Many of my clients are non-profts and my for-profit clients are mostly small businesses. None of my clients have endless pools of money to spend on their website, email marketing, print marketing, or brand identity in general. Along the years, I’ve compiled several lists of resources I like to use in my work that don’t cost a fortune but can make a hugely positive impact on how an organization is perceived through their online presence. Here are a few of my favorite free or inexpensive resources for non-profits and small businesses:
- Mailchimp – online software to send marketing emails and manage contact list sign-up and opt-out automatically; integrates with multiple platforms like WordPress, SalesForce
- Free for up to 2,000 contacts and 12,000 emails per month
- Customizable email templates that can be created based on your website design
- Automatically created sign-up and opt-out forms that can be embedded on your website
- Ability to schedule emails to be sent in the future
- Ability to automatically email contacts when you post a new blog to your website
- Pixabay – free images and videos to use on your website without worrying about copyright infringement
- I love this because a lot of the imagse are more “natural” looking and not just standard stock photography
- There are no complicated attributions to make…and the set of images and videos is growing rapidly so it’s easy to find an image that meets your needs quickly
- Flickr – this was originally built for people to store their photos and is now also used for people to offer their photos for others to use; it is similar to Pixabay (above) but some of the images require attribution so you need to read the fine details
- Survey Monkey – online survey platform
- Free for up to 10 questions per survey and 100 responses per survey
- You can create as many surveys as you want
- Monthly fees if you have more questions and/or to collect more responses or if your questions require more complex logic
- I like to use this for quick opinion polls, post-class surveys, etc.
- Google Analytics – embed a tracking code on your website and track everything about who is visiting your site such as where they live, what device/operating system/browser they use, what keywords they use to find you, what paths they take on your website and where they drop off rather than complete an interaction
- Free
- Requires some skill to understand how to set up and interpret the reports
- Once reports are setup, they can automatically be emailed on a scheduled basis
- Best results occur when reports are actively monitored and actions are taken to update your website based on the reports
- Facebook – different from your personal Facebook account, a Facebook page for a business, non-profit, or other organization allows you to post content about your organization and gives people the ability to share it via their social media contacts thus extending your audience
- Key: post relevant content
- Key: post content regularly (at least once or twice per month)
- Key: embed your Facebook feed on your website allowing website visitors to “share” your content and “like” your page, which spreads the word about you for free on social media
- Other options: create “events” on Facebook to invite people to your grand opening, fundraising, or other events; upload candid photos about the work your organization is doing in the background to help tell an authentic story
- PayPal – online payment processor
- Many clients think this is complicated…it’s not.
- Quickly and easily accept credit cards anywhere
- Shoppers/Donors do not need a PayPal account; they can pay via any credit card
- PayPal has a high-level of trust in the marketplace for online security
- PayPal provides a free card scanner to use with your mobile devices so you can accept credit cards right on the spot
If you want help setting any of these up, just let me know!
