"Sell" With Your Nonprofit Web Site - Part 2
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Always, always, always make it extremely easy for your visitors and donors. Easy to find
information, easy to read (e.g. colors, minimal moving graphics - if any, avoid reverse font); and easy to navigate.
And remember, people get lost if there's too much information on any page of your
web site. Plus it looks cluttered and confusing. And the confused mind says "no." Here are a few examples, in my humble opinion, of how
NOT to do it:
Utter confusion... http://www.saltinstitute.org/
Readability nightmare... http://www.wetestit.com/
Visual overload and also hard to read... http://www.hrodc.com/
A web site that's easy to use is critical to "selling" your mission. Now what are some tips
and ideas for driving more free "organic" traffic (a.k.a...potential donors) to your web site?
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Inbound links. Search engines love 'em. Returning to last month's example (March 2007 issue) what inbound links could
Sotterley Plantation (http://www.sotterley.org/) - a nonprofit organization -
have on their site?
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State and national historic organizations
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Tourism bureaus and Chamber of Commerce organizations
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Anyone they have a business "partnership" with; who do they team with?
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Education is part of their mission with programs for students so they could include links
from area schools and colleges.
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Have a link from a construction/maintenance contractor's site to Sotterley Plantation.
Ideal for a contractor who's done a great job on your historical facilities to showcase their work. (And you can have reciprocal links to their
site.)
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Article marketing. I talked about this in the January 2007 issue. Submit articles to online databases such as
http://www.ezinearticles.com/. Sotterley Plantation, for example, could write about any
part of the region’s history for the same time period their historic site is focused on.
You’ll have a link to your site in the author’s resource box and quality articles get picked up, resulting in inbound links to your
site plus more exposure.
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Post an archive of the articles you’ve written and
encourage other web sites to re-publish them.
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SEO, Search Engine Optimization. Briefly, begin with keyword
research. Then gently populate your site content by smoothly incorporating keywords into the copy with your copywriting wizardry. Remember,
you’ll hurt your ratings if you over do it! Then also edit your “meta” tags and wisely incorporate keywords into them.
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Update your site with fresh quality content at least
weekly.
And if you're not extremely confident you're thinking like
a donor, then get them involved as you evaluate and edit your site. As a fundraising professional part of your job is to "sell" your mission.
A great web site is a valuable tool worthy of your attention.
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Just for fun - a quote for
you
"Seek joy in what you give; not in what you get."
(Source Unknown)
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Hot Tip of the Month - 2007 Bridge
Conference [172 words]
I’m going to the 2007 Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference again this year. And I
strongly recommend you make room in your calendar to attend it as well.
To quote the organizers: “The Association of Fundraising Professionals/DC is again joining with the
Direct Marketing Association of Washington for one MEGA CONFERENCE! We continue to Merge for Strength!
http://www.bridgeconf.org/
You’ll be glad you invested your resources to attend. Any beginning, intermediate and advanced fundraising and direct
marketing professional will get tons of tips, resources, and “how to” information to make your life easier.
The three-day Bridge Conference features over 75 exciting sessions covering cutting-edge direct marketing and
fundraising strategies.
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Learn the latest trends and techniques in fundraising and direct marketing.
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Hear from national and international speakers on a wide-range of topics from direct response to major gifts fundraising,
multi-channel media to sustainer campaigns.
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Reconnect with industry colleagues.
If you’re fundraiser, direct marketer or association professional, this is one conference you can't afford to
miss!” See you there.
Feel free to forward my newsletter to a colleague. Plus, here's how
they can sign-up to receive it directly:
1. Just click
on this link, info@pkscribe.com. In the e-mail message to me, please
include the first name and e-mail address of your colleague. I'll take care of signing them up.
Or. . .
2. You can sign them up directly on my web site by following this link:
"Karen's Fundraising Tips"
Thanks for
joining me and until next time . . . sell your nonprofit mission on your web site by driving lots of organic traffic to it, and
also by making it very easy for your donors to read and use.
All the best,
Karen
Karen Zapp, Fundraising & Sales Writer
Perceptive Karen
http://www.pkscribe.com |
