It’s 2019, how well is your website performing? Is it attracting new visitors every single day? Is it growing your supporters, the people who care about your mission? Is it a source of inspiration and information for the people who are going to support you, who are going to donate their time, their talent, their treasure, to making sure that the world is a better place through your nonprofit?

Or is it just sitting there, collecting digital dust?

I see a lot of nonprofits fall into the trap of launching their website and then moving on to other things. And that's understandable because there's a lot of good that you need to do in the world.

Gone are the days when we could launch a website and receive traffic by virtue of having a website. Just like a brick-and-mortar business, your website needs proven tactics to get people in the door, or eyeballs on your page. Your website is a machine that can extend your nonprofit’s reach into the world. It can share the good that you're doing, and it can bring a lot of new people to support your programs and services.

I’m going to share with you five FREE ways to drive traffic to your nonprofit website.

Content Creation

OK, before we start, I’ve got another big question to ask: are you producing content weekly, whether that’s a blog, a podcast, or a video series? If your website were a machine, content would be the fuel to keep that machine running.

Why is that? There are SO many websites online, that Google and the other search engines want to highlight the very best websites for their users. That means they rank websites that are mobile friendly and those that produce great content on a consistent basis MUCH higher than others.

So if you’re sending out an email newsletter once a month or haven’t updated your blog since your site launched, it’s time to get in the game and use your website as a tool to help grow your circle of support.

It's really important for you as a nonprofit to get your message out on the web consistently. I recommend every single week you produce a piece of really great content. This may be sharing the stories of the people that you serve, sharing the good work that you're doing in the world, or highlighting a rockstar volunteer.

Can you do that? Can you commit to creating something interesting, informative, entertaining, or educational every week at a minimum? If so, let me know in the comments below!

Let’s dive into five FREE ways to get more visitors for your nonprofit website.

1. Connect to the issues

First up is to connect to the issues that matter most to the people in your target audience. Notice that I said “issues” and not “programs” or “services.” This is a common trap when crafting effective messaging. Most nonprofits talk about their programs and services, which are the features of the product you’re selling. A statement about features could be, “We delivered clean water to 500 people last year.” That's great, and we want to move beyond that to really tap into the personal motivations of the people that we're serving. What you want to do is talk about the issues at the heart of your work.

Here’s a question to ask when creating your next blog, podcast, or video: “What does my audience believe is right or just?”

The answer to this question strikes at the heart of your supporters’ motivations. When you ask this question, the answer should be a phrase that starts with, “It’s right that…” or “Everyone deserves…” For example, if you work to provide supplies to schools in your area, the answer to the question, “What does my audience believe is right?” might be, “Every child deserves the supplies they need to learn and grow.” Notice how that deeply connects with the personal motivations behind supporting your work? Sure, it's great that you're providing school supplies, why is it important? Why does that matter? Specifically, why does that matter to someone who isn't working at your nonprofit?

What we’re doing here is identifying the deep philosophical belief of the people who will support your mission. They may not think it outright, but these statements express what your supporters believe. Whatever your mission is, your donors and supporters have a deeper belief about the way the world should be. Weave that into your consistent weekly content and you’ll connect more with your current audience and attract even more website visitors. Your blog posts will get more engagement. Your social media will be on fire because you'll be really speaking to people's hearts rather than their minds.

2. Go Live

I know that by now you’ve seen the incredible explosion of live video on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. The world LOVES live video and the major social networks are all competing for your eyeballs. You can use this to your advantage by going live to share your nonprofit’s work.

Consistency is key

As with all content creation, going live every week is really important. And since it’s a live broadcast, it’s also really important to go live at the same time each week. Think of your live broadcasts as a television program about your nonprofit! You want to build a base of loyal viewers and you do that by going live every week on the same day and time.

Promote your live broadcast

Before you go live, use your social profiles to promote your live broadcast a day or two in advance. Remind folks just before you go live that you’ll be broadcasting soon and ask them to share their questions with you in advance. The network where you go live will indicate to your followers that you’re live; it doesn’t hurt to help the algorithm a little bit and remind your followers.

Start off with a bang

Have you ever seen those live broadcasts where it seems like the person doesn’t realize they’re broadcasting? You don’t want that to be you. Take a minute to collect yourself before pressing the button and launch right into your content. This helps people stick with you through your broadcast, and rewards replay viewers with a great show.

But what do I talk about?

A lot of my nonprofit clients ask me, what should I post on Facebook? Or what should I post on Instagram, or what should I talk about in my live broadcasts? I have three ideas for you, but I'm going to offer a little encouragement and encourage you to start! Start talking about your day, talking about what you do, interacting with the folks who are on your live.

Here are three ideas to talk about on your live broadcast.

Take people behind the scenes

The nonprofit world can be fairly insular because I think people get so focused on producing good work and fulfilling their mission. And I know a lot of nonprofit staff members are overworked because their organization is running a lean operation. They're also a wealth of inspiring, motivating stories because your staff are such hard workers. Maybe donors really do need to see how much you struggle and how much you fight for the good that you're trying to do in the world. Show them a little behind the scenes.

You can also make your behind-the-scenes really funny. One of my nonprofit clients is at the University of Washington, and they have students in their office all the time. I've seen some really cool stuff that they do on social media because they get the students they serve on camera, they talk about their office, they talk about what they're working on and all the fun activities that they're doing.

