A Guide to Website Storytelling

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You know what I’ve noticed after years of working on website design with non-profits? The organizations that really connect with people aren’t just sharing facts and figures – they’re telling stories that stick with you. Let me share what I’ve learned about turning your website into a storytelling powerhouse.

The Building Blocks of Stories That Work

Think about the last story that really moved you. I bet it had a clear beginning that pulled you in, a middle that kept you hooked, and an ending that made you want to take action. That’s exactly what your non-profit’s story needs:

  • Start with the challenge you’re tackling
  • Share how you’re making a difference
  • Show the real impact on real people

Here’s the thing: people don’t just want to know what you do – they want to feel connected to why you do it. Share stories that are genuine, that make people feel something, and that show the human side of your work.

Bringing Your Stories to Life Online

Let’s get practical about putting these stories on your website:

Make Room for Stories That Matter Create a dedicated space for the stories of people you’ve helped. These could be standalone features on your homepage or a whole section dedicated to success stories.

Show, Don’t Just Tell A quick video of someone sharing how your organization changed their life? That’s pure gold. Add some well-shot photos or even a photo essay that walks people through someone’s journey. If you’ve got compelling statistics, turn them into eye-catching infographics.

Visual Storytelling That Packs a Punch

Good visuals can make or break your story. Here’s what works:

  • High-quality photos that capture real moments
  • Before-and-after comparisons that show clear impact
  • Simple infographics that make your data digestible
  • Short videos that bring your mission to life

Pro tip: Don’t underestimate the power of simple animated videos to explain complex issues. Sometimes a 60-second animation can convey what paragraphs of text can’t.

Getting People to Take Action

Here’s something crucial I’ve learned: even the most powerful story falls flat if people don’t know what to do next. After you’ve moved someone with your story:

  • Make it crystal clear how they can help
  • Show exactly what their donation can achieve
  • Give them easy ways to share your story
  • Offer different ways to stay connected

Keeping the Story Going

Think of your website as an ongoing conversation. Keep adding new stories, fresh perspectives, and current impacts. Your work is evolving – your storytelling should too.

Remember: The best stories aren’t just heard – they’re felt. When someone visits your website, they should leave not just understanding what you do, but feeling inspired to be part of your mission.

Keep checking back for more insights on making your non-profit’s digital presence more impactful. Your mission matters, and your stories deserve to be told well.

The Role of AI in Modern Marketing

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way businesses approach marketing, offering powerful tools to enhance personalization, improve efficiency, and drive better results. For small businesses and non-profits, AI provides opportunities to compete with larger organizations by streamlining operations and delivering targeted campaigns. In this post, we’ll explore how artificial intelligence is shaping modern marketing and the ways it impacts business websites and internet presence.

How AI is Transforming Marketing

Personalization at Scale

AI enables businesses to analyze customer data and deliver personalized experiences at scale. From tailored email campaigns to product recommendations, artificial intelligence ensures that marketing efforts resonate with individual users.

Impact on Business Websites: AI-powered personalization can dynamically adjust website content based on user behavior, preferences, or demographics. This creates a more engaging customer experience, increasing time spent on the site and conversion rates.

AI-powered personalization process

Enhanced Customer Insights

AI tools can process vast amounts of data to uncover patterns and insights about customer behavior, preferences, and needs. This allows businesses to make informed decisions and refine their strategies.

Impact on Internet Presence: By understanding audience behavior, businesses can create more relevant content across digital platforms, improving engagement and visibility.

Transforming data into business insights

 

Chatbots for Customer Support

AI-driven chatbots provide instant responses to customer inquiries, improving user experience while reducing the workload on support teams.

Impact on Internet Presence: Integrating chatbots into websites enhances customer interaction by providing 24/7 support. This can lead to higher customer satisfaction and retention.

Content Creation and Optimization

AI can assist in generating content ideas, writing blog posts, or optimizing existing content for SEO. Tools like ChatGPT or Jasper.ai help marketers create high-quality content efficiently.

