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.

How to get to your niche market through digital advertising

When it comes to niche marketing many people don't really take the time to understand the importance of researching and narrowing down their target market.  They just throw advertising dollars at the next "new" thing, hoping they will hit their niche.

A niche market is a specific group of people that share something in common. In the business world they are the groups of consumers that you should be focusing on because they are the ones that will most likely purchase your product or service. They are referred to as your target market.

When I was growing up, we had three television channels.  So, if you wanted to advertise on TV, you had to be on one of those channels.  It was called mass marketing.  But very few people subscribe to mass marketing these days because we have so many options to place advertising. We have cable TV -- with it's defined audiences -- radio, various print vehicles, and of course the internet.  

So how do you reach your market?  Well, as you know, more and more people are on the internet.  So, wouldn't you like to be on the internet?  That means that you can actually find the people more likely to purchase your service or product.  How? You can actually target your customers WHEN they are ready to buy. 

By using keywords your ad can pop up when people are searching for a product or service like yours.  Based on keywords, ads are placed on websites, blogs, or other niche websites your market is viewing. 

This year Google opened up display advertising real estate for small businesses. Before this, only Fortune 500 companies could develop display campaigns and place on sites like national news, entertainment, and blogs as well as heavily trafficked local sites.   Wouldn't it be great if your potential customer was on the ESPN site and your pizza parlor showed up on the site?  And because it is targeted to your geographic area, you don't waste money advertising to someone out of your marketing area.

Advanced targeting options like “remarketing” can bring interested prospects back to your website, increase conversions and profit, keeps your business top-of-mind and help these interested prospects complete a transaction.

Remarketing is the process of your ad “following” the person throughout the internet.  This technique boosts conversions by 48 – 50% or more. You are probably familiar with this.  Have you ever been to a shopping site online and then every time you go to another site you see the same product or a product “you might like” on a totally unrelated site?  That’s re-marketing.

This type of advertising can be tracked for effectiveness as well.  Google makes it so simple to track your conversions and sales all the way back to every keyword in your campaign. 

Create a dynamic online video with little or no money

Over the last five years, technology has made it very easy for entrepreneurs and small businesses to decrease the cost of  marketing their products and services. This is especially true about video. Now, with a little creativity and a few quick clicks of the mouse, you can create a  professional looking video that can be used in many venues and in many media outlets. Here are a few of my favorites:

Animoto 
Animoto is a subscription-based service The number of templates you can use is based on your basic or pro subscription. It's the easiest of the three programs listed here.  All you have to do is upload your favorite photographs.  The templates weave your photos through backgrounds -- from seasonal, romantic, business and techno.  There is a pretty extensive music library that you can use.  Or you can upload your own music.

Goanimate
Goanimate creates some really cool animated videos. It comes with ready-made templates or you can create your video from scratch. The program has a diverse number of characters. So many programs don't offer as many character options. A variety of backgrounds and extra "props" are also available to spice up the visual appeal.  It's a great program for a designer or marketing professional.

VideoMakerFX
I've done several videos using VideoMakerFX.  I have one on my website  It too, provides a sampling of templates but in animated slide presentation form.  Very limited on characters (although they will be adding more in the coming months), but you can mix and match slide templates, move them and re-color backgrounds and text. Much more fun than PowerPoint or Prezi.

Unlike the other two programs, no subscription is necessary -- just a one time very reasonable yearly fee that you can upgrade.  It only takes about an hour to learn and create a video.

While a good visual image always attracts attention, you still need to communicate to your niche with message development and good copywriting.  The combination of strong visuals and clear messaging will make your video awesome!

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My niche marketing video

I have been sending out some niche marketing tips to my mailing list over the last week or so.  But I have also been tweaking my social media sites, editing my landing page for my website and creating a fan page for Facebook when I realized that it IS overwhelming.  I know I have said it to you before -- in fact my website says it, but for those of you who don't like doing this type of stuff, I'm sorry.  Advertising, messaging, content creation is changing daily.  It is hard to keep up for people who make their living doing this type of work so I know it is hard for you.

