MERE HEALING

Arrgh! This is what I'm afraid of!

Google Analytics made easy.

Nancy Schwartz at Getting Attention has a must-read entitled clearly and succinctly 7 Easy Ways to Boost Your Nonprofit Marketing Impact with Google Analytics that is the bottom line for how to make your website work for you... instead of the other way around.

Way too much to quote at length here, so you need to go read the whole thing at least several times, but in a nutshell, here's what she says. First of all, for those who are unexposed to this stuff, analytics:

• Consistently quantify site performance and usage. Remember though, that comparison of findings among sites doesn’t mean a thing, since each site has unique goals and audiences. Focus on tracking metrics on your site over time, from the baseline of right now.
• Build your understanding of how or if your site or blog is meeting stated objectives critical to achieving communications goals.
• Suggest approaches for course correction if necessary.

That's not even scratching the proverbial surface. She says the first step in undertaking such a strategic need is the following:

1. Define site goals.
2. Pinpoint measurable objectives that will demonstrate your moving towards reaching your goals.
3. Identify, as specifically as possible, the target audiences you need to engage to meet your objectives.

Then she gets right down to the nittty-gritty of things. Take this next 'graph to the bank:

When you’re thinking about measuring the impact of your website, start with your desired outcomes, not with analytic reports. Your goals for your site will pinpoint the metrics that matter. So rather than opening your analytics tool and getting overwhelmed by all the bells and whistles, focus on factors that will help you understand the whys and whats around your desired outcomes.

And then she proceeds to get into the seven fixed metrics that are really worth tracking on. In just a word, here they are... but you'll want to read the whole thing for every bit of insight she offers on this mind-numbing [for me] subject.

1. Keywords — What top 20 words and phrases (keywords) your users enter into Google or other search engines that drive them to your site?
2. Top referring web addresses
3. Top 10 pages visited (a.k.a. content popularity)
4. Percentage of site visitors who visit the home page
5. Site bounce rate
6. Conversion Rate (goals and funnel)
7. Most Frequently Searched for Keywords (assuming your site has a site search tool)

Go read the entire piece. And sign up for her excellent newsletter. I've been reading her for several years now and she's my numero uno go-to for everything non-profit.

What's not to "like" about your NPO?

eMarketer has a great discussion of what actually motivates individuals to “like” a brand in social nets like Facebook.

#1 for consumer brands, not surprisingly, is an interest in getting information about “deals.”

But the #2 driver is simply self-expression … people simply want to express their support of a company or brand (or nonprofit) to other people. A form of sharing “feel good” news — a fundamental human impulse.

Nonprofits tapping into social nets need to realize that your “friends” do not necessarily crave “interaction” with your organization — check out the list and note that “interact” is firmly entrenched at the bottom.

They do, however, want to identify publicly with you … and that’s plenty to be grateful for.

Indeed, their greater value to your organization might be as missionaries rather than as donors. So be sure you gently offer your “friends” easy ways to take additional supportive steps. As they take those additional steps, they’re probably moving closer to donating (or donating more/again).

Does your website measure up?

In the time I've been checking out websites for various ministries, I've come to the conclusion that the vast majority of them suck air. Majorly. I have to wonder if somehow we just can't do better than that, no matter how small our ministry or nonprofit may be. I'm inclined to think we can.

Kivi Leroux Miller says you can if you focus on the most important elements first. Here’s a 10-point checklist the all-star North Carolina consultant uses to give any nonprofit website home page a quick evaluation.

1. Does the Domain Name Make Sense? I prefer whole words if they are relatively short, but acronyms are OK too. For example, the Environmental Defense Fund can be found at edf.org, and environmentaldefense.org redirects to edf.org. (Unfortunately, environmentaldefensefund.org produced a page not found error, even through EDF does own that domain.) Note that their domain name is not some difficult-to-recall abbreviation like envdef.org. Those are the worst. It should be as easy to guess and remember as possible.

2. Do I Know Where I Am? Can I tell after the briefest glance who’s website I’m on? Are your logo and name right at the top? If your organization works only locally or regionally, it’s also important that we quickly see exactly where you are. Include your city and state in a prominent location. This will help site visitors who may easily mistake you for a similar organization in a different area. For example, I live in Davidson County, NC but there is also a Davidson County, TN which includes Nashville. Nonprofits with “Davidson County” in their names should be very clear and upfront on their home pages about which state they are in.

