Incorporating Text Messaging into Your Nonprofit Marketing Strategy

August 23, 2023

Good marketing is about reaching your supporters quickly and motivating them to take action. 

While you may already utilize various marketing channels like email and social media, one powerful tool that you shouldn’t overlook is text messaging. With its astonishingly high open and read rates, text messaging provides a direct and immediate means of communication with your audience. Studies have shown that text messages have a 99% open rate and a 90% read rate within just three minutes of being sent.

In this blog post, we will explore the top tips for incorporating text messaging into your nonprofit marketing strategy:

• Build your contact list
• Develop compelling messages
• Use clear calls-to-action

By leveraging the potential of text messaging, you can increase engagement, drive donations, and promote your events and campaigns more effectively. Let’s begin. 

Build Your Contact List 

Before you can start sending texts you’ll need people who have opted in to receive them. So if you’re starting from scratch, the very first step in incorporating text messaging into your marketing strategy is to build a contact list of people who have opted in to receive your messages. 

Tatango’s guide to nonprofit text messaging recommends taking a multichannel marketing approach to encourage supporters to sign up for your text messaging campaign. Creating content across several different channels can help you increase touchpoints with prospective donors, boost visibility, and overall bring more attention to your text donation campaigns. 

When building your text marketing subscriber list, consider leveraging the following channels:

• Email: Send targeted emails to your existing supporters, informing them about the benefits of opting into your text messaging campaign and providing clear instructions on how to subscribe.

• Social Media: Use your social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, to raise awareness about your text messaging campaign.
  
• Your Website: Feature prominent calls-to-action on your website, encouraging visitors to subscribe to your text messaging campaign. 

Here are a few tips for making a successful subscribe ‘ask’:

• Clearly communicate the value they will receive by opting in, such as getting behind-the-scenes insights. For example, if you’re gearing up to host a fundraising gala and have a landing page dedicated to this event on your website, you can include a banner there that says: “Get a sneak peek of our upcoming gala fundraiser. Text GALA to 22-477.”
  
• Highlight how donors can give right from your text messages by clicking the donation page link.
  
• Explain how donors can stay in the loop by subscribing to your text updates and conveniently receive event reminders, fundraising progress updates, mobile-friendly links to your latest blog posts, and more.
  
•  Explain the simple process of opting into your campaign.
  
• Create a video walkthrough that shows one of your volunteers texting the keyword to your short- or long-code to subscribe. 

As you generate content across your different marketing platforms, track relevant metrics to assess their progress. For example, you can look at social media impressions, reposts, and likes to determine whether your posts are connecting with supporters and inspiring them to opt-in. 

Develop Compelling Messages 

Once you have built your contact list, it’s crucial to text compelling messages that resonate with your donors. To make the most of the high open and read rates of text messages, consider the following strategies:

• Add high-impact visuals: Incorporate relevant images and videos that are visually appealing and showcase the impact of your nonprofit’s work, helping you emotionally connect with your audience. Kwala’s guide to nonprofit branding recommends aligning your visuals with your brand so you can increase brand visibility and build trust.
  
• Use storytelling: Craft messages that tell compelling stories about the beneficiaries of your organization’s mission. Personal narratives help supporters understand the real-world impact of their contributions and inspire them to take action.
  
• Incorporate your brand voice: Infuse your nonprofit’s messaging and tone into your texts. Consistency in your brand personality helps connect your text donation campaign with the rest of your donor communications and reinforces your identity. 

Consider your different audience members and what their interests are in your organization. Then, tailor your messages to these personas with the help of segmentation. With a powerful text messaging platform, you can segment your contact list based on a variety of relevant factors like donor demographics, recency of opting into your campaign, donation frequency, and more. 

Use Clear Calls-to-Action

What drives donor behavior? Motivating donors to take action is key to increasing donations, turning donors into volunteers, boosting your event registration numbers, and making your marketing efforts worthwhile. A lack of direction in your text marketing messages will deter action. On the other hand, too many calls-to-action (CTAs) in a single message will confuse donors. 

To drive desired actions from your supporters, it’s essential to use a clear and concise 

CTA in your text messages. A strong CTA should:

Be specific and Urgent 

Conveying a sense of urgency in your CTAs is an effective tactic for spurring immediate action. Supporters are more likely to act promptly when there’s an element of time sensitivity involved.

Specificity should also extend to how you want the action to be executed. If you want them to donate to your text-to-give campaign, provide the exact link to the mobile donation page. If you wish for them to volunteer, give explicit instructions on how to sign up.

For instance, if you’re running a matching gift campaign alongside your text fundraiser, your CTA could be: “Donate within the next 24 hours to double your impact!” This message is both specific (outlining what to do and the timeframe) and urgent (emphasizing the time-limited opportunity to increase the donation’s effectiveness). 

Use Active and Direct Language 

Encourage supporters to take immediate action by using active and engaging language. 

For example, a faith-based organization or church running a text fundraiser might say “Donate to our food pantry fundraiser by midnight to provide critical hunger relief in our community.” Clearly communicate the action you want supporters to take and emphasize the urgency. 

Stick to One Call-to-Action 

When crafting text messages to motivate donors to act, it’s important to use a single call to action in your message. Multiple requests may dilute the impact of your primary CTA. If you want donors to register for an event and donate, consider breaking up these CTAs into two separate messages and sending them at separate times. 

If you’re not sure if your CTAs are effective enough, leverage your text messaging platform to view real-time analytics. For instance, you can track the donor conversion rate of your messages and see how many people were inspired to act. 

Wrapping Up 

Incorporating text messaging into your nonprofit marketing strategy can significantly enhance your ability to engage with supporters and drive meaningful actions. To maximize the benefits, consider working with a comprehensive text messaging platform that offers segmentation, secure sending, fast messaging speeds, and analytics tracking. Armed with the right software and strategies, you can take your marketing plan to the next level.