How and Why Nonprofits Need to Optimize Their Asks
Every day it becomes more and more apparent that the opportunity for nonprofits to maximize social media is misunderstood. Perhaps the easiest way to understand this is when communications, PR teams, or social media managers of nonprofits are optimizing engagement with a call to action post or celebrating the fact that a post got 500 likes when that was not the point of the post (i.e. the post discussed the mission or programming).
How To Optimize
A call to action is a post that directs the viewer to do something to become a member. This type of post needs to be optimized for a call to action with clickable links and a functional landing page that makes registering as a member easy. By optimizing for the correct action and sharing the right pages you are allowing your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Ads, or Instagram pages to funnel followers and viewers to the most important page(s) on your website. Simply advertising “membership” on social media will not generate the results that your organization is hoping for in terms so membership. It is critical that you do the legwork so that potential members do not have to. On Facebook alone, we have tracked simple optimization versus no optimization for our clients, and their return on investment has a 10X better return for new members when simple optimization is done. We have seen the difference in new member acquisition drop from $800+ when optimized for engagement versus $72 when optimized for dofollow clicks and $80 when optimized for landing page views.
Feel like this is a daunting task? We have written several blogs that dive into the benefits, mechanics, and general “how to” for nonprofits diving into the world of Google Ad Grants. First, we covered How to Apply for, Receive, and Use a Google Ad Grant. This blog explains best practices for getting your nonprofit approved for the $10,000 a month in Google Ads as well as how to apply that money. We recommend also checking out our blog on Five Steps to Get Your Google Ad Grant Set Up for Success because of the challenges of optimizing the full value of the grant. Finally, once set up, we have also shared our thoughts on the best way for nonprofits to manage their Google Ads Grant and make the most of a great resource. For our for-profit readers, unfortunately, you won’t be able to get free Google Ads, but we still have resources on the best practices for small businesses advertising on Google.
Think of it this way, if you mailed out a newsletter do you want people to only receive it or read it and respond? Optimization is key for maximizing the amount of engagement, response rate, and overall success of your membership or fundraising appeals. As the world only becomes more invested in digital media for social and professional use and new technologies are emerging rapidly, it is crucial that nonprofits do not fall behind and continue to optimize their fundraising requests.
NMBL Strategies has worked with nonprofits for years, helping in some of the greatest nonprofit developments of the previous 20+ years. In that time, we’ve raised more than $100 million, developed millions of dollars more in earned income, and most importantly, developed the strategies and insights behind these efforts. Let us bring that experience to your nonprofit today and ensure your financial future is in good hands.