Impact on Internet Presence: AI-generated content improves the frequency and quality of updates on websites and social media platforms, boosting search engine rankings and audience engagement.

Predictive Analytics

AI uses historical data to predict future trends, enabling businesses to anticipate customer needs and market changes.

Impact on Business Websites: Predictive analytics can inform website design changes or promotional strategies based on anticipated user behavior.

Programmatic Advertising

AI automates the buying of digital ad space, targeting specific audiences with precision based on real-time data.

Impact on Internet Presence: Programmatic advertising ensures that ads reach the right audience at the right time, maximizing ROI and driving traffic to business websites.

Practical Applications of AI for Small Businesses and Non-Profits

  1. Email Marketing Automation: Use AI tools like Mailchimp or HubSpot to create personalized email campaigns based on user behavior.
  2. Social Media Management: Leverage AI-powered platforms like Hootsuite or Buffer for scheduling posts, analyzing performance metrics, and generating content ideas.
  3. SEO Optimization: Tools like SEMrush or Clearscope use AI to suggest keywords, optimize content structure, and improve rankings.
  4. Donor Engagement: Use AI-driven CRMs like Salesforce for Nonprofit Cloud to track donor interactions and tailor communication strategies.
  5. Fundraising Campaigns: Predictive analytics tools can identify potential donors based on past contributions or engagement patterns.

Potential Challenges Posed by Using AI in Marketing

While AI offers many benefits, it’s essential to address potential challenges:

  • Data Privacy Concerns: It is important to ensure compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR when collecting and using customer data.
  • Risk of Over-Automation: Too much automation and a company could risk losing its brand voice and identity.
  • Cost of Implementation: Some AI tools require a significant investment. Prioritize tools that align best with business goals.

Conclusion

AI is reshaping modern marketing by enabling businesses to deliver personalized experiences, gain valuable insights, and improve operational efficiency. For small businesses and non-profits, incorporating AI into their marketing strategies can enhance their online presence and help them compete effectively in an increasingly digital world.

By leveraging AI-powered tools for website optimization, content creation, customer support, and advertising, organizations can create a stronger connection with their audience while maximizing their impact. However, it’s crucial to implement these technologies thoughtfully to ensure they align with your mission and values while maintaining trust with your audience.

 

Top 10 Best Email Marketing Practices – 2023

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Top 10 Best Email Marketing Practices

Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to reach and engage customers. But with so many businesses competing for attention, it’s important to make sure your emails stand out. Here are the top 10 best email marketing practices:

  1. Use single column layouts. For a while, two-column layouts allowed for more content on a page, but they are hard to read, especially on mobile devices. A single column of content is easier to read, scroll through, and easier to make mobile friendly.
  2. Personalize content. The best newsletter senders are using what their subscribers click on to determine what content to serve in the next newsletter.
  3. Tease content. People don’t have the attention span to read long emails anymore. The best approach is to add no more than a paragraph of content and include a “read more” link to the full content on your website.
  4. Keep your emails short and sweet. Most people only scan their emails, so make sure yours are easy to read and understand.
  5. Create scroll magnets. Position the most popular content in the middle of the newsletter so that a viewer will be compelled to scroll down and get to the bottom of the newsletter.
  6. Differentiate your sender names. If you send different newsletters or different kinds of emails, make those differences clear in the sender name by using a from name extension. Blogs.oracle.com does a great job explaining this concept in more detail.
  7. Use a consistent design. This will help your emails look professional and polished.
  8. Test and track your results. Use email marketing software to track how many people open your emails, click on your links, and make purchases. This information will help you improve your future campaigns.
  9. Write descriptive subject lines. Nowadays, newsletter subject lines often include issue numbers and lists of topics. This makes them user-friendly and helps subscribers identify your newsletter and know what to expect when they open it.
  10. Borrow from B2C Email Designs. Newsletters are moving away from text-heavy content blocks. We are seeing bolder uses of color, more Google fonts, and streamlined copy to create less boxy and more artistic and interesting designs.

