Tag: management

Tips for Nonprofits To Build Your List

Email MarketingA key component of success in getting the word out about your nonprofit is to build up the list of people that are interested and want to be informed.

Who should be on your list?

Your list includes current clients, potential clients, volunteers and potential volunteers, donors and potential donors, sponsors and potential sponsors, alliance partners, other organizations working with similar missions or for the same type of clients and your own employees, board members, people who attend your classes and seminars, media contacts etc.

Segmenting your list

Look at the categories above and review the current status of your organization.  Do you currently collect the contact information from each of these types of contacts?  What form is the list in now?  Are you able to use it effectively to target communications to either all or specific interest groups?  For example, are you able to contact just people who are volunteers?

Building your list

Building your list should be a regular ongoing activity. It involves both online and offline activities.

ONLINE TIPS

  • Add a “Signup for newsletter” on the website.
  • Add a useful article or report and then a  “Download Article” and ask for an email address and send the link to the article to that address
  • Add a link on your email signature file “Sign up for newsletter”
  • Add various “Calls to Action” on your website – and ask people if you can add them to your newsletter list.  e.g. “Become involved”, Donate, “How can I help”, “Ask a Question”
  • Add a “Signup for email newsletter” on your Facebook Page
  • Hold an online webinar and get contact information for registration

OFFLINE TIPS

  • Have a signup sheet at your seminars, classes and events
  • Ask your clients, affiliates, partner organizations, board members, volunteers, for their email address
  • Hold a raffle or contest and include the email address to inform the winner – ask for permission to put them on your list
  • Have sign up sheets or business card bowls at conferences, and alliance partner locations

For more details on how to build your list and please send me a request for a special report from Constant Contact.  Eckova Consulting is a Constant Contact Solution Provider and offers services on list building, list management, email newsletter design and maintenance, and a full range of internet consulting services for nonprofits.   Constant Contact provides the tools to  implement all of the suggestions to build your list.

See more details:

Denise Davies works with nonprofits and small business to provide effective internet strategies.  Denise is a Certified Constant Contact affiliate and Solution Provider.

Is your website up to date?

Is your website up to date? How do you manage your content changes? Some suggestions on how to review and update your website.

Is Your Website Updated?

Your business or organization continues to grow, develop and change over time.

You add new services or products, you may change your location, have news of a new event or something that has happened. Is your website reflecting your CURRENT situation? or is it showing old and outdated information and is not accurately reflecting you?

Perhaps the information on the website is WRONG and you are losing opportunities with new contacts or current clients and customers that may visit the site.

During the phase when you designed your website you or one of your employees was very focused on what the website said.  However it is very common that after the site is launched your attention may have turned elsewhere and you never actually take a look at your website.  Maybe you check your visitor statistics or check how you are doing in the search engines — but when is the last time you actually LOOKED at your website.

One way to do this is go to your website URL and think of your self as the type of person that would be visiting it for the first time.  What would you be looking for? Is it easy to find it?  What are the ACTION items?  Can you sign up for a newsletter or contact the organization easily?  Make a note of the information that you had questions about or would have a problem with as a visitor

Then put on your owner or manager hat — as you go through the site.  Is it accurate and up to date in the different sections?  Check the ABOUT section, products and services, upcoming and past events, bios or descriptions of people, contact information, picture galleries etc.  Your site might not have all of these and it might have other sections and pages.   Make a LIST of pages that need to be updated.  Make a list of the content that needs to be CHANGED and the content that needs to be DELETED and the content that must be ADDED.

Content management is really a 2 step process.  The owner / manager / marketing person is responsible for identifying the actual content – text, links, photos, videos.  Then either you communicate this information to your website person, or your internet partner who manages your website, or you do the updates yourself.  Assign one person, or put it on your “to do list” to review your website once a month.

Aleph Consulting is announcing a new “Content Management Service” (CMS) that will enable you to update the website yourself with little technical expertise.  If you can use MS Word or other word processing software you will be able to do the edits yourself and see the updates on the website immediately as you review.

This service is due to launch on March 5, 2010.  If you would like more information about this please contact me davies@alephinc.com