Trends in the US and internationally see the steady increase in the number of nonprofit organization websites. Having a website is now standard practice for successful nonprofits or organizations, as is having a business card. However, CEOs and business development managers often struggle with the strategies of how to make the website work for them. If you already have your website, how do you get visitors to come there? This is often called driving traffic or increasing visits.
Advertise your website: It is important to include your website address (URL) on all printed and advertising materials that you are currently using: your business card, email signature, newspaper print advertisements, radio and television advertisements, invoices, brochures, and stationery . Display a sign or banner in your office and where you serve “Visit us on our website at yourorganization.com” and encourage your staff, current clients, partners, sponsors and donors to use the website and pass on the website address to your friends and associates. For the printed materials you already have on hand, order a set of clear labels with your website address and place the label on your existing brochures and cards to save on printing costs.
Internet Marketing: There are several profitable marketing methods that you can use to drive traffic to your website. The search engine record is one, but it is difficult to appear on the top-level pages unless you record very specific search terms. Pay per click is a profitable way to pay a certain amount of money for a search term. For example, “Santa Ana senior housing” would be a search term that you would only return to people who searched for that phrase and clicked the link to your website. Email newsletters to your customers and prospects allow you to keep your customers and contacts up to date on your products and services and give them advice and valuable information. A good email management package will allow you to track down the interested people who clicked on the links to your website for more information. Add your website and profile to different Internet social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIN, and Twitter. Submitting articles and participating in online forums are good ways to generate traffic. Writing and managing a blog on your area of expertise to create new content.
Follow-up: It is important to have some means of tracking the number of visitors to the website and also being able to see which pages they visited and where they came from in their links. There are several useful monitoring programs. Check with your webmaster what is available on your web server or use programs such as index tools, statcounter, Google Analytics or Urchin.
Results: To really see results from your website, your website must be well designed so that it is easy to use once you get the person to the site. Another important component is the “Call to Action” – this is something the person WILL DO when they come to your website – sign up for something, fill out a form, contact you, etc.
Future articles will address these topics in more detail.