How to Use Online Marketing for Fundraising

My presentation was a part of PRSA Nonprofit Day in 2010.

Embark on a transformative journey as we delve into the incredible potential of SEO to drive an unprecedented volume of traffic to your website. In this dynamic presentation, we will explore the intricacies of SEO strategies and unveil the key techniques for maximizing your online visibility and attracting targeted visitors. Discover the art of conducting effective keyword research, optimizing your website for search engines, and leveraging SEO-friendly content to catapult your website's performance. Unleash the power of search engine optimization and witness remarkable results as your website soars to new heights of traffic and engagement. Get ready to harness the true potential of SEO and pave your way to over a million visitors in just one month. Embrace the possibilities, revolutionize your digital marketing approach, and embark on a journey to transform your online presence like never before!

Transcript

1. How to Get Over 1 Million Visitors to your Website in a Month
2. 2 Learning Objectives 1. Understand the power of SEO, keyword research, and social media in driving traffic. 2. Environmental Working Group Case Study - Cell Phone Radiation Report
3. 3 EWG’s Magic Mix ◼ Solid, interesting consumer content ◼ Full SEO plan ◼ SMO plan – based on keyword research ◼ PPC ◼ Traditional press outreach ◼ Blogger outreach ◼ All elements are shareable
4. 4 An Overview of SEO
5. 5 Search Engine Optimization? What is it? ▪ Labeling your content with the words used by your audience so that they can find it when they search. Why do it? ▪ 81% of all Internet users find websites via a search engine. ▪ 87% of people click on the organic results ▪ Organic results convert 5.66x that of paid ads ▪ Intense online competition – 1 trillion unique URLs in July 2008
6. 6 Overview of Search Engines Each has computer algorithm to rank your pages in the search results. 11.5% 16.8% 65.5%
7. 7 How Search Engines Work ◼ Google, Yahoo!, and Bing create their listings automatically. They use “spiders” or “bots” to "crawl" links to web pages and add those web pages to their index. ◼ When a human visitor to the engine puts in a keyword phrase, the search engine is focused on serving relevant, fresh content that the engines think is matched to the searcher’s intent & personalized for the user. Keyword Phrases
8. 8 It’s not about the keywords You want to be found on. It’s about the keywords the searcher uses to find you.
9. 9 How People Search ◼ Only 48% even see paid ads ◼ People click on the word in results that matches their query word ◼ 58% of all queries 3+ words ◼ 68% click on result in first page ◼ 39% think that companies appearing at the top of search results are leaders in their field. Eye tracking Study, Google Search Results
10. 10 How People Search The Long Tail of Search: ◼ 3% of Excite’s search traffic was 3 keywords – 97% of the rest was in the “long tail” ◼ Amazon.com makes 57% of sales from keywords outside of the “popular” terms. ◼ Udi Manber, Google's VP of Engineering, “20 to 25% of the queries we see today, we have never seen before.”
11. 11 How Does a Search Engine “Read” A Page? Remember…it’s a computer algorithm
12. 12 It’s a Translation Problem The spider reads just text, not images or flash. It also evaluates inbound links to determine relevancy. A search engine tries to figure out what your web page is about through its pieces.
13. 13 Search Engines are Computers A Lost in Translation example: “My Apple is a lemon” ◼ It could mean your page is about fruit ◼ If the words “computer” also appears nearby, the spider determines that the phrase is about computers.
14. 14 The Google Algorithm ◼ Algorithm has 200+ factors, some weighted more than others. ◼ We know about 40 parts of the 200 factors. ◼ In 2007, the Google algorithm changed 9 times per week. ◼ Google is going to make 1.5 changes a day in 2010. ◼ Only 2 pages from the same URL are shown for one organization for one keyword search, however, there might be more “hidden results”.
15. 15 Rankings Don’t Matter Influenced by: ◼ Geo Location (IP)1 ◼ Previous searching history ◼ Personal search (login to Google account)2 ◼ Universal search3 ◼ Behavioral search (shopping vs. researching)4 ◼ Google Wiki So instead: ◼ Focus on # of visitors and conversions ◼ Watch your web analytics – visits by keyword query
16. 16 Step 1: Optimize your pages Writing tips for online copy: ◼ Use contextual words in proximity to the keyword phrase ◼ Repeat the keyword phrase & variations ◼ Use headers like a table of contents ◼ Strategically link to the copy, and use the keyword phrase in the link text. ◼ Use alt tags for images, so that spiders can “read” the image
