A few weeks ago a small charity I work with had to let me go due to finances. I decided to give them a kind parting gift and share some simple but effective top tips for marketing on a budget.
Here they are…
Social media
- Quality over quantity with social media. It’s better to do a few posts that get great engagement than spam people.
- Make sure you’re doing regular analysis to see what’s working and what isn’t – I know this can be a struggle for small charities, but it’s so important to make sure limited resources are being used effectively.
- Use scheduling tools to plan out your content at the start of the week/month. But also dip in and regularly check and respond to comments and posts.
- Engage with people and join the conversation. Don’t just push stuff out, but be part of a community. People will remember you!
- Respond to people and engage, rather than just pushing out adverts.
- Use Twitter lists. Basically these are a great way to keep up to date on topics and themes that are of interest to you.
- Follow hashtags as well as people, so you can see relevant content.
- Don’t just post adverts – think about the human angle of what you do. Share photos of you out on a walk, or eating breakfast.
- The best posts tell a story.
- Set up events so people see them in their feed. People will be more likely to spot them than if they have to come to your website.
- Consider small paid ads that are targeted towards people with similar ads.
- Post in groups such as Theatre Practitioners in London, Dramatherapy, London Arts in Health Forum etc.
Videos
- Video is a powerful tool for communication, enabling people to see, hear, read, and engage in a way that goes beyond written text.
- Keep it short – under two minutes is ideal.
- Plan out your script before.
- But don’t look down at it during filming. Keep eye contact with the camera, in a natural way.
- Use horizontal/landscape orientation.
- Sitting slightly off centre tends to look best.
- Steady your phone on a tripod or flat surface.
- Don’t zoom in or the image will be pixelated.
- Face toward a window for great natural light – don’t have the window behind you or you will be a silhouette.
- Make sure to have the video quality set to the highest resolution.
- Charge your phone up to 100% – filming will be draining on your battery life so don’t risk running out halfway through.
- Make sure you have enough memory space as video will fill it up very quickly.
Newsletter
- No more than once a week.
- Consider doing newsletter swaps with other organisations – see if you can feature their events in exchange for them featuring yours.
- Replicate the template in Mailchimp – it saves so much time!
PR
- Think about magazines and websites that have related content, and offer to write for them.
- Offer free spaces to journalists so that they can experience what you do. It’s not guaranteed coverage, but a good way to build relationships.
- Follow #journorequests and respond to call outs. It’s important to remember that when they ask for sources they will be inundated, so be friendly and respond efficiently to any requests.
- Another great resource is AskCharity, where journalist post requests for case studies and stories.
Blogs
- Adding content to the website boosts it in search engine rankings, so it should be regularly updated.
- You can hook content around what you’re doing, relevant themes in the sector, as well as Awareness Days.
Design
- Apply for Canva for charities to easily make fab assets.
Content
- Write regular blog posts that include relevant words to the kinds of thing that your audience might be looking for. This is the bedrock of SEO. Answer The Public is really helpful here.
Resources
- Check out Google Non profits for resources, included $10,000 ad grant.