Ep 300 | Top 15 Episodes from the last 300! - Digital Marketing Therapy

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sami Bedell-Mulhern (00:00):
300 episodes. We have officially hit
300 episodes, and I cannotbelieve it. It is a big deal. We
have been running this podcastfor a few years now. I love it.
I love being able to share theseresources with you, but I also
just love the people that I'vebeen able to meet, the
connections that I've made fromthe guests. So it's a win, win

(00:22):
win for all of us. And so tocelebrate 300 episodes, I am
breaking down some quick winsfrom 15 of our top performing
episodes. Some of these go wayback. So I hope that you will
check out these snippets. Go tothe show notes at
thefirstclick.net/300 and thereyou'll be able to find all the
links for all of the episodesthat we have here. And I am so

(00:47):
grateful and thankful to all ofyou for listening and allowing
us to be here for this manyepisodes. If you love the
podcast, I would love for you tojust shoot me a note
Hello@thefirstclick.net, let meknow which episode has been your
favorite and helped you in yourdigital marketing journey. I
know that we have kind of grownand evolved over the years

(01:09):
together, and some of theseepisodes are old, and so I'm
really interested to hear whatyou think about the difference
in how we have been producingand publishing and creating this
podcast over the years, so 15 ofour top performing episodes,
they cover a variety of topics.
So I'm really excited for you tokind of hear and remind

(01:30):
yourself, maybe of some of yourfavorites and maybe some you
didn't get to check out beforewe jump into it. This episode is
brought to you by do gooduniversity. DGU is an amazing
platform and community ofnonprofit professionals just
like you who are struggling andworking through and
brainstorming and building thenonprofit of their dreams. We

(01:51):
come together every single weeklive for Q and A so you can get
all of your questions answered,or you can just hang out with us
and see what's up and have somefun and learn from other people
as well. There's also hours uponhours upon hours of On Demand
training that you can accesswhenever you need to, from board
governance to marketing tobranding to dei to grant writing

(02:15):
and event planning, all of thethings. So I really hope that
you will check it out. I do havea free two week session for you,
or two week coupon offer foryou, so you can come in, hang
out with us, check out what'sthere, and then after that, it's
only $50 a month. All you haveto do is bring in one new donor
from some of the strategies thatyou've learned, and it more than

(02:37):
pays for your monthly fee. Now Ireally hope that you'll join
Patrick Kirby and I. Patrick'sbeen on the podcast quite a few
times in this community, becauseit's so much fun. So head on
over to thefirstclick.net/dgu,the letter U. Check it out.
Learn more. Listen to our bonuspodcast episode and see if this
is the right fit for you. If youhave any questions, feel free to
reach outhello@thefirstclick.net, here

(02:59):
for you. Let's talk about DGU,and if it is the right fit for
you and your organization. We'vegot so many fun things coming
down the pipeline. Can't wait tosee you inside. Let's get into
the episode.
You're listening to the digitalmarketing therapy podcast. I'm
your host, Sami Bedell Mulhern,each month we dive deep into a
digital marketing or fundraisingstrategy that you can implement

(03:21):
in your organization. Each week,you'll hear from guest experts,
nonprofits and myself on bestpractices, tips and resources to
help you raise more money onlineand reach your organizational
goals.
Okay, so the 15th most popularepisode was episode 201, which
was a solo episode. There's afew solo episodes in here, even

(03:42):
though they're not my favoriteto record, as you know. But
Episode 201 is how to marketyour monthly giving program. We
all know that a monthly givingprogram is super important. In
fact, we have lots of episodesregarding monthly giving, but
marketing it and getting peopleengaged and to join is a
different thing. So in 201, Igive you some strategies that

(04:04):
you can use when it comes tomarketing your program once you
already have it pulled together.Now the second piece is
messaging. So figuring out whatyour messaging is around the
campaign, what is the impactthat you're sharing, what are
they going to be providing youare allowing your organization
to do with these gifts. And Ilove with a monthly giving

(04:25):
program having levels that showthat impact, because it really
makes it easy for people to walkup the ladder. Okay, I thought I
was going to give $10 a month,but now I see at $25 a month,
I'm like, quadrupling my impact.Like, that's amazing. Like,
that's worth it to me, so I'mgoing to step up in that level.
So being really clear about whatthat kind of impact can look

(04:49):
like, and crafting thatmessaging, that story, so you
have it all pulled together soyou're ready to go, because that
story is what's going to go onthe website, which we're going
to talk about here in a second.But. It's also what you're going
to use over and over and overagain in your emails, in your
marketing efforts, in yoursocial media, in your
conversations with the board.Right? We know that we need to

(05:10):
share our messaging over andover and over and over and over
and over and over again beforepeople are really going to step
into hearing your message,understanding and determining
that this is the right cause forthem to support, that it's in
alignment with what it is thatthey want to participate in,
excuse me. So creating thatstory, you create it one time,

(05:33):
and now you know what impactstatements you can go after
client testimonials, what donortestimonials, you can start to
build more of that stuff overtime, but we want to have that
core messaging, that core story,in line and ready to go, that
you know exactly what you'resharing and what that impact is.
Our 14th episode. Most Popularepisode was episode 194, and

(05:58):
this one is all about maximizingcalls to action on your website,
seven strategies, in fact, tohelp you maximize that call to
action. And this is greatbecause we know we need to give
people somewhere to go andsomething to do once they've
landed on our website. And sothis is going to give you some
strategies depending on thedifferent goals that you have
for your organization, so thatyou can make the most of when

(06:21):
people land on your website. Soagain, that's episode 194. Seven
Ways to maximize calls to actionon your website. We're gonna
start with number one, andnumber one is your blog. Now I
start here because I feel likethis is the biggest area of
opportunity. Most people do notmaximize their blog content as

(06:42):
much as possible. They get theirblog up. We did it awesome. We
raise our hands and cheer andget excited. But that content
isn't really working for us ifwe're not incorporating calls to
action. And there's a varietythat you can put in your blog
content, first being links toother blog posts or other pages.

