Tips for Creating an Online Strategy

Other tactics he suggested are:

• search engine marketing, which can be used to drive traffic to a Web site donation page or for branding;
• e-mail list growth services, which can help an organization identify donor leads, are great for engaging an audience and help with branding;
• e-mail marketing (list purchase/rental), which can be used to drive traffic to your site where contact information can be captured and for further branding;
• display advertising, which is often eye-catching and good for branding; and
• social-network outreach, which is mostly about branding and building community.

3. Implement tactics in a way that can be measured and tracked.
Have a plan for measuring and evaluating each of the tactics you implement before starting, and count staff time when calculating costs. Below is an example of an online strategy with a goal and tactics that can be measured and tracked:

Goal: Raise money.
Tactic 1: Grow e-mail list externally, then ask for donations
Measurement: Cost of list growth/donations received. Look back over last six months and then again in 12 months.

Tactic 2: Outreach on Facebook using Causes, then ask for donations
Measurement: Staff time invested growing and engaging community/donations received on via Facebook or through Web site

Tactic 3: Twitter campaign to get traffic to donation page on site
Measurement: Staff time growing and engaging followers/donations received on Web site

4. Assess tactics.
Assess those tactics showing the greatest return, including less tangible values like engagement, branding, etc., and refine how you use them while testing new tactics.

Some ways to measure success include looking at:

• number of donor leads
• number of actions
• number of new e-mail subscribers
• clicks to site (but at what cost?)
• cost per donor; action; subscriber; click

5. Repeat steps two through four until you achieve your goals.

"Finding donors and raising money online is more important than ever," Rardin said. "A thoughtful strategy will vastly help improve your chances of success in online outreach.