7 Reasons Why Your Nonprofit Needs Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is a powerful tool in the hands of businesses. It has been shown to drive a 14.5 percent increase in sales activity while reducing marketing overhead costs by 12.2 percent. The nonprofit sector is intensely competitive and these organizations need every advantage possible. Nonprofits who want to improve their ability to nurture relationships and build customer engagement with donors should be carefully considering what marketing automation solutions, like Experiture, can do for them.

1. Automate mundane marketing tasks for donor relations

As non-profits know, there is a considerable amount of effort that must go into nurturing relationships with donors. Many of these touch points are triggered either on automatic schedules or by particular behaviors by the donor. When organizations start to use marketing automation, they can make sure that their donors are contacted at the appropriate times, while still being able to focus their attention on other tasks.

2. Reduce human error

When every step of nurturing a donor relationship is taken care of manually, there is considerable room for error. Individuals might miss key touch points or accidentally send the wrong email to people, which can hurt the relationship between donor and non-profit. You can easily make your organization appear disorganized and unprofessional through regular errors when contacting donors. Marketing automation tools can help reduce this risk.

3. Know where your donors are in the funnel

All organizations want to know exactly where their users are in the marketing funnel. Where people go on your website can offer important insights into this journey. Marketing automation software will help brands track users on the site, and then answer them with the right email at the right time. Emails can be organized to provide material that will appeal to people at different stages of their journey and can then help nurture them to the next stage. With marketing automation software, keeping track of where people are in the funnel becomes easier, thus helping brands know which email will be the most appropriate.

4. Connect with your prospects and donors the way they want

There are a variety of ways to contact your customers. Email is definitely one of the most popular, which is not surprising considering that 72 percent of consumers say that is their preferred means of receiving promotional content. SMS is another popular option, particularly since these text messages have a 99 percent open rate and 90 percent are read within three minutes of sending. Other customers might prefer to hear from brands through social media. Using marketing automation software, brands can track the contact platform that customers prefer, and thus do a better job of connecting with them through their preferred channels.

5. Know what is working and what is not with built-in analytics

With marketing automation, it will also become easier to watch how your particular users move throughout the website. You can see which pages they click on and how long they remain there. You will be better able to understand their funnel positioning based on the pages that attract their attention and the materials they download. Since your tracking of their movements will be automated, you will be able to take advantage of key touch points throughout the journey more easily, without having to worry about missing an opportunity.

6. Store donor and prospect data in one easily accessible spot

Rather than juggling separate systems for both your donors and your prospects, your nonprofit will now be able to keep all of this important data in one place. Thus it will be easier for the members of your donor-relations team to track the progress with each individual and thus see greater success in nurturing donations and leads. Everyone will have access to the same information and thus the entire process will be run more smoothly.

7. Improve your donor ROI and help raise awareness and funds

With marketing automation, you will be able to connect with your donors at key points in their journey, building and nurturing relationships. Brands that use marketing automation see as much as a 451 percent boost in qualified leads. Now you will not have to worry about missing opportunities and allowing past donors or new prospects to fade. It will also be easier to ensure that all new leads are contacted at appropriate times and learn about the organization.

For non-profits, marketing automation represents a fantastic opportunity to better engage with donors, growing the organization and its reach. These are just a few of the reasons why nonprofits should be looking into their marketing automation software options, like Experiture. See how it can help you take your group further.