By following these best practices, you can create email marketing campaigns that are more interesting and subscriber-friendly, and engaging.

Email Newsletters – Best Practices in 2023

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Email marketing, like all forms of marketing and communications, is constantly evolving. What was a best practice in 2020 or even 2021 may not be a best practice when it comes to email marketing in 2023.

Email marketing is a great way to reach and engage with customers. It’s also a very cost-effective way to market your business. Here are some of the reasons why an organization should use email marketing:

  • Reach a large audience: Email marketing allows you to reach a large audience with your message. You can target your emails to specific demographics, interests, or even purchase history. This means that your emails are more likely to be opened and read by the people who are most interested in what you have to offer.
  • Build relationships: Email marketing is a great way to build relationships with your customers. When you send regular emails, you stay top-of-mind and you can keep your customers updated on your latest products, services, and promotions. This can help you to build trust and loyalty with your customers.
  • Increase sales: Email marketing can help you to increase sales. When you send targeted emails to people who are interested in what you have to offer, you’re more likely to get them to buy from you. You can also use email marketing to promote special offers and discounts, which can help you to increase sales.
  • Generate leads: Email marketing can help you to generate leads. When you send emails to people who are interested in what you have to offer, you can encourage them to sign up for your newsletter or to contact you for more information. This can help you to generate leads that you can nurture and convert into customers.
  • Track results: Email marketing is a very measurable marketing channel. You can track how many people open your emails, click on your links, and make purchases. This information can help you to optimize your email marketing campaigns and get better results.

Overall, email marketing is a great way to reach, engage, and convert customers. It’s a cost-effective and measurable marketing channel that can help you to grow your business.

Email Newsletters – Best Practices in 2023

Here are some additional tips for creating effective email marketing campaigns:

  • Segment your list: Segment your list by demographics, interests, or purchase history so that you can send more relevant and targeted emails.
  • Personalize your emails: Use the subscriber’s name and other personal information in your emails to make them feel more like a conversation and less like a sales pitch.
  • Keep your emails short and sweet: Most people only scan their emails, so make sure yours are easy to read and understand.
  • Use clear and concise calls to action: Tell your subscribers what you want them to do, whether it’s clicking on a link, making a purchase, or signing up for a newsletter.
  • Use high-quality images and videos: Images and videos can help to break up your text and make your emails more visually appealing.
  • Use a consistent design: This will help your emails look professional and polished.
  • Test and track your results: Use email marketing software to track how many people open your emails, click on your links, and make purchases. This information will help you improve your future campaigns.
  • Avoid spammy practices: This includes using all caps, exclamation points, or excessive punctuation. It also includes sending too many emails or sending emails to people who haven’t opted in.

Email Marketing Best Practice

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Blogging and email marketing are two channels that aren’t always automatically used together – but they should be. If your goal is to grow your blog and your audience, it’s important to follow email marketing best practices and use your email database in a smart way. This can literally be the difference between success and stagnation.

Regardless of the blog’s focus, the administrative challenges tend to be the same:

  • How do I get people to come back for more content?
  • How do I encourage reader loyalty among my visitors?
  • How do I get my blog to the point in which I can monetize it?

Practically everyone has at least one email account. Email marketing a great way to stay in touch with your readers AND effectively drive traffic back to your blog.

Email Marketing Best Practice

Your blog will benefit from having readers who keep coming back to read it. Email marketing has the potential to get people to click on your links and return to your platform. But email marketing is not without its tricks and secrets. Follow these email marketing best practices and your blog will grow.

Dedicate time to your subject line

The subject line is the only hook you have to make people open your email. Many email marketing professionals claim that the subject line is even more important than the very content your email delivers. It’s easy to see the reasoning behind the claim: what good is it great content if people never open your emails?

