There are many advantages to online marketing, and one of the biggest is that you can engage with potential supporters and donors at any time, from the comfort of your computer. While this might not seem like a problem if you’re already set up with a blog and have been posting regularly, getting people to contribute can be tricky. But with just a little planning and strategy, you can ensure that your online marketing efforts bring in the donations you need to make a difference.

Set A Marketing Budget

One of the first things you need to do is set a marketing budget. Just because you have a limited amount of money to spend on marketing doesn’t mean you have to limit yourself to the cheap (and sometimes downright creepy) get-rich-quick schemes that pop up on social media. There are plenty of opportunities out there to make money online that don’t require expensive ads or massive distributions. You can start by taking some time to research the perfect niche for your organization. Once you’ve found it, you can begin to build a list of potential donors who might be able to help out with your cause.

By spending money on quality content that educates your audience and builds trust, you’re putting yourself in a better position to ask for funds. Furthermore, the more you can get for your money, the more you can invest in other areas of your organization, like creating and distributing educational materials or promoting grassroots activities. These are all ways to help your nonprofit become more mainstream and attract more support.

Create An Online Platform

Another thing you need to do is create an online platform. If you’ve been putting off doing this because you don’t have the money or the staff, it’s time to change that. The internet makes it easy for anyone to launch a website or blog with little to no budget, and that means you have the chance to create a free platform that anyone can use to reach out to potential supporters. And did I mention free? Think of all the advantages that come with having an internet connection and a computer or mobile device.

To give you an example, I’ll use WordPress, one of the most popular and flexible blogging platforms available. If you’ve been putting off creating a platform like this because you don’t have the money or the staffing, now is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of free platforms like WordPress. Not only will it cost you nothing, but you’ll also be able to create a blog in no time with the help of the community of WordPress users. And when you’ve created your blog, you can immediately start pitching your ideas to the world!

Launch A Pay-What-you-want Campaign

Once you’ve created your platform, it’s time to launch a pay-what-you-want campaign. You can do this by creating a GoFundMe or a PayPal account and encouraging your readers to make a donation or payment when they visit your website. Some people are more uncomfortable giving money to funders and supporters, but this is the perfect opportunity to rebrand your cause as a charity and gain some much-needed support. Plus, you get to keep any money that individuals pay for your content, which you can use to fund your organization.

Pay-what-you-want campaigns are all the rage these days, and for good reason. It’s simple, it cuts out the middleman, and it gives the audience what they want. Furthermore, this is a strategy that works on every platform, not just the internet. If you’ve been holding off creating a Facebook page or launching a crowdfunding campaign for your organization, now is the perfect opportunity to do so.

Build A Small Audience

Now that you have a platform, it’s time to build a small audience. This is crucial to getting your online marketing efforts off the ground because, as I mentioned above, it makes it easier to ask for donations. It takes time to build up a small audience, so be patient.

You can take advantage of free tools like Google Adsense to find an audience of potential subscribers who might be interested in your content. Once you’ve found this audience, it’s time to engage with them and ask them to help out with your organization. Once you’ve built a small audience, it’s easier to get people to contribute because you have a base of support instead of just a couple of friends and family who might be willing to chip in. Also, if you’ve been putting off asking for donations because you don’t want to seem like a beggar, this is the perfect opportunity to do so. But instead of asking for money, ask for supplies like office equipment or furniture for your new headquarters. This way, you can rebrand yourself as a charity and ensure that your donors know exactly what they’re helping with.

Use Digital Marketing To Create A Better User Experience

Now that you have a website or blog, it’s time to improve the user experience. This can be done easily with digital marketing, which involves using various platforms and tactics to get people to interact with or visit your site. You can create blogs, articles, and even entire websites focused on user experience that provide helpful information about your industry and how to improve upon it. Don’t be afraid to get creative and experimental with this strategy because it’s all about testing different approaches and learning from results.

Let’s say you’re running a dog rescue nonprofit and you want to create a better user experience for potential donors who visit your site. One way to do this is by creating an online store that sells all of the supplies and equipment that your animals might need. If you’ve been hesitant to set up an online store for your organization because it costs money, this is one area you can actually save a substantial amount of money by doing so. The price of the retail products you sell on your site will cost you less than the wholesale price of the same items. Plus, selling your own products means you don’t have to pay retail to any third party distributors. This can seriously cut your costs.

Evaluate The Success Of Your Campaign

Once you’ve launched a pay-what-you-want campaign or GoFundMe page, it’s time to evaluate the success of your efforts. This is easier said than done, but you can use the same criteria you use for any other type of marketing campaign to do so. You can measure the reach of your online content, the conversion rates of your webpages, and the growth of your social media accounts. The more you measure, the easier it is to find patterns and determine if your campaign was a success or a failure.

As I said above, not all online marketing will be created equal, and it can be tricky to know which strategies work and which ones might be a waste of time. This is where using a tool like Google Analytics can be beneficial. This tool will tell you the traffic trends and the click-through rates of your different types of content, whether that’s an article, a podcast, or a YouTube video. So if you’ve been putting off building a database of donors because you don’t have the money, it might be time to finally take advantage of the internet and create one. Don’t be afraid to try new things, but don’t be surprised if some strategies don’t work as well as you think they will.