A Tale of an Unknown Senior Citizen’s Journey to Nonprofit Membership

Remember Frida Kahlor, the sweet old lady who loves art and moved from her hometown of Racine, Wis., to San Diego to be near family? If you’re not familiar with her story, read about it here—it’s very informative and amusing!

If you’re pressed for time, here’s a summary:

Kahlor wanted to find an art museum to visit in her new hometown. She located one before she even moved. After the move, Kahlor visited the museum and fell in love with it. As a result, she became a member and renewed her membership every year. She also became a donor.

How did the art museum achieve this success? More importantly, how can you get your nonprofit to do the same?

The secret is inbound marketing

Perhaps you’ve heard of inbound marketing. If not, think of it as the opposite of traditional outbound marketing, whereby marketers come to leads via advertising, telemarketing, direct mail, etc. Inbound marketing, on the other hand, uses digital techniques and messaging to bring leads to you.

The inbound marketing process involves four phases. We’re going to follow Kahlor on her hypothetical journey through those phases. Let’s go! 

Phase 1: Attract ‘em

Kahlor started her journey with a Google search for art museums in San Diego. One of the museums that ranked highest in her search—meaning it was listed near the top of the search results—was the Art Museum of San Diego (AMSD). Since it was listed prominently, Kahlor clicked on it. The AMSD was ranked high because it had better search engine optimization than its competitors. Search engine optimization is critically important because it gives your website visibility when people use certain key words.

Other techniques to attract leads:

• Remember to be keenly aware of your audience so you can create messaging that stirs their interests.
• A social media presence is a must—but you already knew that.
• Your blog, assuming you have one, can also help attract leads, especially if it is search engine optimized. 
• Include social media links in your blog pages.

Phase 2: Convert ‘em

Now that you’ve attracted leads, you need to convert them into known prospects. That means you need to get names, email addresses and any other contact and biographical information you can obtain. After all, you can’t develop a sustainable relationship without communication.

There are many ways to accomplish this. In the case of Kahlor, the AMSD offered half-off admission to attend a lecture, but to get the deal she had to fill out an online registration form that collected her contact information. And as simple as that, Kahlor was converted from an anonymous visitor to a known prospect.

There is no one-size-fits all approach to this. The nature of your nonprofit will determine the techniques that will work best for your organization. 

Other techniques to convert anonymous leads:

• Entice people to fill out a registration form in exchange for access to a white paper, e-book, case study a newsletter or some other type of helpful and interesting content.
• A compelling testimonial can lure a visitor to register with your website so they, too, can have a positive experience like the person who gave the testimonial. 
• Consider using good old-fashioned print-registration forms.

Remember: Know your audience. The more you know about their wants and needs, the better you’ll be able to develop creative ways to snag their contact information.

Phase 3: Close ‘em

This is the hardest part—turning your prospects into members and donors. Again, the key here is to develop communications tailored to their needs and interests. Email will be the go-to tool to accomplish this in most cases, but Google Ads (Pay Per Click) is also a very powerful tool.

Let’s revisit Kahlor’s journey. As you may recall, the AMSD used cookies to track her path through the website. In doing so, they were able to discover what her interests were, and then followed up with communications tailored to her interests.

There are many other techniques you can use for the closing process, which are discussed in greater detail here. 

Phase 4: Delight ‘em

So, let’s say you’ve been closing more leads and boosting your membership numbers. Give yourself a pat on the back. But don’t rest on your laurels just yet—you still have more work to do. Namely, you need to sustain the relationship with your members, get them to be promoters of your nonprofit and its mission, and maybe even turn them into donors.

Let’s take one last look at Kahlor’s experience to see how the AMSD accomplished this.

After she became a member, Kahlor’s connection to the museum grew stronger because the museum continued to send her personalized communications, and event invitations targeted at her demographic.

Every couple of years she received surveys from the museum; thus, the museum was able to calibrate their communications to appeal to her evolving interests. The surveys also made Kahlor feel valued, since her opinions mattered to the museum. As a result of all of these efforts and the concomitant trust that was built, Kahlor boosted her support by becoming a donor.

As you can see, communication is the key. We didn’t mention social media because Ms. Kahlor doesn’t use it much (although she’s dabbled with Facebook and Pinterest a little). But Twitter befuddled her.  As she’s told her daughter numerous times: “I don’t understand what this Tweeter thing is all about.”

However, the vast majority of your audience probably uses social media, so you’ll also need to stay on top of it to keep track of what your audience cares about. 

Conclusion

Now you understand the power of inbound marketing. It takes time and effort. It takes creativity. It requires using automated marketing, search engine optimization, and more. But the results are worth the effort.

Tags: membership, nonprofits