Using Internet Marketing to Attract Donations

For charities and associations donations are the lifeblood of the organization.   Before the internet, the only way to reach potential donators was directly.  It could be anything from direct mailings to door-to-door sales.  While these traditional ways of attracting potential donors are still being used and still do work, there is a better way.   It takes less time, costs less money and reaches more people.  It’s called internet marketing.

Internet marketing has been used by businesses and corporations since the beginnings of the World Wide Web to attract potential buyers.  Marketing in this way has allowed already big corporations to grow even bigger and has also allowed smaller businesses to break into the market.  Internet marketing has even allowed virtually unknown businesses to gain in popularity.

Contrary to popular belief, internet marketing isn’t reserved for businesses.  It can be used by virtually anyone to promote anything they want.  It can even be used by charities and associations to attract donations.  In fact, it’s been used quite successfully by many such organizations.  If you’re new to the world of internet marketing, here a few tips to help you start an online campaign for attracting donors.

Think Like the Donors

The first step in any successful internet marketing campaign is to get inside the heads of your potential donors.  You’ll want to identify their needs and wants.  Some questions to consider are:

• Who would donate to your organization?
• Why would someone donate?
• What is their average income or educational level?
• What other activities or associations are they involved in?

Identify 3 Types

Undoubtedly, the people who will donate to your organization will fall into more than one category.  Businesses and corporations might donate for the tax right-off, retired people might donate because they have extra money and don’t know what to do with it, and single mothers might donate to teach their children to be generous.

Depending on your organization, you’re going to come up with different groups of people to target.  You’ll probably be able to identify several groups.  Once you’ve done this, narrow you’re categories down to no more than three groups.  Some groups might be able to be combined into one. For example, both single moms and grandparents might be donor groups that could be combined into one category for people who donate because it makes them feel good.   Three is the ideal number of groups because it allows for variety, and it’s not too many that the groups can’t be managed effectively.

Write for your Donors

Now that you’ve identified who you’re targeting for donations, you need to convince them to donate to your cause and not another one.  That’s where writing content comes in.  In order to convince people to donate to you, you need to write to their needs.  For each group of people you’ve identified write an article on your website specifically targeting them and playing to their needs.

Articles should be long enough to say what you want to say, but not so long that people stop reading half-way through.  500 words is a good general guideline, realizing that they’re likely be somewhere between 400 and 700 words.  They should also be informative and interesting and NOT a sales pitch.  Instead, highlight the benefits the donors will receive by donating to you.  If they’ll get a tax incentive, write an article focusing on that; if it will make them feel good to help starving children in Africa, write an article about that.  Whatever benefit you can offer, let your donors know about it.

Distribute, Distribute, Distribute

Writing articles won’t do you any good, if you don’t let people know about them.   Post your articles on your blog.  Then post them on article distribution sites.  If you have an email newsletter, include an article or two in each issue.   Whatever you do, it’s important to get the word out so people know about your opportunity.

The internet provides a fast and effective venue for attracting potential donors.  By taking advantage of the all the internet has to offer, you’ll gain access to an entire world of people who are looking for a good cause to donate to.