You can make your subject more attractive by customizing it so that each recipient sees their own name in the subject. This has a large impact on your opening rate and will catch people’s eye when scrolling through their inbox. Make sure you don’t make your subject too long and remember how frequently you check your email from your phone – while computer users usually have about 50 characters to display the subject line in their inbox, smartphones have less.

Make your emails an extension of your online identity or blog

Your email campaigns need to have a design that will clearly remind recipients of your blog. Most email marketing tools offer a set of templates which are ready to use – but it’s up to you to change and modify the visuals until your email is closely related to the look of your business or blog.

Segment and customize

People don’t want emails that aren’t personalized. Each email needs to address and speak directly to the reader. This is impossible without a professional email marketing solution. Before you go customizing emails, you’ll need a very well organized database or contact list. Remember that the form you use to have people subscribe needs to ask for certain information depending on where you want to take your email marketing. Names and surnames are just as necessary as email addresses – but other data like birthdays, gender, and profession can be of great help too.

Think about email marketing best practice and your blog will grow.

Email Drip Campaigns: Marketing Automation

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If you’ve purchased anything online, chances are very high that you’ve received email drip campaigns. Email drip campaigns are series of emails that are sent in a pre-defined order at a pre-defined interval. Each email is a standalone unit that is connected to emails sent before and after. Email drip campaigns are the core of marketing automation and can be used to increase engagement, retain customers, close deals with new prospects, and onboard new clients.

With many low-cost marketing automation solutions now available, non-profit organizations and small business can also begin to set up email drip campaigns and marketing automation.

Here are a few types of email drip campaign examples to help you get started.

1. Welcome Series for Prospects

When someone opts into your email list or subscribes to your newsletter or blog, this is your chance to make a great first impression. They are not yet customers but they are interested in what you have to say and are on the path to becoming customers. We suggest including these three emails, in this order:

Email 1: The initial welcome note: This should just be a friendly greeting, welcoming them on board. You can use this opportunity to offer them a discount, coupon, or another offer. But don’t try to sell them anything yet. And don’t overload this email with information.

Email 2: Where to look for information: This email explains how to connect with you – on social media, by email, telephone, or any other contact method you offer. Encourage them to reach out and assure that you are always available to help.

Email 3: Getting to know them: You can ask them to tell you about themselves so you can better serve them. Ask for some information that’s helpful in your email marketing segmentation. This will help you gain insight into likes and dislikes and interests so you can better communicate to them in the future.

2. Onboarding Drip

When someone becomes a customer or client, you can plan a series of emails to make sure they are successful in using your product and stay satisfied. Here is an email drip campaign template for an onboarding drip:

Email 1: Welcome email: Use this email to simply welcome them as new customers and ask them to reach out with questions.

Email 2: Offer training and user guides: Point them towards any online training videos you offer, user guides, your knowledge base, FAQs, or any other information that’s helpful to new customers.

Email 3: Direct them to your blog, best practices, or eBooks: This could also be any content that is designed to educate new clients on industry trends. This shows that you are invested in their success.

3. Customer Retention Drip

This email drip campaign can trigger when someone displays behaviors that indicate they may leave, such as when a customer goes silent and doesn’t respond to your outreach, or unsubscribes from your email list. We recommend sending just one or two emails for this drip since you don’t want to hassle a potentially unhappy customer. The specifics of those emails depends on the action taken and your business model.  That said, here are two suggestions:

  • Offering a discount, promotion, or some type of freebie
  • Ask them to complete a survey to let you know what you can do to serve them better

If you have problems with customer retention, check out our informative post on keeping customer trust and building loyalty.

4. Renewal Drip

If your business is subscription-based or you have a non-profit and rely on annual dues, it helps to have email drip campaigns to increase renewals. The goal here is to remind existing subscribers to renew their subscriptions. We suggest three mails in this order:

Email 1: Initial Reminder: Send this email out at 3-4 weeks before their renewal date. Make it friendly – you’re writing to make sure they don’t miss their renewal because you’d hate for them to have their service interrupted.

