You’ve got a nonprofit website that you worked super hard to complete. You want the world to visit it, be compelled by your mission and vision, and respond by getting involved, contributing, or even asking for help from your nonprofit organization. To do that, you need to convince them with your words, images and media. This takes time, effort and sometimes money. We’re going to talk you through a few tips that will help cut to the chase and create compelling, targeted and efficient content that donors, volunteers, potential team members, and even clients will love.
Start off by determining what you want a website visitor to do once they read your content. Do you want them to download a PDF? Do you want them to fill out a form? Do you want them to submit a donation through your website? Knowing the answers to these questions allows you to craft your content in a way that persuades them to do exactly what you want them to do.
A mistake that many nonprofits make with their website is being too dispassionate about what they are saying. Boring mission statements, stoic history timelines, and no attention to the donation appeal text are costing nonprofit organizations millions, and they don’t even know it. Start off the right way by making your content passionate, exciting and inviting. Talk as you would on a stage or in person. Develop a voice to your content that relates to your audience. Don’t put your visitors to sleep with clinical, monotonous information that doesn’t inspire them. Think about what inspires you and infect them with that same level of motivation.
People want to be spoken to by people, not websites. Address your audience as if they were right in front of you. Think about how you would relate to them. If they are donors, think about the reasons your current donors give and what personal attachment they have to your mission. If your audience is potential clients (people to help), think about the situations they find themselves in and what concerns they have when they come to you for assistance. Talk to them at their level, not above it. Don’t create artificial barriers by formalizing your language.
People most definitely read on the internet. After all, that’s what you’re doing right now. But, like this post, you will want to divide what you write into digestible sections that a website visitor can quickly scan before deciding that he or she intends to read the information in that section. Be as long winded with your page as you need to be. But remember to break up your content using section headers and stick to your talking points under each header.
The idea behind adding content to your website is to convince someone who is reading it to take some sort of action without the benefit of your personal interaction. Being clear about what you are trying to get them to do in a passionate, personal and easy to digest way will go a long way in stirring up a response.
Bonus Action Point: Write down all the things you want website visitors to do before they leave your website. Assess whether that is happening or not as well as what you need to change in your content to convince them to do it more.
Need help to create killer content for your nonprofit website? Learn from The Killer Nonprofit Website Strategy.
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