Creating your digital journey
A simple guide for Nonprofits
My morning was amazing.
I rewatched the much waited epic trailer of Mirzapur 2. For me, it is bigger than Narcos or any other crime drama the present times have witnessed. The show has a very rusty target audience just like the writer of this article.
The trailer is already trending on YouTube. I am yet to see the makers running ads on the platform. Kalin Bhaiya aka Pankaj Tripathi in the latest interview says that “We really don’t need to promote season 2. Fans will only do it.”
After Mirzapur one’s grand success, the only question fans like yours truly asked when is the second season coming out. My belief was that the vaccine might just come early. Almost after 2 years, the makers have released the trailer of season 2 and it is nothing short of an adrenaline rush.
The expectations are high and the wait is for season two finally coming out on 23/10/2020.
After that, I watched a recorded presentation on “How to become a digital fundraising expert in 2020?”
If that was not enough I watched another recorded presentation. I barely made 5 minutes into it: “How nonprofits should embrace digital transformation in 2020?”
Watching a recorded presentation is a blessing in disguise due to the pandemic.
Both the presentations talked the same. The first guy talked about how his social media campaign went viral and had screengrabs in the name of digital strategy. The second with a headset from the age of Star Wars spoke about the same known concepts of online fundraising with data and a lot of arrows and boxes. And it also had a framework. Packaged it and renamed the presentation as “Digital Transformation for nonprofits.”
(I am deliberately not linking the talks with my article. You can make the guess, since it is an online event season for the international nonprofit world.)
After a while, I came across a nonprofit digital agency labeling out its “9 steps of Online Fundraising Model.” I stopped after 10 minutes. I think I can do a better job. Since I had an amazing day of content consumption. I decided to share my Digital Fundraising Model for Nonprofit.
Well, it isn’t a model but the basics of digital in the marketing world. I don’t see why nonprofits shouldn’t consider them in the consumer business. After all, they are taking money from the consumer but for a cause. The basics of digital are the same.
Digital journey for a nonprofit
Here is my simple guide for a nonprofit’s digital journey that is starting its online fundraising journey or wants to check back if it is doing okay.
How do I know it? A while ago as a Digital Strategy Consultant I created a far more detailed digital journey for a nonprofit.
Why I am providing a simple version and not a detailed version? I consider you smart.
Golden Circle
For any business to survive and grow the “Why” needs to be defined. If you haven’t then please do it. The Golden Circle(Why, How, and What) by Simon Sinek is a go-to model for most of us. I find it simple and easy to implement.
Even if your Golden Circle is defined, in my experience it is a good time to interact with your employees and stakeholders. Ask them what they think about the organization, what are the missing links, what are the things that they find interesting in a competitor, and how can they be implemented in the organisation.
The old school interview process still works if you are ready to listen. As a consultant, it really helped me with the business of the organization, the people, their work, and their thoughts.
Tools used: iPhone recorder, pen, and my notebook. I am old-school, so at this point, I didn’t use any industry tools.
Target Audience & Personas
Define your online target audience. Every 4-5 months you should do this exercise to be in touch with the ever-evolving audience.
Google Analytics is the gold mine. Considering you have enabled it with your website. Otherwise, it will take months before you even vaguely understand your audience.
The internet helped me to understand how to start with Google Analytics(GA). Again the Internet is spammed with articles but Hootsuite does a decent job. Facebook Insights is a great free tool to get the social and behaviour data for your audience that visits your page.
Personas or probable customers are the fancy-looking slides/templates that are given shape by your target audience. The raw data of your target audience fuels life into your personas. Presentable, understood by the layman, and makes more business sense.
How do you create personas for your organization or business? Read my recent article on the target audience, and personas.
Tools used: Google Analytics and Facebook Analytics
Competitor Analysis
Don’t ignore this. It is a great way to open your mind but don’t go copying whatever your competition is doing.
