I have been testing and using nonprofit marketing software for a long time. Now, I am not a programmer or web developer but I still love to learn the ins and out of campaign-specific software. You see, there are many different kinds of nonprofit marketing software out there! And if you’re a nonprofit that wants to be more efficient, you have got to test drive this stuff (I mean, sorta sounds like a car commercial, doesn’t it?).
Marketing isn’t effective if you don’t know brick and mortar foundations of digital marketing. Are you curious how to get the most out of nonprofit marketing? Do you want to learn nonprofit marketing software? Or about digital marketing strategy for nonprofit ? Check out here.
Awario: social media monitoring and data analysis
This is a social media monitoring tool that finds all the mentions of the topics you’re interested in on the Internet and analyzes them. You can monitor the Internet for any keyword, phrase, or hashtag in real time and see how, where, and why people talk about it.
It pulls social data from all the major social media networks as well as websites, forums, and blogs. It then analyzes the location, languages, and sources of the mentions, the sentiment around your keywords, and in what context people use them.
There are three types of social media data reports that can give you valuable insights about your audience and your niche:
- Mention Statistics shows key stats around your keywords;
- Alert Comparison allows you to compare several sets of keywords (for example, Hurricane Sandy vs Hurricane Irma);
- Influencers shows you the most influential accounts that mentioned your keywords.
There is also the Awario Leads module that lets you find people that express interest in certain issues on the Internet.
Awario can be used both for finding and interacting with individual Internet users and for analyzing large sets of social media data.
How can nonprofits use it?
There are so many use-cases for nonprofits with this tool! They can use Awario to:
- monitor and manage their online reputation,
- find and engage with Internet users who want to support their values,
- find influential voices with large audiences to amplify their message,
- learn what inspires people to support their cause,
- see how people react to their campaigns,
- find people who are looking to donate to/start volunteering at an organization like yours.
Nonprofit discount
You can test the tool for free for a week.
Then, Awario offers a 50% nonprofit discount which equals $44.50 or $149.50 a month depending on the plan you choose.
Google Analytics: track your website
For any organization, a website is usually the heart of their digital presence. When people search for your organization or the causes you work with, most likely they will end up there.
Google Analytics is an essential tool to understand what’s happening with your website. The tool helps you evaluate whether your digital marketing strategy is yielding results and what you should fix to make your marketing campaigns more effective.
How can nonprofits use it
You can track how people get to your page, use this data to leverage your organic traffic, and turn it into donations, volunteers, newsletter sign-ups, and so on.
You can analyze what content your audience is drawn to and how effective your call to action is and more.
Nonprofit discount
The tool is free.
Hotjar: a heatmap of your website
Hotjar gives you another way to analyze your website by highlighting the content that draws most attention. Hotjar makes up heatmaps of your website based on user-behaviour data. You can also record how real visitors behave on your website.
The tool allows you to analyze where the visitors drop off on the path to conversion, how well do your forms work (contact, volunteer, and others) and get feedback from your audience.
How can nonprofits use it
By understanding what people do on your website, you can see what kind of stories inspire them to donate, what prevents them from becoming volunteers or donors, and what they engage with the most.
Nonprofit discount
Hotjar offers a free lifetime Business plan for nonprofit organizations.
If you wish to use a more advanced plan, they offer a 50% lifetime discount on a yearly subscription which would equal $500+ a month.
Google Ad Grants
Every second, there are 2.3 million searches on Google! Each search generates millions of results. How do you ensure your page arrives a little higher than the rest? That’s where Google Ads come in. Organizations can pay Google to display their website as featured content. So when someone in your area searches a keyword you want to target, “best local nonprofit” for example, your organization has a better shot at showing up.
However, these ads, while effective, can get a little pricey. That’s where Ad Grants really help. Any 501(c)(3) can apply for this grant through a free Google Ads account. If your organization is approved, you’ll receive a $10,000 monthly stipend to run your advertisements!
Eventbrite for Nonprofits
As one of the most widely known event-based software tools, Eventbrite is as good as it gets. They make ticket-based events affordable with the ability to use the platform for free—offsetting fees as part of the ticket price and final donation. In addition to easy event attendee management, Eventbrite also has ample resources when it comes to event marketing, planning, and more!