I'll be coming out with some new downloads for you.  I hope they will help you get to where you need to go.  (And yes, I know the screen capture makes me look a little weird)

Take a look at my video where I have come to a conclusion about my business.  Although I was leaning in that direction anyway, I just confirmed it in my mind.

See you next time. 

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Beware of junky information

Let me tell you, "junky" is a nice term. I have been in a marketing/advertising reading and writing marathon for the last three weeks.  I've been in what I call the "vortex" of developing my presence on the web so that I can share information with you, my dear audience and followers.  

Most everyone who writes on the subject about building traffic to your website will tell you you have to have lots and lots of content (blogs, stories and photos about your product and services), get listed on lots of site directories and social media.

There are a lot people who will tell you that you can do this quickly and easily.  They may even charge for a single format that will do this.  From what I can see, it ain't so.  Not that there aren't ways to get some of it done through individual sites but in general, you have to take time and go out there an enter information yourself.

One of the sites for content contribution is SubmitYourArticle.com  This site will take your articles and blast it out to other content publishing websites worldwide.  What this does is builds traffic back to your website.  In the coming weeks, I will put together an e-book with everything I have learned and give it to you.

My goal is to provide you with great information that will help you develop your small business into a powerhouse.  Saying, that, I found a really great article for you to look at this week:

http://www.wix.com/blog/2013/11/how-to-make-sure-your-business-is-found-on-google/

How to get MORE for you business doing LESS

I can't really tell you how to do that. If I really knew how to do that I would be rich.  But I do know that you can become more efficient with your marketing.  There is no better time in history to be able to get more done than today.  With all of the technology that is available you can reach more people and it will cost you PENNIES or even FRACTIONS OF PENNIES on the dollar than it did just 10 years ago.

Remember when direct mail was all the rage? You could get your message and name in front of thousands of households. Compare that to digital advertising where you get can get millions of impressions for the same cost.

Now, you would think telling small businesses and entrepreneurs about this and helping them to find other marketing ideas would be an easy sell, right?  Wrong.  For some reason a lot of business owners are overwhelmed with the idea of doing marketing that will grow their business --even though you show them how to save TONS of dollars and reach the people they need to reach.  

My friend Tracie Davis (the Marketing Guru) and I (The Marketing Ninja Master)  have decided that there are businesses out there that need help so badly that we are going to GIVE information away.  That's right, give it away.

 So, stay tuned to find out what we -- as entrepreneurs ourselves -- are going to do in the very near future.

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It's official -- digital advertising wins!

As a digital advertising guru (yes, I am a guru) I am glad to hear what I already knew: digital advertising is outpacing all other forms of advertising. Now, I have some proof to show my clients. Yes, those pesky clients are always so skeptical when you come to them with something new. Trying to explain digital advertising to clients at times made me feel like the first person to sell TV advertising.

Everything has its season and it is a new season. Those who effectively utilize digital advertising will reap great rewards. The cost? The cost is no where near the cost of a monthly billboard on a highway, or commercials on TV and radio and newspaper ads. One reason is because you can target your market like no time in advertising history. Actually, my company uses hyper targeting methods. We actually profile your customers and clients using psychological methods. (We have a real honest to goodness marketing psychologist.) Then after researching your clients, we use hundreds, and depending on the customer thousands, of keywords to target where they hang out. And remember, these aren't random customers. They are people most likely to purchase or use your services.

We then re-market to them by trailing them through their favorite sites on the internet. You've experienced that yourself. You click on a website that you saw on the sidebar of one of your favorite sites, let's say All About Juicing. You take a gander of the website and then go on your merry way. But the next day you notice that sales on juicers are popping up on your news website. Then later you see the newest juicer again on the entertainment site you view.Yes, that's re-marketing.

So, get ready for the next version of advertising models.  Don't get left behind.

http://venturebeat.com/2014/04/10/digital-advertising-hits-43b-passing-broadcast-tv-for-the-first-time-ever/