(07:03):
So if you have an informationalpiece of content about something
that you're working on aresearch project or a way that
you're impacting organization orimpact community or the area
that you serve, then have linksto deep dive into some more of
that. Why are we serving that?What other blog posts do we have

(07:23):
that are relevant to thatinformation? And that link is a
kind of a form of a call toaction, like we're driving
people check out thisinformation. There's more here.
This is also great for a wholehost of other SEO reasons, but
we want to make sure that we'regiving people an opportunity to
get more information on thethings they care about. Another

(07:45):
obvious call to action is adonate button. If this is a
piece of content that is relatedto that, 100% include a way for
people to donate. Make it supereasy within the content, so that
they can see it and moveforward. If it's more of a
educational piece, brandawareness building, then think

(08:05):
about maybe including your leadmagnet. Opt in or your
newsletter, sign up. Includethat depending on the length of
your post. If you have a reallylong post that's like 1500 or
2000 words, put that in themiddle. Include it in the
middle. So if they're scrolling,they can see these calls to
action throughout the content,not just at the very end. We can
grab them where they are whenthey're ready to move forward. I

(08:29):
also love having social sharebuttons on your blog, and you're
going to hear some of these optins repeated a couple times, but
just stick with me. I lovesocial share buttons because
this makes it super easy forpeople to connect and remember,
with those social shares, theydon't have to just be the
platforms that you're on,include all of the platforms,

(08:50):
because you don't know whatplatforms your visitors are most
active on, and you want to givethem an opportunity to share
with their network where theyare. So that's a great
opportunity to do that. Anothercall to action, if you want,
depending on your industry, is acomment section below. Now this
isn't necessarily a traditionalcall to action, but asking
people to leave their commentsis and this is a way for you to

(09:13):
get feedback, engage and chat.Now you'll want to make sure you
have spam filters in place. Youprobably want to turn on
approval for comments anddepending, again, on the nature
of your organization, this mayor may not be appropriate, but
Okay, coming in at number 13 isepisode 132 and this is
just keep that in mind.

(09:34):
mastering local SEO with WendellJordan. Now the difference
between local and non local SEO,or search engine optimization
just has to do with if you'retargeting a specific region or
area versus a wide kind ofnational space. And while some
strategies and things have maybeshifted a little bit with
regards to local SEO or SEO ingeneral, core concepts and

(09:56):
foundations are the same. So ifyou're really trying to target
a. Specific physical locationarea, then this is the episode
that you're going to want tolisten to so that you can get in
front of more people that are inyour local area. So again,
that's episode 132 mastering alocal SEO with Wendell Jordan.

Wendell Jordan (10:14):
Using search tools versus using Google.
Right? Because Google's a searchis a search engine. But when
you're in SEO, you use tools inorder to get your information,
because you get very differentanswers based on where you are.
If your location isn't turnedon, sometimes you get some of
the most abstract responsesever, right? But more often than

(10:35):
not, it's using cell towers,right? It's using geo, Geo, geo
locations to be able to help youat least, at least the way
search engines feel, they'rehelping you find the answer to
what's near you, right? Because,again, your kids may go to
school 20 minutes away, but therestaurants you're looking for
may be 10 minutes in theopposite direction of your home.

(10:55):
So it's really 30 minutes fromwhere you are. In theory, too
far from your current location,you would pass too many items or
too many stores, too manyrestaurants before you got to
where you wanted to go. But Ithink that you're right. That is
probably I deal with thatfrustration as well, right? As a
person who searches stuff allthe time, I tell people, that's
what I do for a living. I findthings on the internet. So

(11:16):
sometimes I get frustratedbecause I'm like, No, right?
Yeah, not where I am. I need, Ineed this across the country.
I'm looking for something acrossthe country. Stop showing me
Bridgeport, Texas. That's notwhat I'm looking for.

I love that. So as a nonprofit, if
you're trying to reach a localaudience, what are some things
that they might want toconsider, because obviously SEO
is going to work in tandem withyour website. So what? Maybe,
what are some things they mightwant to think about taking a
look at on their website as theythink about where they want to

(11:53):
show up and search locally,whether it be, you know, for
service, like people thatthey're providing services to
community, whatever that mightbe. That's

Wendell Jordan (12:02):
a good question. So the thing I always tell
clients, the very first thingyou got to think about is
content. What kind of content dowe have on the site? What? What
are we talking about? And who isgoing to be listening? So the
thing with local SEO, you'regoing to be focusing on things
that tend to have a some sort oflocation within, within the

(12:26):
keyword term, right? But themain theme of that content still
has to be informational andhelpful. So if I'm a nonprofit,
or if I'm if I'm talking to oneof my, one of my clients that
happened to be a nonprofit, whatwe're talking about is how, like
you said, if you're in Houstonand you are, you know,

(12:47):
facilitating winter jackets,right? We want to figure out
what keywords are coming up whenpeople are searching for, you
know, wearing coats or wearingjackets, so that we can start
gearing some content, or ormaybe you help with
homelessness, whatever it is. Ithink you should start looking
at the content from a near me,quote, unquote, context, right?

(13:11):
You need to even start makingcontent that is specific to your
location. For example, usingHouston, it doesn't really get
that cold here, right? Whereasme, growing up on the East
Coast, sure. You know, 10degrees like here, 50 degrees is
cold, 50 in New York. You know,some people might have shorts
on. So you want to make surethat you understand who you're

(13:33):
talking to when you're talkingabout the cold, when you're
talking about whatever thoseissues are. You know, you want
to be sure that you're thatyou're addressing the locality
in which you're hoping toresonate.

Okay, so number 12 is an oldie, but a
goodie, and it is kind of onethat is personal to me. So I got
to interview my dad. We did twoepisodes, but number 58 was my
dad in business part two, allabout innovation. So we were
talking about how to thinkcreatively. Think outside the

(14:05):
box. Even if our organization issuccessful and it has been
around for a while, we stillneed to kind of innovate, grow
and continue to do thingsdifferently. And so that's going
to help us get in front of newaudiences. It's going to help us
kind of be creative and come upwith new ideas. And so number 12
is my dad in business, in allabout innovation. And it was

(14:26):
such a fun conversation. And Iwas so blessed to have my dad on
the podcast talking aboutbusiness, because I learned so
much from him. I guess kind of,one of the last questions I had
is, if I'm somebody listening tothis, and I'm like, Okay, well,
yeah, he's got all these greatideas. He has his passion, but I
have no idea how to like, youknow, I'm so in the weeds of my
business right now. I have noidea, how about how to think
about things differently. Wouldyou recommend people just take a

(14:49):
minute and just really sit withthemselves for a minute and just
kind of allow themselves to getback to their core, which maybe
they haven't thought of? Out fora while?

