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4 Great Digital Marketing Strategies by Columbus Nonprofits

By Nate Riggs on February 09, 2016 |

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The nonprofit business space is very different from a for-profit business. Not only does it make money differently and have different goals, a nonprofit has a very particular image to uphold. Marketing for a company whose success is not measured by making money can be extra challenging.

However, there are many examples of successful marketing strategies for nonprofits being executed right here in Columbus, so I thought I would give a few of them a shout out for all their hard work!

I also threw in some quick edits that could continue to improve upon the foundation they've built.

What I Considered In My Analysis

I wanted to strive to be as unbiased as possible in my analysis, so I started my search with this list on Yelp!. I then picked out a few Columbus nonprofits with high ratings to analyze with the following criteria.

1.  Organic Search Engine Optimization or "SEO"

The first step I took to decide who had the best strategy was to search Google for "nonprofits in Columbus Ohio" and see who popped up first in the search engine results page. 

I decided to include search results to acknowledge the fact that the audience nonprofits are targeting with their marketing efforts are most likely going to search Google at some point.

As digital marketers, we all know that you have to be on the first page of a SERP (Search Engine Results Page) to even be considered competitive. So all of those listed below have to be on the first page of the SERP. 

**Note: After my first search yielded a SERP that just happened to have several different animal shelters on it, I decided to search incognito so as to not tarnish the results with my search history.**

2.   Social Media Strategy

This is another must for all marketing strategies for nonprofits. Social media is an omnipresent part of the marketing landscape, for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. 

Social media can be even more important for nonprofits since social media networks can be very emotional for visitors, and nonprofits can, and should, utilize that emotion.

I evaluated these nonprofits based on their accounts and usage of Facebook and Twitter. I looked for organizations that had posted to their pages within the last week, how many followers they had, and how many people they were following.

3.  Website Optimization 

A website is a big-time tell of the quality of marketing strategies for nonprofits, or for anyone. I looked for a few key signs, like meta-descriptions for pages and the mobile responsiveness of the site. I also looked at the design of the site, and whether it seems like it has been recently updated or not. 

Great Digital Marketing by Columbus Nonprofits

Based on the criteria above, I set out to evaluate a variety of local-Columbus nonprofit organizations to see how they stacked up in terms of their marketing presence online.  Below are the detailed findings of my study, broken down by specific organizations.

marketing strategies for nonprofits


1. Columbus Gives Back

Columbus Gives Back is a nonprofit that is the organizational mastermind behind volunteer projects in Columbus. On their website, they describe what they do as: "...[organizing] one-time volunteer events in relaxed, social settings that are scheduled to fit our busy schedules".

  • SEO - Columbus Gives Back ranked at the top of the "columbus gives back" SERP and successfully used a meta-description in their results. They have also clearly input their sitemap to Google, as their pages were all populated with their meta-descriptions.

  • Social Media Strategy - This organization also has a successful social media strategy. They have 1,731 Facebook followers, which is very good. Both Facebook and Twitter have had posts scheduled within the past week. Their Twitter has over 10,000 followers, and their bio is appropriately filled out. Their Tweets are full of hashtags, although I would suggest they use a few more images for increased engagement.

  • Website Optimization - Their website is clean, modern, and well taken care of. Because this organization revolves around organizing volunteer events, there is a slightly ungainly-looking list of events on the homepage, but it is highly relevant information that deserves to be on the front page. It is also up-to-date, as in there were no expired events on it. They have a header section with slider images that have button calls-to-action, but otherwise the only call-to-action on the homepage are an in-line text CTA to sign up to volunteer. The website is well-designed in that it has a very clean structure with social sharing buttons in the top left and contact information in the form of an email address in the top right.  

marketing strategies for nonprofits2. Stonewall Columbus

Stonewall Columbus describes itself as the leading visionary organization for the LGBTQ communities, promoting visibility and acceptance, and is the first stop for many on their LGBTQ journey.

  • SEO - Stonewall Columbus ranked first on the SERP page when I searched "Stonewall". I think this is primarily because even in an incognito search Google knows my IP address location (I guess?). They were able to outrank the Stonewall riots on my SERP, however, so they must be doing some SEO correctly. When searching for "stonewall columbus", their meta-descriptions are fully populated, except for one, "Programs", which starts with a lowercase letter.

  • Social Media Strategy - Stonewall Columbus has a very robust Facebook page, with multiple posts per day with a reasonable amount of engagement for a Columbus nonprofit. They also have over 7,100 Facebook followers. Their Twitter page, however, has seen better days. Their last Tweet was October 7th, and the one previous was from April. Of the latest 20 Tweets or so, none of them contained an image, and there was relatively low engagement to reflect that. They have 1,896 followers. 

  • Website Optimization - Their website looks like it has been well taken care of. The structure is a clean grid pattern towards the top, although the homepage gets very text-heavy towards the bottom. The navigation looks relatively clean as well. They have a search bar that is located near the bottom of the homepage, and although general best practices would call for it to be easily accessible at the top, this would probably make the top of the page looks cluttered. Social sharing buttons are also in the footer and could probably be moved up without adding a ton of additional clutter.

Want to learn more about digital marketing strategies for nonprofits? Check out this read!