3. Is There a Clear Path to Answers or Actions Visitors are Most Likely Seeking? Why would someone be coming to your website? What questions do they have or what would they want to do there? Again, within just a few seconds, can see where I need to click to get those answers and take those actions?

4. Does the Home Page Include Images? The web is a visual place and even if you use stock photography, images are a must for your homepage.

5. Can I Donate Online Easily from the Home Page? Don’t hide that Donate Now button away where we have to look for it. Make it very easy to find and keep the amount of information you request to a minimum as supporters fill out that online form.

6. Are You Capturing Email Addresses? The best way to turn a first-time website visitor into a long-term supporter is to start a conservation. To do that, you have to know who they are. Make signing up for your email newsletter incredibly easy and obvious. Or offer a free download that requires registration.

7. Are People Featured? Every nonprofit, even those focused on saving whales, needs to have people pictures and stories on its website. Donors write checks to support the work of people trying to save the whales, not to the whales themselves. Whale pictures are fine, but also feature your donors, volunteers, staff, partners, clients, and other people on your website doing the work they love on behalf of your cause.

8. Are There Stories on the Need or Successes? Mission statements are usually tough to understand. Stories draw people in and really explain what it is you do. Tell short little stories on your home page to demonstrate the need for your organization and to highlight your accomplishments. Link from the home page to longer examples.

9. Is It Easy to Contact Staff? Before a donor writes a big check, they’ll probably want to talk to you. If someone is interested in partnering with your organization, they’ll want to know which staff person they should call to discuss a project. Don’t make it hard to identify who’s doing what. If you don’t want to include staff email addresses on your web page because of spam concerns, do include a contact form and the phone numbers of key staff. A full staff directory is ideal.

10. Are Your Google Keywords on Target? What do you think your site is about? You want your website to come up in Google when searchers type in which words? Compare this list to what Google actually thinks your site is about using the free keyword tool. Select the “website content” button and then enter your home page URL.

How 'bout it, sports fans? How does your website measure up against Kivi's checklist? Do you need to revisit a few things?

Reconsidering the infamous newsletter.

The national ministry of which I'm a member just sent out an e-mail to its member ministries announcing the layoffs of two of its staff due to budget cutbacks. This was indeed sad news as one of the staff seemed pretty important to me. And that got me to thinking. Given the financial scrapheap many nonprofits are currently headed toward, it seems this might be a good time to consider dropping the traditional print newsletter entirely and shifting to an online publication.

If you happen to fit into this crowd, and are considering transitioning from print to email, a good starting point is with your traditional regular editorial features, simply because much of what was once considered appropriate for a print newsletter just won’t work in email. Here are a few examples worth considering:

Letter from the Director. Honestly, these are ghastly enough in print because they are typically full of jargon and behind-the-scenes minutiae, all of which is exactly opposite of what works in email. If the director really loves writing that letter, then it’s time to give him or her a blog (we’re moving that direction, anyway). OTOH, your email newsletter should be focused primarily on the readers and what they care about and how they can connect to you and your cause. Very brief letters can work, but they must laser-focused on the reader — the letter is simply a format for content you want to share, not an open invitation for the director to ramble.

Calendar of Events. If you have a full page calendar with all the boxes for each day of the week, you can put that online (I’m partial to Google Calendar), but you shouldn’t try to email the whole calendar. Instead, highlight a few upcoming events and include a link to the full calendar.

Boring Photos. Group photos of your board, “big check” photos, and the like often make it into print newsletters, but waste precious space in email. Photos in email newsletters should be mission-oriented.

Masthead. In a print newsletter, this is where you’ll often find complete contact information for the group, the list of the board of directors, the staff who work on the newsletter, and the mission statement. While you should include your contact information in your e-newsletter (CAN-SPAM rules require you to include your mailing address), leave the board and staff lists and the rest on your website. You can link to it if desired.

Long Articles. Articles in email are much shorter than those in print. A reasonable goal is no more than 400 words. If you need to go longer, include an excerpt in the email and have readers click over to your website to read the full article.