Tom Bedell (15:02):
Yes, because there's things pulling on all of us all
the time, right? But if youturn, if you turn the television
on today, you're going to end upfeeling uneasiness or fear or
concern about the Coronavirusand its impact on other people

(15:23):
and people you care about and oror about people's ability to
have a paycheck, or you knowwhat it's what it's going to
mean in your life, your family'slife, your friends lives, your
community, etc. If you don'tturn that TV on, you might think
about different things. And inour minds, we get to where we're

(15:47):
absorbed with stuff, and we getstuck. And I think that's what
you're saying, Yeah, is if yousay, you know, I'm stuck, how do
I think differently? And youjust have to turn the TV off,
you have to sit back, and youhave to say, You know what?

(16:09):
What's me? And what differentpatterns can I have and how I
express my day and myself and myrelationships and my efforts,
and what I really care about andwhat I'm working on, etc. Okay,

yeah, I hope you loved that episode, and
make sure you go check outepisode 57 as well, which is
part one of that two partseries. So let's go into number
11. So this is again. We've gota few that are old episodes for
sure. This one is number 76episode 76 taking an in person
event online with United Way.Now we did this episode right

(16:48):
around the time of COVID, when alot of your events were being
canceled because you couldn'tgather in groups. And so we had
a great conversation with aevent that United Way was
putting on in Central Oregon,all about Christmas trees. They
had an event where you could goand bid on Christmas trees that

(17:09):
were decorated by a bunch ofcorporate sponsors, right?
Everybody kind of decoratedtheir own tree. Well, you
couldn't, obviously do that, andit was a really tricky thing to
kind of figure out how to doonline. So this episode is a
great one, even if you are notdoing online events, just ways
to think differently about theevents that you're running, get
creative and really figure outhow you could still raise a lot
of money, even though maybe yourevent can't look the same. This

(17:31):
could be maybe you lost thevenue that you normally do it
at, or funding changes happened.But this one is a good one, just
to think differently about howyou approach your events while
still having good end results.So that's episode 76

United Way (17:44):
And so number one, you can get people to
participate and and not have topay to be there in person. We're
going to try to generate virtualwatch parties, you know, give
people ideas of, you know, aGirls Night In and or a, you

(18:06):
know, have a scotch and cigarnight and watch. Or, you know,
yes, participate as a quote,unquote table sponsor, even if
it's the table at your house foryour friends instead of at the
convention center. And so we dohope we have people who maybe
have not attended in the past,who are interested. And then

(18:29):
promotional wise, one of oursponsors has talked about
potentially having the treethey're doing set up in their
bank space, because they do havecustomers come through and and
so they would be publicizingthat. If we do trees at

(18:53):
wineries, you know, we're hopingthose businesses would be
promoting that as well. And sofor us, the question is making
sure the word gets out so thatpeople even know that, you know,
they can log in and watch andthey can bid on a tree or just
look at the trees. But alsotrying to get more silent

(19:14):
auction items, because the moreof those great items we have, if
we have more people engagingwith us, then perhaps we can,
you know, raise more money forthe cause.

Yeah, and I'm gonna, I reference this
episode so many times in all myrecent podcasts, because I feel
like it's just really relevantto so many things, um, but I
want you guys, I'll put this inthe show notes. We did an
episode that's all about how tocreate the promo kit. So how
like the graphics, the copyeverything, so just like what

(19:45):
you're saying, to give them thetools in order for them to
promote for you easily. Soyou'll definitely check that
out. I'll put that in the shownotes for this episode, but it's
episode 68 but you'll want tocheck that out in. And create
your promo kit make your lifeeasier if you're running these
kinds of events, so that you canuse your board members, your

(20:06):
sponsors, and everybody haseverything they need pulled
together to kind of do thatpromotion.
Okay, we're gonna go way backwith number 10 to Episode 24 and
that is sales funnels with CodyBurch. Now sales funnels might
seem like something as anonprofit you don't need to
think about, but really, whenyou think about your donor
journey, that is a sales funnel.So how do we think about the way

(20:27):
that we bring people in? How dowe nurture them, and how do we
ultimately get them to make thatdonation? So Cody Burch comes
with a lot of great strategiesand ideas for how you can kind
of build those funnels, beauthentic, be genuine, and
connect with your customers,donors, community members in
order to become your bestcustomer. This could be
recruiting board members. Thiscould be recruiting volunteers,

(20:50):
making sure that people in yourcommunity know about the product
or service that you provide. Allof those things. Sales funnels
are part of that. So make sureyou check out episode 24 sales
funnels with Cody Burch.

Cody Burch (21:03):
I still have that problem. And then here's the
key. I love this. I love thisstrategy. I do this. This works
shockingly well. Sam, have youever sent a nine word email to
your list?

You know, I know about it. I have not done
it yet. It.

Cody Burch (21:17):
It's so bananas that it works at all. But here's how
a nine word email goes. Thesubject is their name, and then
you say it's kind of are youstill or have you yet? So let's
say I'm the bridal weight lossexpert. It would say Sammy, and
the subject line, and then theemail says, Are you still

(21:39):
interested in getting in shapebefore your wedding. Let me
know, Cody, like, that's it. Sothat's more than nine words. I
think don't count me on the ninewords. But the point is, it's a
very casual colloquial almost,like, I bumped into you at a
Starbucks, and I was like, oh,yeah, hey. Like, are you still
trying to get this result? Like,because I can still help you
with that. I still have theresources and the time and the

(21:59):
expertise to get you that resultthat result that you said that
you wanted nine, you know, 90days ago, I can still do that.
And so every 90 days I wouldsend, I do send a nine word
email my top performing one,which is just silly, is I put
their name in the subject line.Actually, I think I might have
put June, because my event wasin June, all lowercase. You
think about it. When we emaileach other, it's not like, you
know, ending tonight, flashsale, 599 mix and match combo.