For my consulting project, picked up three competitions for:
SEO Analysis - analysis of the search traffic and keywords
SMM Analysis - analysis of the social networks and the latest campaigns
Website Analysis - analysis of the website communication, categories, and information flow
Tools used: SEO(SEMRush, Ahrefs), Social Media(Sprout Social), Content(BuzzSumo, Similarweb), and Email(Mailcharts, Owlletter, iSpoinaze)
Digital Audit
The way you do “Competitor Analysis”, do the same for your own organization. The objective is to understand the present state, the things that are working, things that don’t add value, and needs to be dropped.
I did the digital audit for the nonprofit from SEO to SMM to Website and Donation pages.
Apart from the tools used, I stick to the manual process of doing Digital Audit. Benefits of running a publishing startup. I have reviewed Indian and International digital marketing campaigns for more than seven years. Eventually, I got bored and accidentally switched to a nonprofit.
Website & Donation page
For me, the website and donation page is the beginning and end of online fundraising for a nonprofit. When someone searches your organization on the Intenet, your website is the first link to pop up. So make sure your website is up there and follows the basic requirements of the present times.
“Your website is not a project but it is a program,” says Ramy Nagy, Madeo's CEO, and Creative Director.
And if you are doing a website revamp, then refer to my an earlier article - Your website is a program
The donation page is the final step when the user has made the decision to donate. This is a crucial point but we fuck it up by asking bizarre questions and raising anxiety.
40% of nonprofits require non-essential information to complete a donation, 55% had distracting 7 Key Findings from Giving to 203 Nonprofits 5 links on their page, and 30% had 3 or more steps to complete a donation. These are all contributing factors to donors abandoning their gifts.
Things you should keep in mind while working on a donation page: How can you make your donation pages effective.
Besides, I find the donation page of Wikipedia and their entire donation campaign inspiring.
Blog & Email
Trust is an important factor for donors. This trust when communicated consistently and in a rational way convinces the donor to go for a recurring donation.
Communicating or storytelling is a big role player in online fundraising.
The blog plays a big role in what you tell and how you tell. Blog also becomes the intermediary medium between external mediums and donation page. But it requires hard work and patience.
What should you write? Refer to your “WHY” and prepare your broad content categories. For reference check my earlier article on how nonprofits are using storytelling.
The blog makes an email complete. If you are new to the world of Email Marketing then John Walsh has some insights for you on strategy and technology.
Additionally, check how nonprofits like Food for the Hungry and Children International are using email marketing for communication and relationship building.
User Journeys
In my recent post, I shared my love for creating user journeys. But before you jump into creating donor journeys or welcome series for your nonprofit organization.
Define the different users you might have. Ideally, it would be three - Donor, Subscriber, and Volunteer.
Now based on the users you can create different journeys to structure your online fundraising. For example:
User journey from search to the donation page: My niece Suhana wants to adopt a dog. She searches for pet adoption centers in Bangalore. What can be the journey for my niece and a nonprofit organization CUPA? I have created a simple journey below:
Similarly, you can have endless journeys: from digital advertising to the donation page, from social media to blog to the donation page, from website to donor, etc. The more journeys you can chalk out the better for your organization’s online fundraising.
According to a 2020 Digital Outlook Report, 34.63% of nonprofits have succeeded in developing a written digital strategy. However, more than half of the respondents (52.38%) still need support.
In a recent LinkedIn post-Justin Wheeler, CEO of Funraise and nonprofit tech evangelist listed down four reasons why nonprofits can’t ignore online fundraising.
If you don't have online donors, you are being lazy and stubborn. If you don't have online donors, your donor base is not diverse enough. Too many nonprofits rely on 20% of their donors to drive 80% of their revenue. This is a recipe for disaster.
According to the latest 2020 Global Trends in Giving Report, more than 50% of the participants opted for online donations.
In this digital world, where there is no going back to the pre-pandemic world, nonprofits don’t have an option but start considering and investing in online fundraising.
And you can’t ask for money online by continuously showing crying babies and repeating it is for a good cause.
Solution:
Craft a digital strategy powered by storytelling that connects with the people.
P.S. Now that you know so much, you can hire me as a consultant for your nonprofit. Seriously hire anyone whom you think can give you value but keep this simple guide for reference.
And drop me an email (prasantnaidu@gmail.com) if you need to have an initial conversation. I don’t charge the first time :)