Multi-Channel Marketing: The Key to Reaching Supporters
Marketing researchers have found that it takes an average of eight touchpoints for a sales prospect to consider a purchase. This principle holds true in both the for- and nonprofit sectors, meaning your organization needs to reach your supporters where they are over and over again to inspire support.
Contacting supporters across multiple channels is called multi-channel marketing, and it’s often the key to acquiring new donors. To strengthen and diversify your digital outreach strategy, we’ll explore why multi-channel marketing works and how your nonprofit can leverage it.
Why does multi-channel marketing matter?
Multi-channel marketing is the practice of promoting your nonprofit across multiple communication platforms. For instance, let’s say your nonprofit creates a blog post promoting matching gifts. Then, you reformat that content and post it to Facebook, turn it into a fundraising letter, and create a truncated text message version.
This is multi-channel marketing, and it accomplishes two things for nonprofits:
- Reach a wide audience. The more platforms your nonprofit markets on, the more prospective supporters will see your content. Multi-channel marketing allows you to cast a wide net and connect with a range of audiences.
- Build brand recognition. Brand recognition works. When supporters are considering which nonprofits to give to, they’ll likely gravitate toward organizations they’ve heard of before. By getting your nonprofit’s marketing materials in front of the same supporters repeatedly, they’ll come to know and trust your organization.
Whether a donor prospect sees your outreach for the first or tenth time, each view is an opportunity to engage with your organization. By making repeated calls to action across multiple platforms, you increase the chances that a supporter will act on them.
Multi-Channel vs. Omni-Channel
Multi-channel marketing is closely related to another type of donor outreach: omni-channel marketing. Kwala’s guide to donor communications explains how these concepts work: “With multi-channel [marketing], you spread the same message across multiple platforms, whereas in omni-channel [marketing], each message builds on the one that came before it.”
Essentially, omni-channel marketing is targeted to specific donors to move them through their giving journey. For example, you might send a donation request via direct mail, thank the supporter with an emailed eCard, and send them a text message inviting them to engage with your latest blog content and follow you on social media.
Both approaches are useful and can be used in tandem. When you’re looking to reach a wide audience and connect with new supporters, take a multi-channel approach. When you’re ready to deepen those relationships, switch to omni-channel.
Marketing Channels
A multi-channel marketing approach can span across a wide variety of platforms. Select your outreach methods of choice based on what channels your audience uses and how confident your nonprofit is in its ability to maintain an active presence on that platform.
A few top channels to consider include:
Search ads
Google processes over 8 billion searches every day. This means the search engine commands a massive audience, and nonprofits can tap into that through search ads. These ads appear at the top of search results for websites related to the user’s query. For example, here’s a search ad for a nonprofit organization that explains the organization’s mission to combat adolescent depression and promotes multiple landing pages for learning more and getting involved:
Paid advertisements can get expensive quickly, but fortunately, Google provides nonprofits with credits to spend on search ads through the Google Ad Grants program. Getting Attention’s guide on the subject explains further:
The Google Ad Grant program is a free version of Google Ads for select charitable organizations. While regular Google Ad accounts have to pay per ad click, Google Grant participants can display their advertisements for free… The grant gives eligible nonprofits $10,000 in free monthly advertising credits. As long as the organization complies with the program’s rules, the grant will automatically renew each month. Organizations can use their grant money to bid on different keywords and promote specific pages on their website through text-based ads on the SERPs for those keywords.
Essentially, your nonprofit can create free Google Ads promoting your site content. To supplement your paid strategy, consider how you can also improve your SEO strategy.
SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it’s the practice of creating content that is likely to rank well on search engine results. If content is optimized for search, it may rank highly on the results pages for relevant keywords, driving more traffic to your website.
By combining SEO and paid search, your nonprofit can maximize its reach on search engines.
Overall, email has seen diminishing returns for nonprofits in the past few years. In 2023, nonprofits made $76 for every 1,000 emails they sent, a 20% decrease from 2022. Other metrics are also down, including overall revenue and response rates.
However, that doesn’t mean nonprofits should abandon email. While numbers are down, email is still a core way for nonprofits to request donations, provide project updates, and educate supporters on your mission.
You can improve your email strategy by:
- Improving subject lines. Subject lines determine whether an email gets opened or scrolled past. Be conscious of screen sizes, and create subject lines of 70 characters or less to avoid getting cut off.
- Issuing just one call to action. Ensure every email is focused by including a single call to action. Emails that ask donors to take multiple actions like donating, volunteering, and subscribing to your newsletter may confuse recipients.
- Conducting an email append. If your emails have a high bounce rate, that means your subscribers list is out of date. Fortunately, an email append service provider can fill in missing emails and correct defunct ones.
While fewer donations can be sourced directly to email, that doesn’t mean email no longer drives donations. In a multi-channel strategy, many touchpoints before a conversion can’t be directly accounted for but are still essential for driving the donor journey forward.
Social media
Chances are that most of your supporters use some form of social media. However, deciding which platforms to focus on may be tricky. Here’s a brief overview of how nonprofits can leverage popular social media platforms:
- Facebook. Facebook commands a massive audience, and while it doesn’t offer free or discounted advertising for nonprofits, its audience targeting tools can allow you to direct your ads to high-value prospects.
- Instagram. If your nonprofit’s mission lends itself to eye-catching photographs, an Instagram account can be fruitful. For example, the animal shelter Perry’s Place went viral for its “Naughty & Nice Cat of the Week” marketing campaign.
- X (Formerly Twitter). X has historically seen minimal returns for nonprofits, and many organizations have rolled back their advertising on this platform. Consider maintaining an X account but be cautious about paying for promotion. Additionally, keep an eye out for upcoming competitors like Threads and BlueSky.
- TikTok. Nonprofits have flocked to TikTok in the past few years. However, the future of TikTok in the United States is currently in question due to recent legislation. If your nonprofit still decides to pursue a TikTok strategy, consider signing up for TikTok for Good, which provides nonprofits with free marketing tools like donation stickers and fundraising livestreams.
When it comes to social media, only create accounts if you know your organization will be able to maintain them. Even if your nonprofit is active elsewhere, abandoned accounts can make supporters question the health of your organization.
Text message
Text messages connect you with your audience almost immediately, making it an effective platform for quick updates and urgent messages. However, while text messaging can be a powerful part of your multi-channel strategy, be aware that it’s also the easiest to overuse.
Many people always keep their phones within arms reach, meaning they are likely to see your nonprofit’s messages quickly. While this is convenient for getting your message seen, it also means supporters will be extra aware of how often you message them. During busy times of the year for marketing, like the end of the year or during election season, it’s easy for your supporters to get overwhelmed with text messages.
As such, to retain donors, use text messages sparingly and only when an immediate alert to your audience is appropriate.
Direct mail
While much of modern nonprofit communication is digital, there’s still a place for direct mail. In fact, receiving a letter in the mail can feel special and make your nonprofit stand out. When your nonprofit does something memorable, like sending a letter, supporters are more likely to take notice of your messages in other places, like on search engines and social media.
To build brand recognition, ensure your direct mail communication has the same branding as your online marketing materials. This creates a consistent experience across platforms and presents your nonprofit as a cohesive, professional organization.
Create a nonprofit style guide that includes guidelines for direct mail. This might include directions for font sizes, letterheads, signatures, and other specifics.
By sharing your nonprofit’s messages on multiple channels, your organization can reach new supporters and reinforce your brand identity among current ones. Choose which channels you’ll expand to by assessing your audience’s interests, your nonprofit’s resources, and each platform’s outreach potential.