(22:24):
That's not how we talk. That'show Domino's Pizza talks. But
not me. So I would put June inthe subject line and then say,
Hey, I'm hosting a get togetherfor entrepreneurs in June. Would
you like to join us, Cody? Andthen that had something like a
60% open rate, which my emailsare, I think typical 18 to 20%
open rate, which is good, yeah,that's fine, but 60% is crazy,
right? It had like, a 30% replyrate, which is crazy. Somebody

(22:48):
dozens and dozens. My email listisn't huge, but it's dozens and
dozens of people. Like, maybe,when is it or how much does it
cost, or what exactly are thedates, or is it a hotel or at a
you know, you get theconversation going. So there's a
little nugget for yourlisteners, for the people that
don't buy about 90 days later,send them the nine word email
and say, Hey, are you stillinterested in getting the result
that you said you wanted 90 daysago? Let me know.

Okay, so there's so many things that you
just dropped that I don't evenknow if everybody picked up. One
is really the nine word emailhelps in kind of cleaning your
list and making sure you stillhave people that are interested
in what you're doing right andmaking sure that you then at
some point, get rid of thosepeople that don't respond
because they aren't going to buyfrom you, and they're just

(23:30):
taking up space, and you'repaying for them, right? And
they're not actually going tobuy from you. But also kind of
that an easy way of reapproaching your list to
generate sales in a way that'snot salesy, which I think a lot
of people feel scared about.Like we feel scared to sell to
our email list, which is crazybecause it's warm leads. So

(23:53):
like, go for it. Like, sell tothem. And then also just that
you threw out that you have an18 to 20% open rate. Like, you
know, it seems low, but in like,logical sense, but that's such a
good, like, that's a good,healthy open rate. So don't get
discouraged by kind of thatlower number, you know, like, a

(24:14):
2% click through rate would beinsane. A 30% response rate is,
is amazing. And the last thingthat you said that I love is I
don't have a huge list, because,again, I don't know how many
people are on your list. I don'thave a huge list, but it's not
about how big your list is. It'sabout how well you take care of
your list and how they engagewith you.
Okay, we're gonna move it on upa bit, and we're gonna go to

(24:36):
episode 200 and again, PatrickKirby has been on the podcast a
few times. He's my best bestie.We have a lot of projects
together. You heard it DGU,which is a great opportunity and
way for us to connect and teachand share and grow nonprofits
together as part of a community.And so episode 200 is how to
increase the annual value of amonthly donor, and it's not.

(25:00):
Just about increasing theirmonthly gift, right? It's also
getting them to give additionalgifts in conjunction with their
monthly gift. And Patrick Kirbyhas so much knowledge about how
to grow and scale your monthlygiving programs. So episode 200
is going to help you withincreasing the annual value.
Definitely a must listen, andyou can also check out the other

(25:22):
podcast episodes that he's beenon. He's always a bundle of
energy and a wealth ofknowledge. Does it matter if
it's somebody who's given twoyears at $10 a month or two
years at $100 a month or $1,000a month? Do we care about their
monthly gift, or we care abouttheir longevity of giving?

Patrick Kirby (25:40):
It's longevity only. Now, a lot of the and
again, they probably gave you$10 a month, because you
probably asked them for $10 amonth or gave them the option at
$10 a month, they probably wouldhave given you $100 if you had
given them the option. A lot ofno a lot of donors only give the
amount in which you ask. So theyprobably have not been re
approached by you to give moreor give an addition, because you

(26:04):
probably have this mindset of,oh, they already do so much
because they're a monthly donor.Well, they've probably a
forgotten about it, and B, theyprobably have capacity to give
you more, but you haven't pulledthe trigger to ask them for it.
The other thing too is you canask them what else they would

(26:26):
like to do, or what they wouldlike to support, or their
perspective on how to gain morepeople like them. This gives you
a perfect reason to give them acall and say, Hey, Sammy, you've
been a supporter of ours forfive years. You're one of our
longest, longest standingsupporters. You're one of our

(26:50):
biggest and best cheerleaders.First off, I want to say thanks.
Secondly, what can we do tocelebrate you? To be a champion
for us, right? You're givingthem the option to tell you
whether they like to be praised,or they don't like to be
praised, or they don't need athank you note. Now you know a

(27:10):
lot about these donors already.Now you know a little bit more,
and then you get to dive intolike, what else kind of makes
you think that we're the best,or what else can we do? You've
seen our materials for a longtime. Give us your thoughts,
your perspectives on what we'redoing, and now you're engaging
them in a conversation about thetrack of the organization. And
because they're invaluabledonors to you, they're going to

(27:32):
give you perspectives and theiropinions, and they may give you
some leads out of it, but itopens the door to these more in
depth conversations than you'veever had before, because you
know exactly how long they'vedonated, and you know what, what
campaigns they've seen throughthe activities, the events, the
the CEOs leaving, theDevelopment Director, they've

(27:54):
all been with you for a verylong time, and they've stuck
with you the entire time. So youthey know you love you. So
that's it's such an advantage toknow and ask some of these
deeper questions by using thisas an access point.

Okay, coming in at our number eight
episode, most popular episode isepisode 273, and this is with
Vanessa Chase Lockshin, who isalso another biz bestie of mine.
She is an expert in emailmarketing, and she's been on the
podcast a couple of times, butthis one is specific to crafting
your year end emails. We email alot at year end, and she has run

(28:30):
some campaigns that have raisedhundreds of 1000s to millions of
dollars. So definitely a mustlisten. She gives you some great
actionable tips and steps totake when it comes to building
your year end email marketingcampaigns. Now this doesn't have
to just be related to year endcampaign. This could be any
campaign that you're running. Itcould be a mid year campaign. It

(28:51):
could be gearing up for afundraising event or something
of that. So even if you're notyear end or not year end, here
we're in May, but if you'replanning on your end stuff, if
you're already starting to putthings in place, things in
place, if you just want somegreat email strategies, this is
definitely must listen. So thisis episode 273, crafting the
perfect year end emails withVanessa Chase Lockshin. Okay, so

(29:13):
let's talk Giving Tuesday,because I feel like this is kind
of the launch for mostcampaigns, or most year end
giving campaigns, and you knowyou might have your opinion, you
as a listener about givingTuesday and how it works or
doesn't work for yourorganization, but it is a loud
and noisy day. So do you kind ofwalk us through like a strategy

(29:34):
of what a cadence might looklike leading up to Giving
Tuesday, and how many emails wemight want to kind of think
about on that day itself.

