Smart marketing for nonprofits and tribal communities. Located in the heart of beautiful Pacific Northwest, Numa Marketing is a purposely small firm serving the strategic marketing needs of nonprofit organizations and tribal communities throughout the country.

To us, smart marketing means making every dollar count because your stakeholders, voters and donors want to know you’ve invested wisely. It means a results-driven, strategic approach that maximizes every dollar and leverages volunteer and free resources wherever possible. And, it is exemplified by well-designed publications that garner measurable results and a minimal carbon footprint.

Visit our service page now to learn more about our affordable, strategic marketing services designed specifically for the nonprofit.

Search Engine Marketing Savvy, continued:

Numa: What does Search Engine Optimization mean?
What is Search Engine Marketing?
KL: Search engine optimization (SEO) is essentially the art of tweaking your Web site so it appears in the top 10 search results for a target keyword phrase. SEO affects the organic or natural listing of your site — the primary results you see in Google or Yahoo when you type in a search phrase.  

Pay-per-click (aka paid search or sponsored listings) refer to the paid links at the top and right side of the organic search results, which are usually separated out by color and identified as paid listings. While there are differing opinions on what to call the overall search marketing umbrella, we currently refer to the combination of organic and paid search as search engine marketing (SEM).  For more information, we have a handy glossary of terms on our Web site:
http://www.anvilmediainc.com/search-engine-marketing-glossary.html

Numa:  What are the different types of keyword optimization, and how does each work? (i.e., organic versus Pay-per-click)
KL: Organic and paid searches are likened to the traditional marketing world, where SEO is the equivalent of public relations and Pay-per-click (PPC) is the equivalent of advertising.

With SEO, you can tune up your site content, code and credibility (link popularity) to boost your visibility and improve your rankings. While it doesn’t cost you anything once you’re rankings are impvoed, you can’t guarantee exact placement.  Placement in organic search is based on the search engine algorithm or formula, which evaluates at roughly 100 criteria when assessing your Web site and where to put it in the search results.

On the other hand, Pay-per-click (PPC) allows much more control over your site's position (i.e. #1 for the term “Vancouver non-profit”) but you have to pay anytime someone clicks on your text ad.  While PPC is very efficient (you don’t pay for visibility or impressions, but you do pay for clicks) you don’t build any equity with the engines, so you disappear once you run out of media budget.  The ideal solution is to develop a balanced program involving both SEO and PPC to achieve the highest visibility.


Numa: What about those organizations who have a limited web budget, but are working with an older Web site built before Search Engine Optimization (SEO) was on their radar? What are the top 2-5 things nonprofits can do affordably to make sure their site is well-positioned on the web?
KL: SEO is not rocket science, but it does require a commitment by any organization to be successful.  In an article on my Web site, The Three C’s of SEO, I’ve outlined the three fundamentals that virtually guarantee success:
http://www.anvilmediainc.com/seo-building-blocks.htm

The first and most important aspect is the site content.  It needs to be in HTML text, so it can be indexed by the search engine spiders. Text needs to be infused with relevant keyword phrases with emphasis to indicate importance.

The second aspect is the source code (the machinery behind the scenes that makes the site work). If the code is large and complex, the spiders have difficulty indexing the text and leave, so we recommend using cascading style sheets (CSS) and related technologies that simplify the code and make it easier to index.  

The last aspect, credibility, relates primarily to Google (the search engine with 50% or more of the market). The more sites in your industry that link to you, the more credible the site, according to Google’s algorithm. Optimizing site content, code and credibility will maximize your visibility in organic search results.

Numa: What are some of the ways SEO can help cause-oriented nonprofits (who are not selling a service or product, but working toward change in their community, or advocating for policy change, for instance)?
Like any for-profit business, nonprofits are fueled by donors, volunteers, partners and press coverage.  To attract key stakeholders, the site must be visible.  We’ve worked with a variety of non-profits over the years (we take on one pro-bono client per year) including Raphael House, Loaves & Fishes and American Red Cross. We’ve found it’s challenging to get non-profits to implement our recommendations due to lack of resources, but when they do, they see an increase in volunteer inquiries, donations, partnership opportunities and press coverage.

Numa: Let’s say an organization is promoting an upcoming conference or one-time event, and they want to maximize attendance within a few target markets. How can SEM or SEO help them meet this goal?
We have an excellent case study on our site for Fertile Soul, a fertility retreat that addresses the opportunities search marketing offers event companies.
http://www.anvilmediainc.com/case_study_fertility.htm

Our client was hosting her first weekend retreat, but it had a $10,000 price tag. Dr. Lewis had no database of contacts or marketing budget, so she tapped Anvil to help generate attendance through paid and organic search. We created optimized content to generate organic visibility and developed a pay-per-click campaign targeting fertility and infertility treatment. The inaugural event was sold out in less than 30 days. Our strategies were fairly standard, but also very effective, even for time-sensitive events.  

Numa: Lead capture seems to be a pretty critical component of any well-built Web site. For those unfamiliar with what this means, can you describe how lead capturing works (including it’s relationship to the move to permission-based marketing)?
One critical component required for any SEM campaigns to be successful is a conversion path — a landing page with inquiry form or email registration for event or news updates, etc. We partnered with eROI to provide those services to Fertile Soul (and many other clients). The basic concept is that only 2% or so of all site visitors are ready to make any monetary commitment on the spot (donate, order or purchase) so you need fall-back options like register for email updates or sign up to receive a free report/assessment, to allow you to continue the conversation with them. Many of our business-to-business clients employ this approach to generate qualified leads for complex sales. Once you get someone’s email address, you can message them over time, to not only educate, but determine (based on click-behavior) what their interests are and how to best meet their needs while also meeting yours. 

For example, if one of the recipients of your email newsletter continually clicks on volunteer information, but doesn’t actually submit an application, it would make sense to follow up with them to understand or remove any hurdles. With an email platform like eROI, you can sub-segment your email lists based on profile/demographics or click behavior and message them independently. For example, you can send an email to previous donors asking them to fund a new project or to volunteer for a special event. Regardless of your needs, SEM and email marketing are two critical elements in any successful foray into online marketing.

Find additional resources and case studies on the AnvilMedia, Inc. website:

http://www.anvilmediainc.com/seo-pr-article.htm
http://www.anvilmediainc.com/pay-per-click-advertising-article.htm
http://www.anvilmediainc.com/online-reputation-management-article.htm
http://www.anvilmediainc.com/web-site-conversion.htm

Kent Lewis founded Anvil Media, Inc. in 2000 to help clients enhance their Web site performance, increase their visibility and generate sales online. Prior to launching Anvil Media, Lewis has worked with Portland full-service agencies including Young & Roehr Group, Wave Rock Communications and KVO. Lewis was also Director of Marketing and Business Development at goodguys.com and co-founder of eROI. Kent is also an active in his industry outside his role with Anvil Media, as co-founder and president of SEMpdx, a Portland professional organization as well as creator and Editor-in-Chief of Anvil, a free monthly e-zine. He is also an adjunct professor at Portland State University and sits on the board for Portland Advertising Federation. Lewis is the recipient of Portland Business Journal's Top 40 Under 40 Award in 2004.