait till you have a strategy in place to promote your social media presence.

Best time of day:
According to various statistics, the peak time for Social Networking activities is 7am-10am. This doesn't mean that 4-7pm is bad, but as a rule, you may want to schedule your post to be delivered around that time frame. In any case, always meansure the effectiveness of your post, for your demographics, later in the day may be a better option. Just test, test & test.

Automation:
There are plenty of tools out there to help you automate the process. Ping.fm is great and can be linked to your content management software to push content anytime you add an event or post a bews article to your website. Another tool is HootSuite which is great to schedule post to all your social network from one single location. In any case, make your life easy with automation.

Likes & Comments:
It's really important to engage your audience in "liking", "re-tweeting" & "commenting" on your post. Most major search engines have now admitted that it does play a role in making your content relevant. Ever wondered why the local retail store or local restaurant will run a free iPad sweepstake to people that will "Like" their Facebook page? It's because the benefits will far exceed the cost of the iPad in Advertising. Engage your audience in liking & commenting on your social networking sites.

The big 4 social network explained:

• Facebook = Party/Fun
  This is a fun & lively space, keep it light, keep it fun. Make sure to mix both business & fun, be relatable. Beware of getting political or controversial here. Also, what happened in Vegas used to stay in Vegas...now what happens in Vegas, ends up on Facebook.
• LinkedIn = Networking event
  This is your online networking event, it's all business here, exchange of ideas, etc. Don't get wild & crazy here.
• Twitter = Watercooler conversation
  Sound bite & quick talk, it's light & fast. One way I describe Twitter is "this conversation is so 2 hours ago!!". Keep it light & stay engaged.
• YouTube = Open mic/Kareoke
  Nobody has time to seat through a 10 minutes presentation nowadays, keep it to 1-3 minute. Create a channel and embed videos directly on your site. A video testimonial is far more compelling than a written one. You'll believe the video but will question the written testimonial.

A lot of organizations understand that they should have a blog on their Non Profit Websites. I couldn't agree more and most Executive Directors I talk to agree as well. But there is a lot of confusion about how to do it or even what constitute a true Blog. So here are few tips to help you get started with your blog:

Your blog title should be keyword rich
You want to use good keywords, keywords that your typical member or potential member would be searching for. To identify good keywords, you can use Google Keyword Tool to get started.

Short & Sweet
I would recommend to keep it within 300 words, to include bullets, multiple short paragraphs and to bold keywords. Statistics show that most people don't have nearly the attention span you think they do, get to the point and remove all unnecessary words & phrases.

Include some related links to your content
The rule of thumb is to have a link for every 120 words. Could be a link to some interior pages of your website with more in depth information on the subject or better yet, a link to an outside source (i.e. Wiki) to provide additional information or to explain a specific term.

Add one single image to your blog
Most of what we track, show that having one image per blog is good. It makes it more visually appealing and gives people something to relate to than just a whole bunch of words. The image should describe the mood or feeling or describe in some ways what the blog is about. Make sure to add an image description to your image (aka ALT tag)

Make sure to have a RSS & email subscription
Most blogging services include RSS and adding a way for people to easily subscribe to your upcoming blog is a great way to spread your voice and to make your organization relevant. Some organizations have 70-80 percent of their blog readers subscribe by email, the rest will use RSS.

Getting people to comment
Some of the great ways to do that is to ask a question at the end of your blog or be controversial. Also, you can leave part of the subject not covered. If you completely cover a subject, there isn't much room for someone to add anything to it.

How often?
Once or twice a week. Yes, at least once a week, twice would be better. I know what you are thinking: "How on earth am I going to find the time to do this once, let alone twice a week". I think it's important for any organization to engage the whole membership, dumping this on one person's lap is a recipe for it to fail. Try a contest with your members: "best blog submitted will be published and the winner will receive a discount for the annual convention".

Is your schedule packed enough that the idea of adding blogging sounds like a nightmare?

A call to action can either be a button or a text link you want your web visitors to click on. Easier said than done, especially if you don't apply the basic rules that produces better results. Often time on a non profit website, I see them hidden somewhere or just hard to find. Below are few rules to follow when your design the layout of your site:

1. Make it clear & selft evident (Grandma test)
   Here is a way I teach people to find out if they did it right: ask grandma to look at your website and ask her to point out where or what to click on to renew/purchase/get more info. If she tells you where they are within 10-20 seconds, you nailed it. Anything above 20 seconds is starting to be a concern, if more than a minute before grandma finds the button, then time to start over. FYI: the test works just as well with Grandpa!!
     
2. Donation in one stop checkout
   Studies shows that a complicated or multi step donation process will increase your chances that people will abandon the transaction by more than half. So fast & easy is the way to go. One stop check-out is the best way to go: Donation button should be self evident (i.e. Grandma found it in 2 seconds), when I click on it, a simple form should appear asking me how much I want to donate, then ask for contact info & credit card info, then click/process & done. I see too many non profit websites with complicated or multi step process to collect donations. Apply those simple steps and see your donations increase!
      
3. No account sign up required
   A survey was recently conducted that showed that most people find it annoying to have to sign up in order to do something. They just want in, get their stuff & get out. This also results in many people leaving your site. The question should be: "do we really have to have them sign an account?"
   
   
4. Use real people images vs. graphics
   Human face gets better results than a graphic anyday. People relate to others. In tests, the picture of Jason got as much as 50% more clicks than the graphic
   
   
   
   
5. Short forms is best
   Organizations & business have the tendency to ask way too much stuff up front on their online forms, as in they are pre-qualifying people before they are even talking to them. You should really only ask the basic info required to know how to get a hold of them (i.e. Name, Phone, Email), your pre-qual should be done over the phone while starting to build a relationship. Asking too much on the online form will be a turn off for many.
   
   
6. Get started vs Click here
   Some test were done that shows that buttons with "Get Started" vs "Click Here" will produce better results, in some cases 40% more clicks. The words on the buttons matter more than you think. Maybe "Click here" occurs as a form of domination and subconsciously is a turn off....who knows, but in any case words make a difference, choose the right one and you will increase your results.
   
   
7. Choose the right color buttons
   Another test showed that a red button will consistenly get better results as the green one (see below). It's most likely because it pops out of the page better than a green one. A red button will also occur as most likely more important. Use the right color button and increase your results.