Buffer
You can save a great deal of time with a tool that helps you to schedule your social media posts in advance. Buffer is one of the most affordable options out there. Their Starter Plans begin at $0 or $15 and allow you to manage up to three social media accounts. Their Business Plans run at $99, $199, and $299 each for upgraded services. However, they offer a 50% discount to all registered nonprofit organizations
Animoto
- Free trial
- Paid versions start at $16/month (the annual subscription can save you 50%)
Recommended by Facebook guru Mari Smith and other social media marketing experts, Animoto easily turns photos, graphics, and video clips into an animated video slideshow.
Animoto tends to work best when creating short videos for social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram because it can easily convert the slideshow to square format.
Animaker
- Free
- Paid versions start at $12/month
Need a quick explainer video on the importance of clean water, or the devastating effect of domestic violence on children? Animaker has over 40 templates that you can choose from to create your very own animated video.
This is especially useful for nonprofits who have confidentiality challenges in their visual marketing and may not be able to use images and videos of their clients.
Mailchimp: manage your email campaigns
Mailchimp is a marketing platform that encompasses a lot of different sides: email marketing, landing page creation, eCommerce. The biggest value you get are its email marketing capabilities.
It enables you to organize your email lists, create and schedule email campaigns, and analyze their results. It offers an enormous number of templates for any type of email you can think of. You can also track your email campaigns through reports that will help you understand what worked and what didn’t. You can A/B test your campaigns and view open rates, click-through rates, campaign engagement, bounce rates, unsubscribes, and subscriber email activities.
How can nonprofits use it
With Mailchimp, you can:
- Keep in contact with and manage your volunteers
- Educate your audience about the important issues
- Build rapport with your donors
Moreover, Mailchimp offers custom templates to encourage donor participation.
Nonprofit discount
You can use Mailchimp for free for up to 2,000 subscribers.
There’s also a 15% discount for any paid plan for nonprofits which would come to the starter price of $8.50 a month.
Hubspot
Hubspot is a giant marketing and sales platform that includes a lot of different tools. It aims to optimize and streamline your sales and inbound marketing efforts. It covers all the digital marketing channels: websites, emails, social media and consists of four major components: Sales Hub, Marketing Hub, Service Hub, and a powerful free CRM.
Basically, the platform provides you with anything you need to run a successful inbound marketing strategy.
How can nonprofits use it
Hubspot’s inbound marketing model works for nonprofits too! With the tool, you can increase your organization awareness and attract new audiences by using SEO, social media monitoring, and blogging tools Hubspot offers. You can engage with your supporters, volunteers, and donors through emails and social media and personalize your communication with them by using the tool’s powerful analytics.
Nonprofit discount
Hubspot offers a range of free marketing tools that includes a CRM, free automated emails, a marketing analytics dashboard, a contact database and more.
Later: social media management with the focus on Instagram.
Later is another social media management tool, but it puts a big emphasis on visual-first platforms, specifically, Instagram. It allows you to schedule your posts, manage content calendar, aesthetically organize your Instagram grid and organize your content library for quicker access. Its user-generated content feature allows you to find, repost and save to your library the content that you were tagged in.
It also gives you access to a vast pool of Instagram analytics and provides you with actionable tips.
It’s an official Instagram Partner so you don’t need to worry about using an unverified tool.
How can nonprofits use it
Visual storytelling is a powerful tool and Instagram is the best place to apply it. Share your nonprofit’s day-to-day work or launch a campaign to raise social awareness by publishing posts and Stories.
Nonprofit discount
You can use Later’s basic features for free.
There is also a 50% nonprofit discount. You can choose from three plans that cost $8, $12, and $20.50 a month respectively.
Conclusion:
Nonprofit marketing software is one of the best ways to grow your audience and turn fans into supporters. Stop sending boring plain emails, and create a few newsletters that everybody will look forward to. Do you run a small nonprofit organization? If you’re like most nonprofit organizations, you rely on your email list for much of your fundraising and have a limited marketing budget. Even with limited resources, there are effective nonprofit marketing strategies to help you raise more money.