Whether your nonprofit is capitalizing on marketing via its website, social media, or digital ads, it’s important to keep in mind that simply “utilizing” digital marketing tactics doesn’t mean you’ve got a strategy in place, or even that the tactics are doing you any good. It’s relatively simple to deploy marketing tactics because so much can happen at the push of a button, but the end result is often not much.

While there are dozens of digital mistakes we see being made all the time, we want to talk about three big “no-no’s” your nonprofit or ministry should avoid.

1.     Not fully understanding your target audience(s)
Now, I think most of you would say that you think you “know who your audience is.” But do you really? How many kids do they have? What is keeping them up at night? What are they passionate about? Do you know what type of message resonates most with each audience?

Being able to define your audiences (in most cases there are more than one) will help you tailor your marketing strategies and  tactics to make sure your messages are connecting where it counts.

For example: If you are trying to recruit teenagers for your summer camp, then creating a social media strategy using Tik Tok would make sense. But if you want to reach their parents, then a Facebook campaign is probably your best option.

Which leads me to our next mistake…

2.    Executing tactics without a clear strategy
Most people make this mistake: they start with tactics before they even have a strategy. 

So what’s the difference? 

Tactics are the methods to which you reach the goals defined by a strategy.  It’s crucial that you first identify the ideal strategies for your campaign. And from there, you then identify the tactics that you need to execute in order to reach those goals.

For example, while a sales funnel is a strategy you might use to sell books, using Google and Instagram ads to drive traffic to your funnel are tactics.  

3.    Not having a clear customer journey
What happens once someone lands on your website but doesn’t fill out a contact form? What if they do fill out a form but do not respond to your first email? What happens once someone signs up for your podcast or blog? 

Crafting a well-thought-out customer journey will help you walk someone through the next logical step in their time with you and help them convert into buyers, donors, member or volunteers. 

Something as simple as an onboarding series of emails will help a newcomer to understand what you are all about and give him or her options on next steps. 

The big thought behind all these three mistakes is “intentionality.” Understanding how people discover, engage, participate and advocate is the key to any successful marketing effort. 

We love helping people do ministry more effectively,  and have spent the last 2 decades helping thousands of organizations reach more people, sell more products, and raise more money. 

We would love to have you in our next FREE training where we’ll show you our integrated campaign framework. Sign up HERE.