As a nonprofit video organization, your main goal should be maximizing the reach of your message to retain funders, attract new funders, and raise awareness about your issue or cause. Nonprofit video marketing is a niche type of marketing. You aren’t selling a product, you’re selling “happiness” to people who support you. To start your video marketing campaign you can follow these steps:
1. Identify your Goals
Do you want to increase awareness? Do you want to promote an event? Get donations? All of the above? Whatever your goals are, get them down on paper! At the beginning, you need to get crystal clear about what you’re trying to accomplish.
2. Identify your Audience
Who are you targeting with your marketing strategy? Who is your audience? Depending on the demographic, the key messages should be different. Identifying your audience will help guide you throughout the process because your video messaging will be different depending on who you are targeting. For example, we created a video for Child Rescue Coalition that targeted adult parents primarily because we needed to spread awareness about a program that helps locate online predators that abuse children.
3. Create a “Call to Action”
At the conclusion of the video, you want to give viewers a call to action. What do you want them to do – SPECIFICALLY? Donate? Join your mailing list? Tell their friends? Enroll their kids? Learn more online? Get specific as you can about what ACTION you want them to take. Whatever it is, make sure it is clear at the end of your video.
4. Highlight your Nonprofit as the Hero of the Story
Your organization is out in the world solving a problem. The issue at hand can be compared to the VILLAIN, while your organization and the people in your video are the HEROES of the story. Think about the traditional storytelling technique of the hero and villain…they are opposed to each other, but tied to each other. Paint yourself as the courageous force committed to make your viewer’s life a better place.
5. Make your Videos Compelling to Specific Viewers
What will make your viewer want to watch this video? Why should they be invested in giving you their uninterrupted time? If you are a video production company, you know how important it is to make your videos compelling. By telling a story with good narration/interviews and beautiful videography, people will be more inclined to watch and also SHARE your video.
6. Make your Videos Short
No one likes to watch videos 10-15 minutes long anymore unless they are binging a Netflix series. Better to keep your videos to 2-3 minutes long so you leave the viewer wanting more rather than clicking off of it in the middle. If your videos’ main destination is social media, you might want to make them under 60 seconds. A good song and clean audio is also crucial to keeping up the pace of the video.
7. Create a Searchable Title for Google
Selecting a title is important. You want a title that can attract/catch the eyes of the viewer so they click on your video and hopefully watch the whole thing! You want to think about what keywords and hashtags people will be searching for on Google in order to optimize your organic search results. Make the title sizzle! Draw people to want to watch!
8. Share it on all Platforms: Website, YouTube, Social media, Press release
Make sure to post the video on all the different platforms you can. You’ll want to host it on your website, publish to YouTube in order to get Google search results, post on all social media channels, and pair with online press releases. When you publish your video on social media sites, you want to make sure it reaches as many people as possible. Once it’s posted, encourage your family and friends to share it with their network. Watch the ripple effect once people start passing it around…
9. Tag Partners and Influencers who you Want to Re-post and Co-promote
Influencer marketing is sometimes free, but you also might want to consider allocating budget for certain accounts to share/promote your content. You can identify influencers in your community and maybe pay them some small amount, or give them a “shout-out” if they share your video to their large following.
10. Create Small Social Media Advertising Budget(s) to Boost Post(s)
Utilizing social media ads to target your audience is a really good idea and it’s also pretty cost effective. Identify the people who would have keen interest in it and target them directly. You’d be surprised how specifically you can target your audience based on their demographics and interests. Watch a few videos recent online about video advertising on the platform of your choice.