4+ keys to great year-round fundraising campaigns
- Digital communications & marketing
- Fundraising ideas
- Nonprofits
- Guided Fundraising
Chances are, you are already familiar with classic marketing strategies for your nonprofit organization, such as fundraising letters, sponsorship requests, events, and more. Now you're looking for new ways to refine your process and perfect your outreach.
Marketing automation for nonprofits is one way to take your marketing strategies to the next level. When used correctly, this handy tool can drastically amplify your existing marketing processes.
In this guide, we’ll share four reasons why marketing automation benefits nonprofits. Let's get started.
Before using marketing automation tools, ensure you already feel comfortable and confident in your ability to target specific audiences with your marketing materials.
When you have the ability to segment donors based on shared characteristics, you can draft marketing materials in advance. Then, schedule those materials to be automatically sent out to those segments at the optimal time.
With an effective marketing automation tool, before your marketing campaign even begins, your nonprofit can:
Leverage your CRM to manage these lists. To ensure your messages are always up to date, regularly collect new information from donors and store it in their profiles.
Email series encourage supporters to complete specific goals. Automatically triggering these emails in response to particular actions smoothly moves supporters along their donor journey while saving your team time.
For example, a supporter might sign a petition or subscribe to an email newsletter. Then, this action triggers an email series, causing them to receive regular emails until they complete the goal that the nonprofit has in mind, such as donating.
The tricky part about this marketing technique is ensuring that you produce enough content to send donors as part of your email stewardship. Here are a few tips to keep in mind:
As soon as someone completes the action you're looking for, take them off the email series and thank them right away. Set up an automatic recognition email to show your appreciation for the contribution they made to your organization.
Marketing automation has two parts: automating the outgoing content for supporters and automating the incoming information for your CRM. Automating the flow of information from your lead capture forms streamlines uploading information into your donor database.
For instance, you may create forms to collect information when a supporter:
These lead captures do exactly what they say: they lead the supporter to develop a relationship with your organization. These forms create a profile in your CRM for that supporter that will be updated whenever you interact with them.
Eventually, these supporters may become recurring donors or maybe even major donors! Maintain their engagement with your organization with frequent communications, regular newsletters, event invitations, and donation asks.
With marketing automation software for nonprofits, you can use effective social media management tools to schedule when posts will go live.
For example, if your nonprofit is launching an advocacy campaign, you can schedule social media posts announcing new targeted action opportunities to launch at the same time as your action alert email.
There are several reasons to schedule your social media posts, including:
In your social media posts, include a call-to-action for your supporters. This direct language will lead a wide audience to the action you want completed, resulting in more conversions.
Marketing automation for nonprofits can boost the efforts of an already effective marketing strategy. Your nonprofit can plan ahead by segmenting donor lists, drafting appeals ahead of time, and personalizing supporter communications. Automating these tasks helps you appeal to more supporters quickly and easily, leaving more time for other nonprofit efforts.
Ready to Get Started?