How Non-Profits Can Expand their Fundraising Efforts for Free

Does Google own the entire internet? Some people I know would say "yes".  No matter what you think of Google here is something every non-profit needs to know. If you have or are involved with a non-profit Google will give you $10,000 per month of free advertising!  It could go up as high as $30,000. To be eligible, you must be a 501(3) C.

Google Ad Grants is the nonprofit edition of AdWords, Google's online advertising tool. According to Google, the grants empower "nonprofit organizations, through $10,000 per month in in-kind AdWords™ advertising, to promote their missions and initiatives on Google search result pages." 

It's HUGE! It means you can get FREE advertising about your non-profit anywhere on the internet that Google owns "space".  And where is that? (Yeah, you can say they own the internet).

Why would you want to do advertising?  Besides promoting your mission and initiatives, you can also push people to your website where people can donate to your organization.  With Google Ads you can target your audience by demographics so that you get in front of the exact people that you want and need.

So, what is the catch?  You have to manage the first $10,000 ($329 per day) really well. If you can prove you have good management of the tool, you will be eligible to expand your grant.  In other words, you have to know how to use AdWords and understand the process of cost per click advertising. 

• A $2.00 maximum cost-per-click (CPC)
• Only run keyword-targeted campaigns
• Only appear on Google search result pages
• Only run text ads

That might be tricky for most non-profits that don't have a full time person who can manage this for them.  A good social media manager with Google experience or certification can help you with it.  Or just drop me an email with Google Grants in the subject line and I can assist you.

To find out more, just Google “Google Adwords Grants for Non-profits”.  They provide a handy downloadable guide to assist you.

If you want to get the free report "The 7 Worst Marketing Mistakes You Can Make (and how to avoid them)" join our VIP Marketing Academy at www.fluidcommunictions.net and get free marketing tips, information and insights. 

Also join us on Facebook at facebook.com/fluidcomm and @vipmrkting on Twitter. Karen Williams is president of Fluid Communications, a marketing communications company in Northwest Indiana.

Online Business Can Be a Boom for Baby Boomers

I've spent the past eight months researching and creating an online business.

I was downsized two years ago. But as a person over 50 I wasn't eager to go through the stress of interviews and starting all over again. So, I began to ponder alternative ways that I could work and earn money.

I turned to investigating online businesses. As a marketing communications professional online business was a very interesting concept. I threw myself into an eight-month immersion session and learned as much as I could about the process, the people who were making it work, and the potential for success.

What I learned was there are many people who are selling products, their skills, and their experience online and making a living doing it. I came to the conclusion that many Baby Boomers, like me, would benefit greatly from creating their own online business. Whether they are unemployed or not, an online business could serve them well in the future.

According to Pew Research "roughly 10,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 every day, and about 10,000 more will cross that threshold every day for the next 19 years."

That's a huge population of seniors. But these seniors aren't like the ones in the past. They are more educated, physically active and in better health. That means they will be living longer than their parents. They will need to have a substantial retirement nest egg to live a good quality of life. So, after thorough research, I created Prime Life Academy to help other Baby Boomers.

Unfortunately, during the past recession, many of them lost a substantial portion of their investments, lost their jobs or were forced to take early retirement. Some had to tap into any savings that they had. Many of them are already planning to keep working past retirement. 

The benefits of creating an online business: 

• Work from home. (Yes, in your pajamas.)
• Option to start before retirement. You don't have to start after retirement. 
• There is a low cost of entry. Your costs include your computer, printer, some office supplies and a few online courses. Not a building or office.
• There is an active group of people doing the same thing you are doing.

Authors, personal coaches, teachers, retailers, pastors, plumbers, anyone that has a product or skill can create an online business. Your offering can take the form(s) of a physical product, webinars, e-books, audio/video modules or e-courses. Some online businesses branch into offering workshops and seminars based on their online activities. 

Consider it and check out Prime Life Academy.

Prime Life Academy helps Baby boomers create success and freedom through the power of entrepreneurship. We give you all the tools you need to find ways to take action on creating a business to supplement your income well into retirement doing what you love, all while becoming happier and more fulfilled. 

How to Make Your Marketing Sexy

    

                     

I did an article on how marketers have really left the idea of the marketing plan out of the messages that they have been sending these days.  All the techniques such as SEO, digital marketing, social media and even blogging are just pieces to the marketing plan.  But the marketing plan is not as "sexy" as all these topics.  Just read "How to Make Sure Your Marketing is Really Sexy".

By the way, if you join the VIP Marketing Academy within the next two weeks, you will get a bonus gift of which is yet to be named.  Check back here and find out what it is.

Advertisers already know who you are

I was listening to National Public Radio (NPR) the other day.  They were interviewing a marketing professional who was talking about how in three or four years advertisers will be able to target their ads to individual homes while you watch TV.  That means that if my friend and I are looking at the same show (and we live in the same TV market), I will see one ad on my TV and she will see another on her TV based on the demographic data that has been collected on us by perhaps our cable provider.

I wasn't too amazed as that can be done on the internet right now. If you have ever been on the internet (and how many people haven't?) you know that certain advertising is following you.  Those ads have been targeted to you based on demographics, your internet habits and other things that the internet gods have determined.  Then they continue to follow you (re-marketing).

Until last year this type of "hyper" targeting was only available to Fortune 500 companies, who have been doing this for several years.  Everyone knows that advertising on the internet is very beneficial. But limiting small businesses to a paid link at the top of a search page is, well, limiting.


Jump Six, a company in Missouri, was one of the first to provide hyper targeting for smaller businesses with display digital advertising (just like in a newspaper or magazine) and place it on the internet.  It provides a way for advertisers to also gather leads through the system.