17. 17 Step 1: Every page matters ◼ Search engines don’t see “home” pages ◼ Every page is an entry page for searcher ◼ Conversions from landing pages for targeted keywords can be improved through testing
18. 18 Step 1: Optimize Digital Assets Video Images Facebook Group updates Twitter News Releases Scribd.com Q & A sites Digg.com Widgets Wikipedia Widgets Digital Books Products (shopping) Google Maps/Local Search Google Buzz Online Review Sites Eventful.com Meetup.com Blog posts Craigslist
19. 19 Step 2: Build Smart Links ◼ PageRank – Google’s value for a page ◼ Links pass a portion of PageRank from outside sites to yours ◼ Your own site passes a portion of PageRank from your homepage throughout your site ◼ You can “lift” low PageRank pages by smart linking
20. 20 Step 2: Use Social Media ◼ Post on the major properties (Facebook, Twitter) ◼ Find your niche communities ◼ Develop blogger relationships ◼ Make your content easy to share
21. 21 Step 3: Measure ◼ Are my visitors coming from all search engines? ◼ Are my visitors finding me through referral sites, do they convert? ◼ Which keywords are they using? Can I add more of those to my site content? ◼ Which of my website partnerships is sending me the most traffic?
22. 22 Tools for the Road: Keyword Research Tools ◼ KeywordDiscovery.com ◼ SEOBook’s keyword tool ◼ Google’s wonder wheel Traffic Estimation Tools ◼ Quantcast.com ◼ Compete.com ◼ Technorati ◼ SEOBook Plugin for Firefox
23. 23 Environmental Working Group Online Marketing Plan for the Cell Phone Radiation Report
24. 24 The Plan in Action 1. Train volunteers (keyword research, SEO copywriting, social media research) 2. Conduct keyword research 3. Create social media outreach plan 4. Optimize all pages, think through Shareable items, create FAQ 5. Create PPC ads 6. Create blogger pitch language 7. Pitch Press 8. Outreach to bloggers, post content online
25. 25 Keyword Research Tools: 1. Google Keyword Tool 2. SEOBook keyword tool 3. Google Wonder Wheel 4. Keyword Discovery Query Searches Successful Searches Google Occ Google KEI 2010 verizon cell phones 13 23.08% 9 10 new cell phones in 2010 3 0% 2 10 t-mobile 2010 cell phones 1 0% 1 9.9 blackberry cellphone cingular bluetooth 190 100% 160 9.56
26. 26 Putting the Keywords to Work Title Tag URL Description #1 Keyword in Copy? Cell Phone Radiation http://www.ewg. org/cellphoneradi ation The Environmental Working Group’s guide to cell phone radiation. Learn what you can do to protect yourself. Find out which mobile phones emit the least amount of radiation. cell phone radiation yes
27. 27 Tips to Keep in Mind Be clear about your website goals. Make email sign ups clear
28. 28 Make Actions Obvious
29. 29 Make Content Shareable
30. 30 Our Social Media Targets
31. 31 Picking Social Media Targets 1. Gather big list of targets 2. Narrow based on topic, traffic and/or PageRank. 3. Created “assignments” & sharing language 4. Use one Gmail account for sites that need login created *** Use Google Analytics campaign tagging if you want to measure your outreach efforts.
32. 32 Instructions for Volunteers What to do... Use this copy Use this URL BLOG COMMENT: For posts on cell phones that don’t mention EWG http://bit.ly/b60mDw BLOG COMMENT: For posts that covered our report in the fall BLOG COMMENT: Thank you comment for blog post COMMENT for news outlet that likely didn't include the FAQ and 8 safety tips BLOGGER EMAILS: 1 for those that covered our original report, another for those who didn't
33. 33 The Results EWG had over 60K email signups by end of 2009
34. 34 The Long Tail in Action:
35. 35 Search Results
36. 36 Sharing Results Nearly 5 million impressions 305 installs 3,500+ Shares 43,000 “Reads”
37. 37 Wrap-up ◼ Start with good content ◼ Optimize web pages ◼ Make goals & sign ups clear ◼ Make it easy to share content ◼ Create launch plan that includes traditional media, social media, and PPC
38. 38 Learn More – SEO ◼ My blog: Search Marketing for Nonprofits Blog: http://Searchmarketingfornonprofits.wordpress.com ◼ How Search Engines work: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2168031 ◼ SEOMoz http://www.seomoz.com ◼ Bruce Clay’s blog http://www.bruceclay.com ◼ Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (book) http://www.yourseoplan.com/
39. 39 Questions? Katherine Watier Online Marketing Consultant www.watier.org/kathy 301-793-6121 katherine@watier.org Linkedin.com/in/katherinewatier