Vanessa Chase Lockshin (29:43):
Yeah, well, I want to get to that, but
I want to say the number one tipI actually have for people about
thinking about being moresuccessful on Giving Tuesday
isn't necessarily about thefrequency. It's about having a
compelling message that is notjust it's giving Tuesday and
make your donation. And I thinkwe all know that on some level,
but I want. Remind people,because I do see those emails
every year where, like, that isthe central essential message

(30:05):
coming through the email. Andlike, that's just not enough for
me to be compelled to make thatdonation. And I think the same
thing too, with, like, thesubject lines, right? Like,
everybody is sending a subjectline with something about giving
Tuesday. Like, where can weactually send something that's,
like, emotionally compelling,interesting. It's going to
capture people's attention in amuch more like, impact oriented

(30:26):
way, because ultimately, thatis, like, why people want to
make that donation and want tomake a difference. That's That's
my soapbox about messaging onGiving Tuesday. Let's talk about
the frequency, though. So Ithink, like, in terms of the
frequency of, like, GivingTuesday itself, like one email,
sure, like, we can definitelysend one email and, like, make
it happen and get that campaignout the door. For most of my

(30:50):
clients, we're often sending twoto three emails on the day
itself. And there might besegment versions of that. So
there's sort of like, a morningemail, and typically, like two a
little bit later in the day.Interestingly, the last like two
years that we've done GivingTuesday campaigns, our like,
early evening emails areoutperforming the morning
emails. I don't know what it isabout our, like, current habits

(31:13):
around email, but yeah, I'vebeen, like, surprised that often
email sends that we do at like,6pm 7pm at night on Giving
Tuesday are outperforming.
But anyways, that's like arandom, random data points.
Definitely recommend, yeah,definitely recommend sending
multiple emails. I think thething that a lot of
organizations kind of grapplewith, too, in the days leading

(31:36):
up to Giving Tuesday, like thatweek before, is like, well, we
can send people cultivationemails saying, like, Giving
Tuesday is coming. Like, shouldwe make an ask? Should we get
out there ahead of people and,like, put a donate button in our
email, or, like, put a call toaction in there. That's like,
you might as well, right? Like,you're going to tell people
about this campaign, like you'regoing to get some early action
takers, probably not the bulk ofyour audience, which is fine,

(31:59):
but you might as well. Like, ifyou're gonna take some time,
like, email airtime to talk topeople about a giving
opportunity, like, make it easyfor people who participate to
just, like, do the thing rightaway. Yeah, I would. I would tee
up your campaign, though, andjust think about, like, you
know, a week or two out like,what is it that you want to be
talking about on Giving Tuesday?And this is really about, like,

(32:19):
the messaging that you want toget out there. It's like, what
is the problem that yourorganization is currently
fundraising money for to solve,and why is that problem a
problem? And can we get peoplethinking about that again and
thinking about like, the impactof this problem, and also the
impact the organization'ssolution can have on solving it
and people's lives all of that.So, you know, thinking about,

(32:40):
like, can we tell some storiesaround that? Can we get people
engaged in what we want them tobe thinking about, and get them
intrigued by, like, what thepossibilities are and what our
organization's positive visionfor the future can be? I think
that those are good types ofemails to send leading into
campaigns, just to make surepeople kind of, like, maybe have
some baseline what we're goingto talk about the day itself,

(33:02):
like sending two to three emailsis a great plan. And you can
even think about doing somefollow up afterwards, in the
weeks after. We had a clientlast year who ran a like four
day matching gift that startedon Giving Tuesday and ended on
the Friday after it, thatFriday, we raised, I think,

(33:24):
about six times the amount ofmoney we raised on Giving
Tuesday. And I'm very sure it'sbecause nobody was out there
sending emails like, GivingTuesday is not your own day to
make an ask. So you can alsojust think a little bit more
spaciously about make meetingyour goal and like, what that
can look like like. Sure, youcan set a goal for giving
Tuesday itself, but like, maybeyou want to expand the

(33:45):
communication and send the daysafter, or maybe you just want to
send the money email and givingTuesday, but actually focus on
follow up in the days after. Itreally depends on what you want
to do, like, what your kind oflarger vision for that campaign
is, but there's, I think there'sso many options for how you can
increase the frequency aroundthe email sentence for that.

Okay. And then coming in at number seven
is episode 205, and this isusing AI to create content with
Scott Bywater. Now listen, AI isa topic of conversation
everywhere you go. We're doing alot of trainings on how to use
chatgpt to be your full timeemployee, and so this is going
to help you really with thatcontent generation piece. We

(34:26):
know we can use it for a lot ofdifferent things, but how can we
use it for content generation?There's lots of great resources
and tips in this episode. So ifyou want to get on the content
creation game, you don't knowhow to do it with the resources
that you have. This is a greatepisode for you to listen to to
figure out how you can do itfaster, how you can do it more
authentically, and how you canstill make it happen without

(34:49):
having to hire somebody to helpyou do it. So again, that's
Episode 205, using AI to createcontent with Scott Bywater.
Okay, so what are maybe three?Three or four ways that you see
AI kind of helping Jump Startpeople's content strategy, to
really just kind of open uptheir creativity and allow them

(35:10):
to kind of move past theblinking cursor and like the
writer's block. Like, what aresome ways that we might want to
think about using AI to generatesome ideas? Yeah.