Jump Six purchases this valuable real estate on hundreds of sites and then places its clients on sites like national cable news station sites, sports, national blogs and others.  These sites sell national ads and also reserve regional and local space for smaller advertisers.  Just like TV.

If you want to go world-wide or national you can, but most of their clients hyper target people regionally or in certain cities and even zip codes along with other demographics.  Generally, you can buy as few as 50,000 impressions.  Advertisers can change their demographics or increase the impressions whenever they like or need to throughout the campaign length.  Jump Six provides detailed analytics of the campaigns so that advertisers always know how well they are doing.

With this type of hyper targeting, digital advertisers will be able to get a handle on their budgets, better target their products and services, and get a road map for future marketing endeavors.

Thanks to technology, you too can reach out and touch someone (everything old is new again).

Joint venturing to expand business

I got married last week -- to two guys.  It was strictly business.

It is to two associates of mine who own a successful website development company. They are quite successful at their business but what I noticed was they were just a website development company. The construction guys. They knew all about web design, algorithms and analytics -- all the things to make the site function properly.

I explained to them how I felt they were missing a huge marketing opportunity.  So, I asked them how they were marketing to keep customers coming back once they created a website. They both looked at me rather blankly. Other than hosting fees and the occasional updates their clients decided on, not much. They were always seeking new business.  And we all know that getting new business costs more than keeping business.

I explained to them the opportunity for marketing their own website business was to expand into content development.  They needed to develop content for their clients -- for the websites they built, digital advertising campaigns, downloadable e-books, etc. They also had an opportunity to show clients how offering those pieces on websites can increase web traffic.

"You see," I began, "you can create your own additional line of business. Also by creating your own e-newsletter that you send talking about the need to update websites, how to create mobile advertising, using video, etc... you keep your clients engaged with you.  You can also become the only source they need for their digital marketing."

I saw the light bulb go on.  "Oh," they said in unison.  My proposal had worked.  Since I do content and digital advertising "we" thought a partnership would be great.  In the business world it is called a joint venture.

So, the newsletter I developed for their over 300 clients that talked about our joint venture went out last week.  It provided information I created on how websites need to continue to be updated and how video on websites can drive more traffic. The newsletter worked.  They got two clients to call immediately (clients they had for over 10 years) to talk about updating their sites and perhaps adding video.

Beyond the content I provide for my new "partners",  I also am getting exposure for other services I provide to the 300 clients they have.  I embed my affiliate links in the e-newsletter, my own downloadable content and other opportunities to generate revenue for my business as well -- along with creating the content for his clients.

Soon, I am sure we will have more clients -- you can call them our children -- who will need all types of content.

What Is Your Branding Trying To Say?

I was out the other day and decided to stop into a new bakery that opened in my neighborhood.  I was particularly excited for the young owner.  I met her a couple of months ago at an event.  She was very enthusiastic about her business. So, when I went in to her shop I expected to see a lot of strong branding.

What I encountered was a drab offering.  Not only did she not have enough product( a few cupcakes and about a dozen cookies) but the furniture in the store looked like she had gotten it from someone's basement. There was no color on the walls, her logo was only on the window glass that faced to the street, and she had run out of business cards.  Her bakery cases had no decorations inside to entice me to buy. There was little that would make me want to return. There was no brand identity at all.  Or should I say her brand identity was not good.

A UCLA study proves that 85% of all decisions are made with our eyes. That's right: the visual you have has the most impact.  And particularly food needs to be appealing.  In a sense, you need to strongly brand your products or services.

I think there are three basic branding categories that business owners have to think about:

• Marketing materials -- brochures, business cards, website 
• Business decor -- wall colors, furniture, interior design
• The way employees look and present themselves -- uniforms, identifiers, customer service 

What do you want customers to think about you? What image of your company do you want to put out there? That is your brand -- good or bad.

If your brand is not professional and congruent, attractive and attracting you will be passed over - guaranteed. To be competitive, to have a greater influence on others, to attract more business and be more successful it's essential that you develop a well-thought-out  brand.

The Six Pitfalls of Starting a Business

So, you think you are an entrepreneur.

I have come across so many "entrepreneurs" who claim to be ready to start their business but when you tell them what it will require they balk at doing what is needed.

I tend to think of these people as over enthusiastic "hobbyists" and they end up spending a lot of money on useless tools with no return on their investment.  Of course, I realize that YOU are not one of them.  But let's look at some of the signs, shall we:

1. Have not determined what the product or service niche market is for their product or service. They are convinced that somebody will like what they are doing or selling, after all they do.  And there has been no evaluation of their competition.

2.  Didn't invest in a website because they don't understand how it works or just thinks it's a waste of time. OR...they get someone who doesn't know how to build websites to build theirs.

3.  They spend money on an office and letterhead, but won't think about using money to develop marketing materials or business processes.

4.  Won't network to get their name out there (which by the way is free).

5.  Won't spend time or won't ask how to use social media. This goes back to marketing, but I had to say it again since so many people get hung up on this.

6.  Won't seek out credible organizations that can provide information to help them get going.

So, if you are an entrepreneur, you have to develop a plan, follow the plan and evaluate the plan.  You also have to have resources that will help you along the way.  Get to know your business, product and service.  Then RESEARCH what others are doing and have done to get their business going.

WARNING: As an entrepreneur myself I can tell you, don't buy anything until you have researched the product or how it works.  I spent quite a few dollars on some things that were useless or did not provide what they said.

Here's a FREE resource. So click here for a free download of my Media Buying Guide.