What is lead generation for nonprofits?
Lead generation for nonprofits is the process to identify and nurture potential supporters that might be interested in knowing more about you and your cause but not ready to take a tangible action such as signing up to be a volunteer or donate.
Think of it as the first step into getting to know you. Swapping numbers before a first date, so to say.
Why is lead generation important for Non-profits in the first place?
Although much more traditional in the commercial B2B and B2C sectors, nonprofit lead generation should be a vital tactic in every organisation’s marketing and fundraising toolbelt.
- Leads are traditionally measured in data, email and telephone numbers collected. YOUR data. Data YOU own, and you can ALWAYS -as long as there’s consent- use that data freely to communicate, educate and inspire your audience. Notice the difference with your social media followers, where the real owner is the platform itself, leaving you at their mercy of their content distribution policies.
- Lead generation offers a low impact way to engage with your website visitors. 99% of visitors to your website will leave without ever taking a meaningful action. This is you offering info and value for nothing in return.
- Lead generation is a first easy, non-committal step into your conversion funnel. Once signed up, your lead has given you permission to be educated, nurtured and loved. Do it well, and you will be able to generate not just volunteers or donors, but super ambassadors for your organisation!
Facebook Lead Generation
Let’s be clear: Facebook lead generation doesn’t mean getting more people to like your page. At an average organic reach of only 5.5%, the reality is that this will hardly make a tangible difference in daily communications.
Instead, the idea is leveraging Facebook insanely targeting possibilities with the very specific Facebook lead ads format to acquire signups for information, campaigns or events through paid campaigns.
Combine this with direct integration to most email service providers, and you could build an acquisition machine that generates leads and introduces them to an automated series of informative, engaging and inspiring communications explaining the impact and need of your organisation.
What’s so special about Facebook lead ads?
What makes Facebook lead ads different to any other is that it integrates a signup form directly on the ad, where the only call to action is to actually subscribe. The obvious benefit is that the user never has to click away and leave the platform, reducing drop-offs. With Facebook pre populating fields such as name, email or telephone, the friction is reduced to the minimum, simplifying the action for the user and enhancing conversion rates.
To top it off, as with any other campaign types on Facebook you can actually assign a maximum bid for a lead. This means you can decide how much a lead is worth to your organisation and
Hold on, so you have to pay for Facebook?
Absolutely, yes.
Optimise Facebook Lead Ads for Nonprofits
Having a clear strategy in place is absolutely key to maximise the return of your leads.
- Step 1: Define what the ultimate objective is, and how you will measure it. By this we don’t mean getting leads, but rather what do you want those leads to do. Do you need to increase your volunteer workforce? Do you need more donors? Set clear and SMART objectives, so you can always measure the outcome (ex more income), and not just the output (more leads).
- Step 2: Define your audience. Understand who your audience or audiences might be and how you will find them on Facebook.
- Step 3: Define your communication funnel. This is absolutely KEY. What happens onc you acquire the donor? How many times will you contact them, through which channels, and with which information, until your contact is primed and ready to receive your ask?
- Step 4: Automatise what you can. Marketing automation is the key to ensure you will be able to manage a potentially high volume of leads and provide them with supporter centric information, right when it makes sense for them, not for you. This will skyrocket the effectiveness of your campaigns while reducing drastically the management time for you and your team.
- Step 5: Create and launch your campaign in Facebook. Find your audience, upload your creative variations, create the sign up form and get ready to push the Live button!
- Step 6: Measure and optimise. The real magic in digital communications comes through the evolution of your campaign. Make sure you have allocated the right time and resources to manage your campaign throughout the process, including reporting, creative reviews and bid management on a weekly basis.
It sounds great, but I need help
Don’t worry, we got you covered.
We have generated tens of thousands of leads over the last 18 months for organisations across the world and can take you through the process or manage it for you.
Sign up here for a free one-hour consultancy with one of our directors to see how we can help power up your mission.