Scott Bywater (35:20):
So I think, firstly, the ability to enter
the conversation going on inpeople's minds. So, you know,
ask the AI, yeah, for yourtarget market, what are their
fears? What are their pains,what are their desires, what are
their beliefs, what are theirobjections? Yeah. So, so you
really understanding yourcustomer and creating like that.
That's a framework you shouldhave, you should have in front

(35:41):
of you all the time when you'rewriting copy is being super
clear and crystal clear on thoseon those facts, because then,
you know, you're writing to whatmatters, right? Because the AI
is not going to know that. Sothat's number one. Number two,
in addition to, you know, tounderstanding all that is,
getting topic ideas for emails.So then you can plug that in and

(36:05):
go based on, this is mybusiness. This is my these are
my customers fears. Give me 10topic ideas for potential emails
as an example. So all of asudden it'll start spitting out
that those ideas that then whenit comes to actually writing,
let's say the emails, but itcould be content, social media,

(36:28):
content. It doesn't matter. Theonly thing I would be just red
flag is, if you're looking toget, like, SEO juice and all
that sort of thing. I don't knowif i i would just be aware that
Google may have a way of beingable to tell AI content. So you
just might be want to, want tojust have that in the back of

(36:48):
your mind if you're going to godown that track and look and
investigate it. But then when itcomes to to actually writing the
writing the copy, then you'reusing AI to write the copy, and
you're using a bit of man andmachine, right? So you're,
you're also in control of it.You're directing it. But then,
so the third way is to write thecopy, and then the fourth way is

(37:08):
to actually write the, you know,write the subject lines. It's
itself. So how do we actuallytake that and it's and it's
literally, you know, a simplecommand will be able to write
those subject lines basedspecifically off those copy and
then you're using, obviously,your your human brain and your
understanding of your targetmarket to work out which one you

(37:30):
know, which one of those isrelevant

well. And what I love about this holistic
view is like you can start with,let's say you want to start with
a long form piece of content.You want to start with a blog
post, you can have aI generatethat you can then have it
generate, right if I'munderstanding this generate,
then the email copy in thesubject lines from that blog
post. So you're reallyrepurposing it is helping you
make and repurpose content somuch easier, because it can then

(37:56):
help you generate social mediaposts from that content that
you've created. So now this blogpost that you're putting up is
like going out all over all ofyour things, but you're really
minimizing the time that you'rehaving to create some of those
base elements. Okay, you knowthat I love websites. I think
that they are so foundationalfor your organization. In order

(38:17):
to communicate, connect and getconversions, it's what we do
most often. And so the numbersix most popular episode is
episode 196 and Dani McGregorcame to share different ways
that your website might actuallybe hurting your organization. So
she gives you six different waysthat you might want to look at
your website differently and seeif you're making these mistakes

(38:39):
so that you can clean them upand do better. So if you're not
getting the conversions that youwant, or you're not seeing the
results that you want from yourwebsite, give this a listen. One
of these steps might besomething that you want to kind
of review, refresh and clean up.So this is episode 196 six ways
your website may be hurting yourorganization. With Dani

(39:00):
MacGregor, there, should we besharing that impact on our
website?

Dani MacGregor (39:05):
Great question. One of my favorite places is
actually having an our impactpage. It's kind of a major thing
that I like putting on myclients websites. You can also
kind of splice it in on yourprograms or your initiatives
pages, and you can also add themto your donor, your your

(39:26):
donation forms, if your donationembedded forms or even on say
you're on a Bloomerang or aNetwork for Good where you
outlink. A lot of them haveimpact statements that go for
that dollar amount. So say $25gives a backpack to a child, or
$50 you know, serves, I don'tknow, a full year of elephant

(39:51):
food. I don't know, putsomething up, you can show that
vision, that actual man,monetary impact. Impact, and you
should place it everywhere youcan. And that can really entice
that donor to give a little bitextra. They're like, Oh, you're
right, you know, 100 bucksversus 50, I can make that jump.

(40:12):
And getting them to get that tothat click of the actual donate
button, or getting them to thatdonate page, is splicing in that
impact all throughout yourwebsite. But a lot of times,
those more critical donors aregoing to look for an impact
page, and that's also a reallygreat place to put and encourage

(40:33):
your partners to go to yourfoundations to go to if they're
really looking for thosetangible stats, in addition,
obviously, to your annualreports that need to be on your
website.

Okay, for the fifth most popular episode,
we're going all the way back toEpisode 63 and I'm kind of
surprised that this one's themost popular, because we've done
a few of these, but they've beenmore recent. So this is episode
63 time to jump into LinkedIn.Now, LinkedIn is a very popular
tool and resource. This is asolo episode that I did, but it

(41:06):
is so incredibly important andimpactful. If done right now,
we'll definitely want to checkout all the other LinkedIn
episodes that we have on thepodcast. But this one is time to
jump in, and it just gives yousome strategies and resources
and things to think about as tothe power of LinkedIn and why we
want to utilize it as anonprofit professional. The

(41:26):
people you're going after,you're targeting, you're donate,
you're wanting to donate, tosponsor, to provide services or
be on your board, they're onLinkedIn. So why are we not
focusing on engaging andconnecting there? So again,
that's episode 63 time to jumpinto LinkedIn.

Unknown (41:41):
Yes, it's two ideas there, and one, one is for the
events that might have beencanceled or moved online. Is
LinkedIn just rolled out eventsas a, you know, as a feature on
LinkedIn, both from personalpages and company pages, along
with LinkedIn lives recently. Soif you're moving your event
online, you know, I'd recommendis it's free to use these

(42:02):
features, create an event for iton LinkedIn, and then also post
on LinkedIn live. And just likehow Facebook gives people your
network notifications when yougo live, so does LinkedIn. So
it's also a good way to activateyour networks there for any
events that you are movingonline, and then before you

go to the second one, though. Okay, so
like, let's say we have all ofour board members on LinkedIn.
And is there a way to if wepublish it to our pub or our
business page for the nonprofit,could they then share it with
all of their board members? Andif their board members share it,
then the live goes, then to thatentire network of people,

Unknown (42:37):
so the live notification will go to anybody
following the page. But as as apage can share it with people
connected with the page, theycan then share it with their
networks, and then it can kindof expand.

