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Online Marketing with Your Email Signature
An email signature, set up in your email client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Gmail, etc.) to automatically append to your outgoing email messages is an often overlooked marketing opportunity. In addition to being “free” to use and “easy” to set up, specific marketing and related benefits include:
1) ETIQUETTE and PROFESSIONALISM – Including pertinent contact information in your signature, such as phone number and company website address, exudes professionalism and shows your recipients that you care enough to provide alternative ways for them to easily contact or respond to you.
2) CONTEXT - Your email signature is an opportunity to inform the reader of your position in your organization and make them more comfortable in interacting with you. Signing off with your complete name, title, organization and contact information lets people know that you’re the Executive Director, the Board Treasurer, or an Administrative Assistant. Such useful information also makes your reader more comfortable about the authority of your communications.
3) BRANDING – Your email signature is an opportunity to reinforce your organization’s branding and provide your recipient with a means of understanding and learning more about your nonprofit. For example, displaying your tag line in the signature can quickly explain your mission, or purpose and a link to your website provides quick access to further information.
4) PROMOTION – Promoting a current campaign, sale or opportunity with a short two line call to action included in your email signature can be a permanent (or revolving) means of informing your recipients about available opportunities. A promotion might be be:
Signup for our email newsletter: http://www.website.com/signup.html
Register for our Father’s Day golf fundraiser: http://www.website.com/register.html
All family memberships 50% off through March 31: http://www.website.com/membershippromo.html
5) CHANNELS – Using your email signature as a means to informing recipients of additional contact channels (such as social networking links) indicates an interest in strengthening your organization’s relationship with your recipient.
Here’s an email signature I use for the Toastmaster’s Club for which I am an Officer:
Ilene Hass
VP of Public Relations
Philadelphia’s First Toastmasters
(215) 663.0706
http://www.philadelphiasfirsttoastmasters.org
Connect on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/philadelphias-first-toastmasters* * * * * * * *
Attend our district contest at PECO, April 03, 2010, details: http://www.tmdistrict38.org
Please share your comments and any examples of effective email signatures that have captured your attention.
Geography Matters for Local SEO
Your organization may have an international, national or regional constituent base, but to a prospective supporter or client your geographical location can be extremely relevant.
Google offers a free service, GoogleLocal, that provides organizations the opportunity to promote themselves on a local level. An organization with a physical address can set up a listing (or claim a preexisting Google Local listing), which entitles them to be placed on a google map, categorize their organization using up to 5 key word phrases, and provide generic information (hours, availability of parking or public transportation) or relevant customized information to listing visitors. It also accepts written reviews of your organization.
In addition to prospective constituents benefiting from finding and learning about you via Google search, GoogleLocal provides your organization with a dashboard of valuable metrics, accessed via password protection, which shows you:
- how often your listing was viewed
- the search terms that led viewers to your listing
- how many listing viewers clicked for directions to your location
- how many listing viewers clicked through to your website
Another great measurement tool to add to your Search Engine Optimization toolkit.
To see a sample nonprofit Google Local Listing, do a google search for: museum 19103. You should see The Franklin Institute as the first listing. Click on the “more info” tab to see the details of this owner verified listing, with 102 reviews as of this writing.
Learn more about Google Local Business Center
Find Supporters You Never Knew You Had
We recently created Facebook page for Friends of Fox Chase Farm, a volunteer run organization. Promoted solely with a hyperlinked button on the home page of the organization’s website, within a few months, the page has grown to almost 300 fans.
This page has given the organization a new channel to promote its seasonal festivals at the Farm, recruit volunteers to help with festival activities, entice students to volunteer with the promise of service learning credits, and answer questions posed by fans. When a scheduled rain-or-shine festival was postponed at the very last minute due to anticipated torrential downpours, the Facebook page proved to be the most practical and timely way for the organization to alert prospective attendees, since attendance was pay at the gate, and did not require preregistration.
Fans have used the page to post comments and questions, post photos, share their 4-H club accomplishments and RSVP to organization events.
A simple and timely win-win situation for the Friends of Fox Chase Farm and its supporters!
Affordable Internet Marketing for Nonprofit Organizations
Spiral Station helps nonprofits build an effective online presence to promote their organization. Using Internet Marketing, Email Marketing, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Social Media Marketing strategies and tools, we create affordable online marketing systems that:
- Expand awareness of your organization
- Cultivate supporters in your mission
- Increase participation in events
- Expand online fund-raising opportunities
- Measure effectiveness of your online efforts
We’ll evaluate your current marketing goals, efforts and resources, then provide solutions that can be easily managed by staff or volunteers, or affordably outsourced.
Request a complimentary consultation.
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