TechTalk: Should I Spend More on Facebook or Google?

We have more choices about how to spend our online marketing budgets than ever before. So how can a fundraising team be as efficient and effective as possible with limited time and money? That's what we'll explore in this month's column.

There are two extremes, and it's best to avoid either one. On one side of the spectrum are those fundraising organizations that are too limited in their online marketing. They may rely heavily on only one or two online tools. They have websites and are using email newsletters, but that's about it when it comes to online relationship building.

On the other end of the spectrum are those teams that not only have extensive Pinterest collections, but spend lots of meeting time talking about Snapchat and Instagram. Not to say experimenting with new social media should be discouraged, but it should be given budget and time boundaries when compared to more proven, though less flashy, tools such as email marketing.

Most would agree that a website is a basic need for any organization, but I have seen many teams make the mistake of spending too much time and energy building or renovating their websites, only to fall short on plans to drive traffic to those websites. The old "build it and they will come" idea may work in the movies, but it does not for nonprofit websites.

It's good for any fundraiser to be familiar with the primary sources of traffic to his or her website. I don't expect the fundraiser to replace the webmaster anytime soon, but there should be a good conversation between those two roles. Their mission should be to drive more traffic to the website, particularly the type of traffic that converts to online donations or other goal that is important to the organization.