Email 2: Two or Three Day Reminder: Now you can adopt a slightly more urgent tone because you’ll send it when there are just a few days left before their subscription expires. You should also take the opportunity here to remind them why your product or service or organization is so great.

Email 3: Overdue Notice: It’s a good idea to have a grace period. Do not immediately cancel a customer’s subscription the minute it expires. Build in a period of a week or a few days. You can let them know about this as well, by telling them you didn’t want to cut off their service so you gave them a few extra days in case they missed the deadline accidentally. Send this email two or three days after the expiration date and give them a few additional days to take action after the email is sent.

Conclusion

If you’re not currently using email drip campaigns and marketing automation, now is the time to start. The email drip campaign examples here should just be used as a starting point. It’s important to customize these for your own audience and product or service.

How to Use Long Tail Keywords in Headlines

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According to Worldometers, every day we are inundated with more than 2 million blog posts and 200 billion emails. No matter what you are writing – blog posts, emails, online ads, or anything else – the headline is a crucial element. How do you get people to stop and read what you write when there’s so much competing content? If you get the headline right, you will probably be positioned at the top of the search results pages. A truly great headline might even prompt people to respond and share your article. Keyword-rich headlines will improve your website rankings and increase engagement with your audience. Your target audience is looking for blog posts that will solve their problems and address the keywords they typed into Google’s search box.

Follow this 3-Step Process for Using Long Tail Keywords in Your Headlines

First Step: Research and choose long-tail search terms.

Let’s stay with Google AdWords Keywords Planner for our example.

On the dashboard, type in your main keyword phrase (e.g., start small business) and click the “Get Ideas” button.

You can see the long-tail keywords that we’ll integrate into our blog post headlines:

starting a small business checklist
best small business to start
steps to starting a small business
help starting a small business

Second step: Model popular and viral headlines.

You can’t just pick long-tail key phrases. You also have to identify viral content specific to your industry, learn from it, and then improve upon it.

When you find headlines that have been shared thousands of times on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., it means that you can get great results, too. All you have to do is study them and incorporate the underlying strategies into your own content.

How do you find these viral blog post headlines?

Visit BuzzSumo, input your main keyword (i.e., start small business), and click the “search” button.

The two viral headlines are:

5 Simple Ways to Start a Small Business ~ 102,658 Facebook shares
6 Things I Wish Somebody Had Told Me When I Started My Small Business

Third step: Create your headlines using the viral headlines as a model:

Original Headline: 5 Simple Ways to Start a Small Business

Keyword phrase to integrate: steps to starting a small business

Unique and keyword-rich blog post headline based on the model:

7 Steps to Starting a Small Business and Growing It
3 Simple Steps to Start a Small Business That You’ll Love

When I find a headline that makes me click, I’ll copy it, study it, and create a unique and better one.

How to use Calls to Actions Effectively in Email Marketing

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5 tips to use Calls To Action (CTAs) effectively in your email marketing

Here are five tips to use Calls To Action (CTAs) effectively in your next email campaign.

1. Number of calls to action

How many calls to action should you have in one email? It might seem like more CTAs give subscribers more options, which means increased engagement with your brand. But that’s not always how it works.

If your email has too many calls to action, subscribers can get overwhelmed. Make the choice simple by providing one call to action and if you must have more than that, give your secondary CTA a different weight by making it a different color or placement.

2. Calls to action placement

Where’s the best place to put a call to action? There’s a lot of debate on this one. Some email marketing experts say your call to action should be “above the fold,” which means subscribers should see the call to action without scrolling down. Others say placing the call to action at the bottom of an email makes the most sense.

They’re both right. To figure out which one is right for your email, use common sense. If a subscriber can quickly understand the purpose of your email, placing a call to action above the fold makes sense. However, if your offer requires some explanation, put the call to action at the end of the email.

