Is your non profit leaving money on the table because of a missing part to your digital strategy? Here are the four most common mistakes in the digital world I see non profits making, and how to fix them...
- A clunky website. Especially if you're a smaller non profit it's easy to focus all your efforts on the cause and put less importance on your digital presence, which is completely understandable. But if your website is a slow, frustrating experience that requires a desktop to properly view and takes loads of clicks to find the donation area, then it doesn't matter how many people you manage to send there, the number of people who get exasperated and give up will be huge. Which is leaving money on the table that could go towards your cause.
How to fix it: if hiring a freelance designer is out of the question, investigate website platforms like Squarespace that work well on mobile pretty automatically and are straightforward to build on. Most importantly, review each journey a supporter would make on your site and see where you can reduce the number of clicks it takes to perform each action.
- Not dedicating attention to their socials. Now, let's acknowledge that social media takes time, a lot of effort and the perseverance to keep going even when it feels like the algorithm is personally targeting you. But regularly posting content that adds value for your ideal supporter and builds a community around you is invaluable for raising awareness around your cause. If you're running paid ads, an active community on your pages also puts you in a better position in the eyes of Meta, which can help extend your reach.
How to fix it: if you simply don't have time, consider outsourcing to an expert, or asking that expert to put together a content plan for you so you know what topics you need to be focusing on, which will cut out all the overwhelm at trying to think of what to say.
- Thinking that they are their own ideal supporter. I spoke with a non profit founder in her 60s last week who refused to have a presence for her charity on social media because she didn't think that anyone else her age spent time online (ironically, this conversation was on Facebook). It's a really easy trap to fall into - thinking I care about this cause, so other people like me will too, and my friends and I don't like this channel and especially don't like ads on this channel, so that means no one else does either. Except that you're not trying to attract you or your friends. Your ideal supporter will have a completely different set of interests, goals and aspirations driving their engagement with your cause - the key is getting to understand what they are, so you can be sure to deliver content they're interested in.
- Talking to everyone (and therefore no-one) on their socials. It's also easy to think, I just want donations, I'll talk to anyone who will listen, but look at this way: there are thousands and thousands of non profits out there. People wanting to donate or volunteer have endless choice. But something makes them choose the charities they donate to or volunteer with. Something about that charity meets a need they have, either in terms of shared values, or a specific interest/concern or a likeminded community. And they will, for the most part, have reached their conclusions on that charity based on the communications they have received from them, on social media and elsewhere, because those communications spoke to the goal/aspiration/interest of that person.
How to fix both of these: take some time to build a picture of who your ideal supporter is; what their values are, how they spend their time, what scares and inspires them, and what you offer that would make their lives better. Now, which channels do those people spend time on? This will make your content creation 100x easier because you'll know who you are talking to and what they care about. If this sounds overwhelming, drop me a message, I can help with this.