Stories of transformation

This is my absolute favorite content type for nonprofits because story is at the heart of how our brains process and engage with the world. And every nonprofit has amazing stories of transformation. Even if you don't think you do, I guarantee you that your nonprofit is affecting some remarkable story. When you’re telling a story of transformation, begin with the “before” state, speak to the process of transformation (in the person’s own words if possible), and conclude what the person learned or what changed about the situation. You can also include what you learned in the process of facilitating that transformation.

State of the industry

This is a really great way to position your nonprofit as an expert in your field because you have insider knowledge. Your donors may not completely understand the impact of the level of CO2 in the ocean. As an industry expert, you can share the latest facts and figures weaving those with compelling stories in a way to attract attention and also share what's happening in your industry. If you're working in education, if you're working in politics, if you're working in the environment, if you're working for kids, if you're working for the arts. Any nonprofit, whatever you're doing, there's something unique happening in your industry that you can report about.

Finally, include a call to action!

When you go live, you're having a conversation and you're interacting with your followers. Don't forget to ask people to either visit your website, call you, send you an email or share.

3. Use Hashtags

Here’s a simple way to get more eyes on your content on Instagram: HASHTAGS. Did you know that you can include up to 30 hashtags for each post? If you’re not using hashtags or only using a few with each post, you’re missing out on a dead-simple way to grow your Instagram followers who you can point to your website. Here are three tips to selecting the perfect hashtags

Look at the numbers

When you start typing a hashtag, Instagram will tell you how many posts are associated with that hashtag. You want to choose a broad mix of hashtags based on that associated posts number. A handful should be between 300-400k, and a handful should be really specific to your nonprofit and your brand. The remainder should range from 5,000–200k posts. What this does is help your post reach a really wide audience. The popular hashtags will bring volume while the medium and smaller frequency hashtags will have more staying power.

Think of adjacent topics

What is your audience searching for? What questions are they asking? What inspires them on Instagram? Use hashtags to target your audience and connect your posts to their interests. If you work to provide clean water in impoverished countries, one adjacent topic your audience may be interested in could be renewable energy. You can use that to select hashtags that place your post in front of people who care about the environment.

Don’t be afraid to get creative

Instagram has a fantastic suggestion engine but the human brain is still infinitely more creative. When you take time to brainstorm and write down lots of topics for your hashtags, you can use those to fuel some wonderfully creative ideas. Often these creative hashtags will only have a few thousand posts associated with them, and that’s OK! Even though it’s a smaller number with fewer viewers, your post will remain toward the top of the hashtag search results for a lot longer.

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4. Help A Reporter Out (HARO)

Help a Reporter Out or HARO, is a free way for journalists to connect with sources on stories they’re working on. You can access HARO at helpareporter.com It’s a fantastic way for your nonprofit to gain valuable media exposure while providing important information to reporters. The way it works is, you register as a source and receive email briefings three times a day with lists of what reporters are looking for that day. The free version sends everything, while the paid version lets you specify keywords that you are interested in. Given that there can be a lot of information, I recommend setting up a separate email address at your domain to register for HARO so your inbox doesn’t get clogged with the daily emails. Here are some additional tips:

Know your industry

Before you start with HARO, take some time to gather interesting facts and figures about your industry and quantifying the problems people face in the area of your mission. You’ll also want to develop position statements about what your nonprofit believes is the right approach to solving those problems. Having a well-formed position is really valuable to reporters and establishes you as an expert.

Build a perfect pitch

Responding to a reporter’s request is called making a pitch. Think of it as a mini proposal for a grant. You want to include relevant bios, facts and figures you can substantiate, and make sure to answer the questions posed by the reporter.

Keep at it!

It may take a little while for your pitches to be accepted. Every news outlet is working on their own stories and the reporters are often on an insane time crunch. Don’t give up! Keep responding and saving your responses so you can formulate pitches more quickly. Gathering media exposure for any issue takes time and consistency.

5. Be a Medium

You may have read an article at Medium.com, but did you ever think to publish on the site? That’s right, Medium is a social publishing platform that is open to everyone and features a diverse array of stories, ideas, and perspectives. Its value is the high number of daily visitors and the power it gives your nonprofit: every user can create and edit their own digital publication around any number of topics.

If you have an existing blog and you want to publish your best blog posts on Medium, that's called syndication. If you want to syndicate on Medium, all you have to do is just type in the URL of your blog and Medium will read the data and pull in your blog, which you can then edit and format and publish.

Follow publications and tags

After you create an account at Medium.com, take some time to understand the site and its ethos. Medium is home to long-form, well thought-out written pieces. By ingesting publications and following tags related to your mission, you’ll start to see where you can contribute to the conversation. It's different than a social media site because it's less about reactions to things.

Write with quality and depth

Medium is all about creating a very thoughtful, well written article on a unique topic. The topics range from athletics to psychedelics and from women's rights to the environment. There's something there for everybody. If you have a unique perspective or your nonprofit is doing work that’s different, Medium is a great place to build traffic and share your story.

Promote your article

Medium has a massive active user base of people who love to read and love to get these unique perspectives. However your friends from Facebook or your followers on Instagram may not be aware that you're publishing on Medium. So when you publish, you'll get a really simple URL to share on your favorite social media networks to promote your post on Medium. By driving traffic to Medium, visitors will read your content and that promotes the article in Medium’s algorithm for it to reach more people, getting new eyes on your content and ultimately your website.

Five FREE ways to drive traffic to your nonprofit website