In the example below from Birchbox, the call to action is placed at the end of the email because the offer requires some explanation:

3. Call to action design

Your call to action should stand out. That means you should make a few design decisions that encourage subscribers to click. Here’s a list to consider:

Create a button

You can still include hyperlinked text in your message, but don’t use it as the sole call to action. Create a call to action button. Using a button rather than a hyperlink can increase conversion rates by as much as 28%.

Pick a unique color

Make the email call to action a color that’s not used, or rarely used, in your email so it stands out. Take a look at the email from De Beers. Notice the light blue color used for the call to action.

Size matters

Make sure the button looks right size-wise in your email. Preview your email after it’s designed to make sure the call to action fits with your overall presentation.

Use white space to your advantage

Don’t feel the need to clutter the area around your call to action, leaving white space near it draws the eye. Take a look at the white space around the “Register Now” call to action used in an email by SXSW:

4. Call to action copy

Don’t underestimate the importance of word choice in your call to action. The words in your call to action provide the necessary direction for subscribers to follow through with an action. Use these tips to get your wording right:

Use action-inducing words

You want subscribers to act fast, so make sure your word choice reflects that. Use action words like “shop,” “book,” and “order.” Tack on an urgent word to encourage instant action like “now” or “today.” Consult this great list of 80+ marketing words for more choices to use in your email marketing campaigns.

Keep it short

Your call to action should be short and to the point. Notice that most of the call to actions in our master list above are about 2-4 words long. That’s what you should aim for.

Be relatable

More and more calls to action contain “I” or “me” in the copy. You’ll notice several examples in our list like, “Yes! I want a free upgrade” or “Count me in!” Using language like this makes a call to action more relatable and encourages subscribers to click.

5. Test your CTA

A small change in your call to action can make a big difference. You might not expect higher click-through rates as a result of moving your call to action above the fold, or changing the color, but it happens all the time. That’s why testing is important.

You can test every aspect of your call to action. From placement to copy, you can test various aspects and let your audience’s response decide what’s best.

Of course, you only want to test one thing at a time or you won’t know which change makes a difference. For example, if you want to test call to action copy, one group of subscribers gets an email with “Shop Now” as the call to action copy and the other group gets an email with “Shop our Spring Collection” as the call to action copy. The test focuses on one thing: the text. Use the data to make the best choice.

Collect and Send Emails for Free

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Collect and Send Emails for Free

Email Marketing Best Practices

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Email marketing is a great way to reach your customers, clients, constituents, or prospects. But are you doing it effectively? Are your emails standing out in an already saturated inbox? Are they even making their way to an inbox? Current email marketing best practices confirm that engaging readers by asking questions, using short subject lines, and making sure your email design works on mobile devices, leads to higher open rates and keeps you and your message from being ignored.

Would you believe that more than 122 Billion emails are sent each hour, worldwide? B2B open rates are 11 to 15% and click through rates are 2.1% to 5%. Make sure your email stands out!

Top Ten Best Practices for Email Marketing

Subject Lines – General

1. Punctuation is unnecessary.

2. Use Capital Letters to Increase Engagement

Example: The Top 5 Reasons To Open This Email

Subject Lines – Details

3. Personalization increases open rates.

Users are 22% more likely to open an email when addressed by first name.

4. Keep the character count to a minimum.

Mailchimp suggests 50 characters or less.

Content Tips

5. Don’t sound like a salesman. Drop the jargon and use clear wording.

6. Focus your message to meet the promise of your subject line. Less is obviously more.

Be Creative / Call To Action

7. Our experience shows that questions spike reader interest and encourage clicks.

8. Colors are important.

Orange and red are the best colors for call to action buttons. Make sure to place buttons at the very beginning and also end of your email.

Testing

9. A/B Testing is critical to constantly improving email marketing campaign performance. Some approaches work better than others.

Be sure to conduct your tests with a sizable audience to ensure statistical significance.

Mobile

10. Responsive Design. Make sure your email looks great on phones and all devices.