Okay, perfect. Okay, so then your
second idea, my second idea is,

Unknown (42:53):
if you're kind of like looking for fundraisers or
looking to reach out to networksof higher net worth individuals,
then LinkedIn, good channelviews, you know, maybe you do
sign up for Sales Navigator forthe nonprofit, and then you
target specific CEOs companies,maybe a certain industry, and
then you can connect and startthe conversation with them

there. So the only person to show up twice
on this list at number four isVanessa Chase Lockshin again,
email seems to be a topic thatyou all really love to hear more
about. And she, again, is theexpert. So this one episode, 128
is all about creating campaignsand stories. So this is a great
episode to listen to if you'rewanting to do better with your

(43:33):
email in general, any campaignthat you're running. Again, the
other one was specific to yourend. This could be any campaign
that you're running. How do youreally tell those stories? How
do you connect with yourreaders? How do you encourage
them to click to open toconnect? And so she's here with
all of those strategies. Socoming in at number four, again,
with Vanessa Chase lakshin,episode 128, creating campaigns

(43:56):
with stories.

Vanessa Chase Lockshin (43:58):
I mean, I think that at the basic level,
like there's always got to beone channel that you're asking
on right? And I always thinkthat it's good to choose the one
that you know is going toperform the best. And so if that
for your organization has beendirect mail, great if you're
aspiring for it to be email, butyou really don't have much of an
email list, then I wouldn't sayput all your eggs in the email
basket and like and abandon yourdirect mail. So I would

(44:22):
definitely pick one to start.And then if you find that you
have capacity or time, or you'rejust trying to prioritize
growing a channel, I would putthat one in next in the strategy
to kind of add to what you'redoing, and in terms of the
actual kind of like campaignitself. I mean, there's
certainly a couple things thatyou're gonna want to think

(44:43):
about, which is the, you know,having, like, the initial ask
probably some sort of follow upstrategy, especially if you're
using digital channels, and youcan do easy follow up with
people. You know, you're gonnawant to have great stories and
really strong messaging, bothfor the cultivation phase and
the asking phase. Stories. Andit doesn't have to be a lot of
stories. Sometimes it only takesone really strong one that helps

(45:06):
communicate your argument andget your points across. And you
can use that story in differentways and in different places in
that campaign to engage peoplewith one really strong example
of how their donation will makea difference and kind of coming
off of that campaign, and Ithink what you touched on,
Sammy, is, you know, the idea ofgreat follow up, like you put in

(45:26):
so much time and effort intothese campaigns, and you want
to, ultimately, like, build along term, loyal donor
community, and so having evenjust, like, a simple process of,
like, a thank you letter andmaybe a phone call after the
campaign's over to connect withpeople, to thank them for their
donations, can make a really bigdifference. Okay,

number three was a fun one for me,
leveraging social media forbetter connections with Amanda
Kohal, we know that social mediacan really be impactful, but a
lot of times we post stuff andhope that things are going to
happen. So how can we actuallyuse it to our advantage, in
order to really connect with ouraudiences and be a little bit
more engaging, and take thoseconversations offline and turn

(46:09):
them into potential donors, orturn them into customers, or
turn them into people that trustus, that want to be part of our
organization and community andengage with us. And so she's
here to give you all of theideas. I know you're gonna love
it. This is episode 219leveraging social media for
better connections with Amanda,Kohal, Tiktok, algorithm is so

(46:32):
fantastic for reach andvisibility.
Every time you post, yourcontent gets seen by about 90%
of new eyes, whereas onInstagram, your posts get seen
by, if you're lucky, 5% ofpeople who are already following
you. So that was like a littlelight bulb moment in my head of

(46:56):
why in the world are we spendingso much time and money and
energy creating for Instagram aspace that is getting us very
little ROI financially, as wellas just, you know, fruitfully
and kind of reassurance thatwhat we're posting is good. Why

(47:19):
would we not take thoseresources and put them on a
space like Tiktok that actuallyis built for visibility, make
that the primary contentcreation space, and now
repurpose, slice and dice thatcontent and drive people from
Tiktok over to your Instagram orover to whatever other social

(47:41):
media channels you're using. Soit was like, holy smokes, we've
been using social media allwrong. I went back to my
scribbles and my mad scientistways and literally lying on the
floor on my stomach. For somereason this is like soothing to
me of my parents house, becausemy husband and I were living
there at the time, our house wasbeing renovated, and I was just

(48:05):
drawing out this entirestrategy. And I was like, Okay,
we're gonna put the platformsinto two different buckets. One
bucket is those platforms thatare good at visibility, reach
and growth, and then the otherbucket is the platforms that are
good at nurturing andconverting. And guess which one
fell into each we got Instagramand nurturing conversion, and

(48:28):
we've got Tiktok, amongstothers. We can get into that
that is in the growth andvisibility space. So at the very
least, if you're only usingthose two platforms, if you have
access to them, because I knowTiktok is banned in some
regions, you're cooking withpeanut oil, and you are covering
all of your bases. You'relooking at, how am I approaching

(48:51):
my strategy from a growthperspective? How am I looking at
it from building community, andhow am I converting as opposed
to what gurus are typicallyfocused on, which is, how do you
get 10k followers on a platform?What is that 10k followers going
to do for me in terms ofbuilding a real network, as well

(49:13):
as converting in my business?
Okay, we only have two episodesleft. Thank you for sticking
around this long. I hope thatyou have enjoyed all of the
topics that we have talked aboutalready. If you're watching this
on YouTube, please make sure youdrop in the comments which
episode you're most excited tolisten to or re listen to, or if
there's topics that we haven'tmentioned, that you think that

(49:35):
we should be talking about, I'dlove to hear that as well. But
coming in at number two isepisode 251, and this is a solo
episode that I did, but it'scoming up with content ideas for
short form video. Short formvideo is usually 60 seconds,
sometimes 90 or less, dependingon the platform, and it provides
a quick win, a tip, a resourceengages with people, and it is

(49:57):
really the most effective way toget out there. And connect and
in a way that platforms arefavoring. So if you are just
struggling with how to come upwith ideas, episode 251 is for
you. You will have more ideasthan you know what to do with.
And then you can get to hittingthat record button or building
those templates out in Canva, ifyou don't want to be direct to
camera and sharing who you are,how you solve problems, building