3. Friends of Goodale Park

Columbus nonprofitsThe Friends of Goodale Park organization has worked diligently to preserve this recreational park in Columbus, Ohio. It also considers itself a main contributor of fund raising efforts for the park.

  • SEO - When I searched for "friends of goodale" in my incognito Google search bar, the Friends of Goodale Park website was the first to pop up! Their site map is set up well and looks robust, with relevant meta-descriptions for each page visible from the SERP. 

  • Social Media Strategy - The website makes it easy to see their social media channels by listing them at the top of the pages, although the brown text blends in with the background color of the page. Their Twitter page is set up with a great little bio and some pictures of the park, which is beautiful, so they couldn't go wrong with that! The posting on their page seems consistent and revolves around the events that they do. They have over 1,500 Twitter followers, which is definitely impressive (NR Media Group has less than that. Oh, by the by, you can follow our Twitter here :)). The Friends of Goodale Park Facebook page is also nicely filled out. This page gets posted to more consistently, and the engagement levels reflect that. 

  • Website Optimization - The website is better designed than some, although the UI (User Interface) could use some help. The homepage features some descriptive content and a clear call-to-action above the fold that calls visitors to donate. The other big call-to-action is the 2015 Volunteer Events. The designer of the website wisely used a dark orange for all clickable buttons and links, so the visitors' eyes are immediately drawn to those pieces of the website, which stick out brightly against the maroon-brown and light green of the rest of the site. The big edit here would be that the events mentioned on the site are 2015 events and clearly need updated for 2016, although they may not know those dates yet. 

Columbus nonprofits4.  Highland Youth Garden

The Highland Youth Garden is one part of the Greater Columbus Growing Coalition. It describes itself as: "...a grassroots organization that supports the growing, processing, transportation, and distribution of local agricultural products". It was developed after the city of Columbus closed down several garden areas, which hurt local communities and families.

***The Greater Columbus Growing Coalition was not on the Yelp! list, but since the Highland Youth Garden does not have it's own website or social accounts, I will be reviewing the overall GCGC.***

  • SEO - When searching for "Greater Columbus Growing Coalition", the GCGC's website was the first to pop up. Even when searching for the shorter term, "growing coalition", the GCGC was third on the SERP page, so that speaks well to their SEO. Their sitemap and meta description could use some work, however. It seems as though they do not have a meta description set up, since Google was just pulling the first 150 characters from the text on the homepage. The same goes for the "Member Gardens" page and the "Leadership" page. 

  • Social Media Strategy - The GCGC Facebook page is there, although not significantly built out. It was a little bit tough to find upon first search, which may have something to do with the fact that they have focused their name around GCGC instead of the full title. This page was also posted to inconsistently, although the posts they had up had some engagement. The big red flag that stood out was that their messages were very text heavy and overall seemed to lack images. Maybe they should think about writing those messages on the blog and then sending out blog post subscription emails to alert their followers! The GCGC does not have a Twitter, so the obvious consideration here would be to get one! Twitter can be an irreplaceable marketing strategy for nonprofits, as it allows them a great, free way to make a connection with the emotions of those in their communities!

  • Website Optimization - The GCGC website includes a plethora of great content that centers around those who interact with it. The homepage opens out on to what looks like their blog, however it is not labeled as such, so that could get kind of confusing for visitors. The website is designed with the a very large image slider, kind of set up like a modern hero image at the top. While that is a style that has been growing in popularity, the fact that it is so large leaves very little content above the fold, which is important to further engage your visitors after they have made it onto the site. One thing that I always like to see is the search bar in the upper right-hand corner. Search bars mean that even if your site is not as easy to navigate as it should be, visitors will still get where they want to go. Another point to make is that the GCGC's Facebook page is not noted on the site at all, which is a quick and easy edit to make to increase your social following! After a few glances at their Facebook page, I noticed that the GCGC website had been recently updated, so kudos to them for striving for improvement!

If you didn't see your Columbus Nonprofit in this list, don't fret! There are far too many outstanding nonprofits in Columbus to put in one post, and I had to moderate it somehow. Hence the Yelp! list.

However, if you know of a Columbus nonprofit that you think has a great digital marketing strategy, share the love in the comments! We love to hear digital marketing success stories, especially when they help out a great cause.

Or, if you own a Columbus nonprofit and want to improve your digital marketing strategy to better your cause, click here!

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Nate Riggs

Written by Nate Riggs

Nate Riggs is the Founder and CEO of NR Media Group, a Certified HubSpot Partner and inbound consulting firm. He leads a team of experienced strategists, content marketers, creatives and technologists that help organizations deploy and use HubSpot’s marketing, sales, and service software to operate more efficiently and accelerate growth. Nate regularly presents keynotes and workshops at top industry conferences like INBOUND, Content Marketing World and Oracle’s Modern CX. In 2017, Nate was recognized by HubSpot for his contributions to the development of the HubSpot Education Partner Program. Nate regularly presents keynotes and workshops at top industry conferences like INBOUND, Content Marketing World and Oracle’s Modern CX. In 2017, Nate was recognized by HubSpot for his contributions to the development of the HubSpot Education Partner Program.
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