Holiday marketing prep guide for nonprofits – Part 2: Site & User Experience Updates

In part 1 of our holiday planning series we covered how to get started with your holiday marketing prep and how to approach promoting your initiatives. In part 2 we will cover how to deck out your nonprofit site in a way your budget can handle and keep your momentum going all the way through the final donation.

Keep in mind, this is coming from Hubspot’s highly insightful ebook, “The Guide to Ecommerce Holiday Success” where they cover all you need to know about holiday marketing for ecommerce businesses. The Nerdy Nonprofit is helping you break it down for your nonprofit specifically.

Step 6: “Deck out your site”

As Hubspot put it so cleverly, this is the time to deck the halls! Don’t make changes last minute, as this could result in a lack of time to test your tweaks. When you’re still a couple months out, go through your site and make sure you have all the bells and whistles you have been talking about implementing all year.

• Conduct a site audit:

ArcStone has a great downloadable worksheet “How to conduct a mini site audit” that walks you through a way to measure your website and how it compares to others. Make sure you at least meet the likes of the average site, and from there, stand out as much as you can, drawing in the attention of donors.

• Make it mobile:

Although this is a bit of an investment, your site should be mobile. If you haven’t upgraded to a mobile site, this may be the best time to do so as you’ll reap the benefits. If you need to persuade your Board of Directors, read about the numerous benefits to making your site mobile (and consequences of not). Without this change, you could lose several donors.

• Focus on navigation & slight tweaks:

If you can’t afford to change much about your site, focus on one area. Hubspot suggests choosing your site navigation as it is pretty central to your site’s UX. They also say adding just a few tweaks like a countdown timer to Christmas or snowflakes here and there can make a difference.

• Build a landing page & strong CTA:

Another option for a tight budget is focusing on a solid landing page. We talk about strong calls to action and successful landing pages in, “Donate Now – The Workings of a Successful Nonprofit Call to Action.”

Step 7: Think about what happens to “abandoned carts” or abandoned donors

Just as we abandon our Amazon shopping carts due to distractions or better deals, your donors may start out with the intent to donate and realize they don’t want to follow through. In fact, research shows that 50-70% of donation pages are abandoned. How can you avoid this?

• Read these 7 tips from npEngage
• Be responsive: Maybe your potential donor left the page because they have questions about where their money goes. Be prepared to answer questions.
• Follow-up: After they’ve donated, thank them and make sure they had a pleasant experience. It’s scary to put your credit card information out there or give money to a cause you haven’t before. If they know you are tracking their donations, they’ll likely feel better about it.

Step 8: Be prepared to change things up last minute

It goes without saying that just because you put a lot of effort into planning does not mean things will go your way. Avoid letting any aspect of your careful planning go as you leave for Thanksgiving break. Leave some room in the budget and timeline to continue to make tweaks based on your nonprofit’s donations and whether or not you’re meeting your goals. If this means setting reminders and mapping out a careful calendar to hold you and your nonprofit team accountable, do it!

If you need helping boosting traffic and drawing in donors at this time of year, it’s not too late! Message our team and we will see how we can best help in your digital strategy.