We have all become uncomfortably aware of Covid-19 and it’s impact on society in general. In the classic change curve view of things that are thrust upon our daily lives, we are still adapting. There are some schools of thought that say things will never be the same again.
If I look at all of the people that contact me each month, things have become very quiet. For the first time since I started I am now down to two websites in the pipeline, and then nothing beyond that. I am not bothered about this, I have other things to be getting on with.
Looking across many of the websites I look after, numbers are down (site visits) due to everyone temporarily closing down. However over the past two months things have been picking up again.
You may also have noticed that there are some large charities advertising on TV seeking funds. Eventually everyone is going to wake up and start seeking donations. Without doubt it has been a tough year, and those typical annual sources of incoming have not been there. So what can you do?
Learn from the big boys
Now is a good time to give this some thought and start to put a plan together for your campaign no matter how small you are. If the large national charities are starting their campaigns as things start to ease off others will eventually follow, because there is only so much disposable income out there.
The following is simply a one man brainstorm, but hopefully there are some ideas in here to get you started.
1). Are you on Easyfundraising?
Easyfundraising is an attractive method of raising funds because it costs your donors nothing. But you need to put some effort in. Just think about how much is being purchased online these days. Some charities, even small ones can receive £1000’s this way, but you need to engage your supporters. Find out more at https://easyfundraising.org.uk
2). Are you on Amazon Smile?
I have an Amazon Prime account, and while it is not always the cheapest option, I make a lot of purchases via Amazon. An Amazon Smile Account provides a 1% donation based on purchases. I think EasyFundraising is a better option because it is broader than Amazon, but if you have a lot of people purchasing things at Amazon you could request that they sign up to Amazon Smile so you can benefit. It means you need to take out an Amazon Smile account.
3). Have you told the world what you have been doing?
For the first 5 months of the lockdown, I was incredibly busy. I expect that while you adapted, had more things on your plate than normal, you had to adapt as well. If you continued to provide services to your clients even though those were no longer face to face, why not put together an article and publish it on your site.
Make it a case study on adaptability, make it the cornerstone of a fundraising drive.
Many sites have gone quiet, not published very much at all. But most of you have carried on, albeit with reduced services. How has it been? What challenges did you face, and how did you overcome them?
4). Do you have a particular goal?
You may be struggling internally with achieving the support levels you would like to provide within the funding envelope available. Tell people what your goal is, list it on your site with some supporting narrative. Celebrate any movement towards that goal.
People will be more likely to help if they can see what the problem is, and what you are trying to do about it.
5). News News and More News….
One thing which you may not realise is that Google and Bing search engines visit your site whenever you publish something. If you don’t publish something, they have no reason to visit, and your listing in the respective search engines will become stale. Any more active organisation in your area providing the same or similar services will become a competitor if you do not take any action.
6). Newsletter
Think about a site visitor. They have not been to your site before, but they like what they have seen on your site. They spend 15 minutes on the site and then leave.
A week later you have an important announcement which might have solicited a donation from this visitor. However you are unlikely to see them again any time soon.
It is much better to capture those people that are interested in your website by inviting them to sign up to a newsletter. The newsletter runs in your website and allows you to repackage content you have already written. (So you don’t have to write it again). Very easy to use, all fully GDPR compliant.
So, let’s run through that again. Think about a site visitor. They have not been to your site before, they like what they see. They spend 15 minutes on your site. While viewing the news page they can see they can sign up to the website newsletter. They go ahead and do that. Takes less than a minute.
A week later you have an important announcement which you hope may solicit some donations. You publish a post on the opportunity, and you send out the post as a newsletter to your subscribers. Easy. In this case the “fan” receives your website in their inbox. So you have maintained the engagement with the visitor.
7). Do you put your news on Facebook?
STOP!
Put your news on your website so more people can see it. Facebook is mainly for those people who have already made a relationship with you, so it is sort of like inhaling your own exhaust!
Try it this way: You have some announcements, you put them on your website as discrete posts. When you publish your posts you display them (during testing). Now copy the URL (web address), go to Facebook, and create a post on Facebook, by inviting people to read the article on your website by pasting the URL into Facebook.
If you do it that way, you have only written it once, but it is visible in two places. The fact that it is on your website as well means it will help with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and allow your item to be found through searches on Google and Bing et al.
8). Do you put text in images in your website, like posters?
STOP!
While they can be read and understood by humans, they cannot be read and understood or indexed by computers. That means the text in your important poster will never come up in a Google Search. Always put the details of an event as discrete text into a post. Supplement it with an image, that is fine. However do not always rely on just an image. This equally applies to PDFs which may or may not contain text. Always have anything that is important in text. When you publish it can be indexed by search engines.
Whatever happens next, do start to think about how you can re-energise your website with new fresh content and start to drive more traffic to your site.
Need help? Drop me a line.
