Why nonprofits should be using inbound marketing

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are in a unique position to benefit from inbound marketing strategies. Often cash-strapped and understaffed, NPOs need to show positive ROI for any marketing strategy they employ.

Donors want to see the real impact of their contributions, and NPOs must demonstrate that impact in a meaningful way. Inbound methodologies empower nonprofits because they enable this process exceptionally well.

Let's explore why nonprofits and inbound marketing work so well together.

Inbound marketing is the rain that helps transform
your nonprofit's vision into a rainbow of results.  

What makes inbound uniquely suited to NPOs?

There are a number of things that make inbound marketing and NPOs a match made in Heaven. Here are just a few:

The Cost Factor: A 2012 HubSpot State of Inbound Report found that, in general, organizations using inbound marketing to generate leads spent an average of 61 percent less than those organizations using only traditional marketing methods. You have to stop and think, "What could my NPO be doing with that kind of extra money?" Doubtless, you can think of many places in your budget that could use an extra boost.

The Ability to Connect with the Correct Audience: Whereas traditional marketing requires a scatter-gun approach, inbound marketing allows you to focus your message to a specific audience at a strategically advantageous time. Inbound marketing for NPOs is all about bringing donors to you by appealing to their specific interests and needs.

It is not about going out and beating the bushes to find more donors. Rather, inbound allows you to consistently provide highly-engaging, relevant material that will naturally attract those people who are ready to engage at the optimal time to trigger that engagement.

The Multi-Channel, Right Place Factor: Inbound methodologies take into account the ways that donors interact with your NPO today. As social media casts an ever-widening net over people of all age groups, educational levels, and income levels, inbound marketing takes advantage of multiple social media platforms to get your message across with more impact.

Inbound marketing helps you find donors and volunteers at the moment they are actively searching for a worthy cause. In this way, inbound is a more agile marketing strategy, because it reaches a larger audience, where that audience actually is, on a variety of social media platforms.

How to use inbound marketing for most impact

Once you have decided that inbound is the best way to reach your donors and volunteers, there are a number of things you can do to ensure that your inbound strategies are working. Here are a few tips to help you use inbound for your NPO:

• Find where your donors are on social media, and target those platforms.
• Optimize your website to attract more donors. Responsive design is a must for today's web visitors.
• Tell compelling stories by blogging and by using multi-media experiences like videos, podcasts, and webinars to illustrate the impact of donations and encourage more engagement.
• Invest in marketing automation to save time and ramp up the intensity and frequency of your email campaigns.
• Build trust by providing relevant, engaging content consistently so that your organization stays front and center in the minds of donors and volunteers.

Whatever cause you're fighting for - use real-life stories in images,
videos or blogs to illustrate the impact of donations. 

The bottom line

Inbound marketing methods are a natural fit for NPOs because these methods provide a more positive ROI than traditional marketing methods. Additionally, inbound methods allow NPOs to more clearly target their fundraising efforts to the appropriate audience, at the appropriate time, and in the right place, thus ensuring that your NPO benefits in the best way from time and money spent.

Of course, transitioning from more traditional marketing strategies to inbound methods requires some time and effort. NPOs in this position may profit from the expertise of an inbound marketing agency that specializes in working with nonprofits. For tips on finding the right agency for your needs, download our ebook: The Ultimate Guide to Hiring an Inbound Marketing Agency.

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