(50:20):
trust and engaging withaudiences on a multiple on
multiple social media platforms,whether it's LinkedIn, YouTube
reels, Tiktok, whatever episode251, is for you.
come up with two. So to startwith today, I would love for you
to just start with withwhichever one is most present,

(50:42):
if you're not in a promotionalperiod, or you aren't gearing up
for one, then just do yourgeneral brand awareness. But I
want you to sit down and justget a piece of paper out, think
for a few minutes, just likefive minutes, and just kind of
brain dump what types ofcontent, not like specific
videos, but just like bigpicture things would be helpful
for you to be creating contentaround. Think about FAQs. Think

(51:06):
about behind the scenes. Thinkabout you know, the community
that you serve, or even you knowsponsors or things that you've
promised donors and sponsorsthat you know you need to
produce, foundations, grants,all of that stuff. So pause this
episode, get out a piece ofpaper, spend a couple minutes

(51:28):
and brain dump all of the thingsthat you think are good topics
for you to discuss.
Okay, how did that go? Was itawesome? So now we're going to
take these and we're going tokind of prioritize and we're
going to break it down. So whatare the content topics that you
have? So let's say you havebehind the scenes. Maybe there

(51:52):
now you can start to, like,really develop some of the
things that might fit into thatcategory. So behind the scenes
could be, maybe you do a serieswhere you have people in the
office each share their favoritething about what you know
working for the organization andthe thing that they love most
behind the scenes could be funvideos at a board meeting. It
could be silly things like thegross part of having to work at

(52:17):
an animal shelter, right? Theanimals, the all the poop
cleanup, things like that, justsilly stuff, right? So really,
just that you can start to kindof brain dump a bunch of
different ideas under each ofthe categories. Once you start
doing this, more and more ideasare going to flow. And what's
even better is taking some ofthese core themes and then just
spending like three to fiveminutes at a staff meeting and

(52:39):
saying, Okay, who's got what forthis, this, this, this, and
this, right? And you guys willstart to build off of each
other. I also really love anFAQ, because what people are
asking about your organization,this is a great opportunity to
educate people, um, and again,quick video, um, have the
executive director just sittheir phone on their desk or

(53:00):
whatever. And question issomebody asks you, on a regular
basis, you know, does yourorganization do this? Answer the
question, if people havequestions regularly about the
data or the relevancy or whyyour program is super necessary.
Answer that in a question,right? One question, one video.
Because remember, these are only30 to 60 seconds, so this is

(53:22):
just a great way for you to kindof continue to push that stuff
out there.
Okay? And finally, here we arewith our number one most popular
episode of the digital marketingtherapy podcast. It is episode
236, minimizing your limitingbeliefs with Tracy plus now
listen being an onlinefundraiser or a fundraiser or an
executive director. It's hardwork, it's exhausting, and it

(53:45):
feels sometimes like we aren'tmaking the progress that we want
to make. So minimizing yourlimiting beliefs, removing that
self doubt, that impostersyndrome, all of the things that
are stopping us from making thatask, sending that email, coming
up with that new idea or testingthat new strategy. This episode
is a great one to kind of helpyou work through that process it

(54:07):
and make sure that you arebuilding the organization of
your dreams and making theimpact, increasing the impact
and serving your community inthe best way possible. So make
sure you check out Episode 236,minimizing your limiting beliefs
with Tracy

Tracy Pleschourt (54:22):
pleasure when you can leverage like discovery,
right, this strength that isafforded to you when you're
operating from your prodigybrain. Well, it's fascinating,
because what you can discoverfrom the willingness to fail,
yeah, is endless. Like you learnso much from being willing to

(54:46):
fail, like there is nothing tobe afraid of. And so that's the
kind of behavior, that's thekind of that's the way you start
showing up on the regular whenyou're operating for. Your
prodigy brain. I mean, it's mindblowing how you almost
intentionally, like, lean in toall of the scary things that you

(55:10):
never would have thought youcould have done, like I do
almost everything before I'mready. Some of the programs we
launched last year, I had nobusiness launching them, but I
also know that I'm willing tofeel the fear, and I know that
if I fail, I'm going to learn somuch from it. So I'm okay with

(55:33):
that. That's what it looks liketo become self made. And by the
way, this is not like somefinish line that you cross,
becoming self made, coming selfactualized, living that purpose
driven life. This is more likebeing on a merry go round,
right? It's like it's neverending. It keeps getting better,

(55:54):
but it is what you make it,yeah, and so it's not a degree
that you're gonna get. It's likeit's more of a muscle that
you're going to continue tostrengthen and you're going to
reap the rewards from it. Soanyways, the final step is
finishing with a decision. So asif this couldn't get any more

(56:18):
simple, step one and step four,the same steps, but you finish
with a decision that is so easy,it's almost hard not to do there
you have it. Our

top 15 episodes out of 300 Well, I
guess 299 right? Since this isthe 300th episode, I hope that
there was at least one or maybe10 that you want to go check out
now. And don't forget, there'sso many other incredible
episodes here for you to listento. If you need recommendations
of what might be a helpfulepisode for you to listen to
based off of where you're stuckright now, feel free to email me

(56:53):
hello at the first click.net, ordrop a comment if you're
watching this on YouTube or onsocial media, whatever, let me
know what, what you're needinghelp with, and we can send you a
resource. For sure. We plan onbeing here for another 300
episodes, so make sure yousubscribe wherever you listen,
so you don't miss out on asingle episode. We have a couple
bonus episodes coming up thisyear as well, and I would love

(57:16):
to see your face inside of dogood university, so that we can
meet face to face, haveconversation, and I can help
support you, and Patrick canhelp support you wherever you're
stuck, so that you can raisemore money and increase your
impact. Thank you so much fortaking the time to listen to
this episode and all of theother episodes here. I look
forward to seeing you in thenext one.

All Episodes

Ep 300 | Top 15 Episodes from the last 300!

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Crime Junkie

24/7 News: The Latest

Stuff You Should Know

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep 300 | Top 15 Episodes from the last 300!