Dealing with business ventures, it is quite obvious what and how to do: you produce or sell certain goods, provide certain services, so you need marketing support to “pack” your offer and promote it efficiently in the market. But what is the plan if you are a non-profit organization? Basically, it is the same. Your offer still needs “packing” and professional marketing support. That’s why you might need to look for a non-profit digital agency to deal with the marketing side of your activities.
First step
The main thing to keep in mind before you even start looking for and choosing an agency for your non-profit venture is that the general approach should still remain the same – you always start from creating custom and thorough marketing strategy, be it for an event, for a product, for a particular service or a pack of them. Basic marketing rules stay the same as well as the tools – it’s the approach and adaptation to the market and audience that will vary.
So this is the first step in choosing an agency – ask them what they will start from and if there’s no strategy they will mention then think twice before contacting them again.
Channels & tools
Now let’s say you understand you need a non-profit digital agency that will undertake the promotion of your NGO, charity venture or foundation but what is it exactly that they should do? The experts will certainly start from creating a marketing strategy, as we mentioned, help you define marketing goals and then choose the marketing channels that will be used to implement that strategy.
What are the channels? Social media promotion or inbound marketing through your blog, for example. Now each channel will be activated when using certain marketing tools. The basic ones are as follows:
- SMM – Social Media Marketing
The marketers will choose social media you can use, help you set up & design accounts, create a content-plan for publications, create & publish the content, run targeted ads campaigns.
- SEO – Search Engine Optimization
Which is usually combined with SEM for the nest results.
The marketing experts will audit your web-platform, complete a clear plan for necessary technical and content changes so you could get higher search engine results. Link-building, creation and implementation of content plan activities, technical optimization, – all those activities are a part of SEO promotion.
- Email marketing
Email campaigns are still one of the more efficient ways to stay in touch with your audience, communicate with them, collect feedback, notify about important events, news, etc. Here marketers should design an email communication scheme on how and when you will get in touch with your audience, how it can react and what is the action they should make in the end.
- Content Marketing
A non-profit marketing agency may suggest you separate this channel and deal with it more thoroughly in case it is necessary for your venture. Otherwise this channel will be included into other chosen ones.
- Automation & analytics
One of the most important things experts should take care about is how they will interconnect all the channels, watch & record results, automate performance & implementation. Digital marketing world is all about better & faster results with each step you take. Nothing less.
Now if the strategy & plan of the non-profit agency you are considering does not include marketing channels and clear description on how they will be used and why they are important then may be you will want to reconsider choosing that very agency.
Experience & background
Digital marketing world is all about experience and practical results. This is why it is extremely important to check the portfolio of the non-profit digital agency you are considering to partner with.
- Have they implemented projects in the area in which your NGO works?
- What results did they have?
- What is their main specialization? SEO? PPC? SMM? Or maybe complex digital marketing?
- Do they suggest solving a separate marketing task for you and building it into your existing marketing strategy & approach or are they ready to create it from the very beginning?
Results matter.
Reviews
Not only the results do matter – they can also be tracked and seen. It is very important you check the feedback the agency got from their clients. Note what problems they had and if the agency helped them really solve them. It is especially useful if you find reviews from those who had goals similar to yours. Don’t hesitate to contact NGOs, charity organizations, foundations, etc. to ask about their experience of working with that agency and if they could recommend it.
No reviews available. It doesn’t necessarily mean the digital agency isn’t worth your attention. Maybe they are just paying more attention to the promotion of their clients – not to their own. Here you can ask them directly to share their case studies. Sometimes they share them only on demand, especially if they work mainly through recommendations.
Summary
So let’s check once again what you should take into account when choosing a non-profit marketing partner for promotion.
- Approach. Make sure marketing strategy considers all your goals and defines the perspectives of each marketing activity it suggests for your venture.
- Planning. Marketing plan a non-profit agency will create should be based on the marketing strategy and cover chosen marketing channels in order to complete the set goals.
- Experience. The best non-profit digital agency you want to partner with is the one who understands what you need and really knows how to complete your goals because they have already done it for others. Experienced and skilled experts are what you really need, whether you are just starting with your promotion or have already been dealing with it for a while.
- Feedback. Results matter. Results talk. Reputation matters. Those are the principles the digital world operates on and they can be easily tracked. Check the reviews of those who worked with an agency.
Nonprofits usually offer a lot but are often limited in budget. This is why they need really good promotion and cannot afford wasting budgets on unclear experiments and unnecessary activities. Take your time and put some effort into choosing the right non-profit digital partner to promote your organization or activity and you will see that it was worth it.