Big Display Ads. The majority of your email should be text, not images. That means those big full-page ads (or even half-page ads) that you include in your print newsletter, advertising everything from your own events to your sponsor’s products and services, are out. You can create smaller button ads, or even better, turn that advertising into real content of interest to your readers — make what you are promoting relevant to them and to your cause.

Complicated Charts and Graphics. Email newsletters look different depending on which email program you are using to view them, making including charts and tables a crap shoot. Instead, save those items as a single graphic file (e.g. gif) and insert them into your newsletter that way. Remember, they need to be smaller because you are working with less space, so make your graphics as simple as possible.

And in case that’s not enough, here are seven more tips from Kivi Leroux Miller to help you do it right:

1. Don’t try the short-cuts. Sending a PDF of your print newsletter out as an attachment to an email list is NOT an email newsletter. Neither is sending a one-line email that says “Click here to read our newsletter on our website.” If you are going to use email to communicate regularly with your supporters, create a real e-newsletter, with real content in the email itself.
2. Dissect your old print newsletter.Not everything that you included in your print newsletter will be right for your email newsletter. For example, if you had a large calendar of events in print, it’s best to highlight only a few events in an email newsletter with links to a full calendar on your website. Think about what belongs where online — not everything will work in an email.
3. Consider a more personal tone. Email is a more personal form of communication than print. If you’ve been writing your newsletter articles in the third person (The Dog Lovers Association is seeking volunteers), now is the time to move to a more personal first person- second person style (If you’d like to volunteer to walk dogs, we want to hear from you).
4. Decide on full text, teasers, or a combo. An email newsletter should be relatively short compared to a print newsletter. That means you have to make some decisions about the quantity and length of articles. Some organizations will include one full article in an email newsletter with headlines only for other articles on a website. Others will include teaser text, or longer blurbs, for all of the articles, requiring readers to click over to the website for the full version of each article. Either way is acceptable, but I think it’s best to be consistent from issue to issue.
5. Working on the microtext like headings and captions is important in print, but it’s absolutely essential in email. Start working now on the kinds of subject lines, headlines, and subheads you’ll use in your email newsletter. A large portion of your mailing list will quickly skim and read only the microtext, so make it good.
6. Use an email newsletter service. Don’t try to distribute an email newsletter out of your desktop email program. The problems with this approach are too numerous to mention. Instead, use an email marketing service provider. The benefits far exceed the minimal monthly costs.
7. Add a sign-up box to your website. Ideally, this will appear in your site template so the sign-up box appears on every page of your website. At a minimum, put it on your homepage and about us or contact us pages. One of the benefits of using an email service provider is that your supporters can add themselves to your list automatically — but only if they can find the form on your website.

Sign-up for this week’s webinar, How to Go from a Print Newsletter to an Email Newsletter, on Thursday, December 18 at 1:00 p.m ET.

Blog vs. Website.

Great stuff from big kahuna John Haydon at CorporateDollar.org on blogging vs. the traditional website gig. When I stepped in as ED of Hope & New Life Ministries, one of the first things I did was move from a static web format to a blog. Just in time for the Election. So the most obvious benefit to blogging is that it provides a flexibility and a contemporary voice in issues that a traditional web format simply won’t provide. But it also provides some key benefits that John goes into in this first-in-a-series video on blogging. Check it out and see if you don’t agree.

 

Thanks, John.   

Search Engine Optimization

Check out these latest figures from the Pew Internet Project on internet activities.

At 49% , search is the fastest growing online app. . . and the second most common activity in a typical web user’s day. As you might expect, e-mail tops out Internet usage at 60%, and coming up at a not-even-close 39% in third place is checking the news.

For you anal retentive numbers freaks, search is most used by college-educated (66% in a typical day) and higher income net users (62% of $75K+ income users), those with broadband at home (58%), and those under 50 years old (55%).

Now. . . if you think this is not the profile of your ministry’s typical online donor, you might want to check the radiator in your steam-powered computer.

Location, location, location. Folks have to be able to find your ministry online. That means someone on your ministry team -- probably the person reading this -- needs to master search engine optimization. Start here.

You're welcome.