Want to Secure New Donors To Your Subscriber Email List? This is How . . .

A Case Study for Nonprofit Omnichannel Marketing

Every nonprofit we work with has an incredible mission to change the world for the better.

Unfortunately, it’s never the quality of the mission that separates the more successful organizations from the less successful ones. 

It always comes down to impact, driven by the ability to reach a larger audience and put more donation dollars to work.

But therein lies the problem. It’s hard for nonprofits to grow their audience and attract new donors without feeling like they’re pulling resources away from the mission. 

Most rely on word-of-mouth from their existing donor base, volunteers, and board members to grow. While this strategy is important …, it’s often slow and inconsistent.

So how do you grow your nonprofit impact in a reliable and cost-effective manner?

One way? Build digital marketing strategies around free lead magnets that attract and retain donors while also furthering the mission. 

When the resource you create is valuable to your audience and relevant to your mission, the outcome is a proven way to grow email subscribers and attract donations.

In this article, we present a case study to demonstrate powerful digital content and nonprofit omnichannel marketing. 

We’ll cover everything from content strategy, to execution, to using advertising to leverage your lead magnet in a way that any organization can use.

Quick spoiler alert:, We also go into detail on how we grew Maot Chitim’s subscriber email list by over 830 subscribers, 150+ new donors, and nearly $9k in new donations in under 100 days, as a real-world example of this case study in action.

Attract and Retain Donors through Omnichannel Marketing

Maot Chitim of Greater Chicago is a nonprofit serving the Jewish community since 1908. 

Their mission is to provide meaningful opportunities, through the delivery of food and other necessities, to help those in need celebrate Jewish life with dignity and joy.

Maot Chitim approached us in 2021 to develop a marketing strategy to reach their communities and grow their donor base. 

The following case study covers a six-month engagement and ongoing Google ad grant management. 

However, the process we followed to create and scale a lead magnet is relevant to any nonprofit organization looking to grow its impact.

Step 1: Finding What Donors Want Through Market Research

Market research is a VITAL first step for any successful content or marketing strategy.

Nonprofits need to understand what their audience cares about and how they can most effectively reach new donors and volunteers.

While you can’t know who will be a supporter ahead of time, you can target an audience with values, interests, and experiences that align with your organization’s mission.

One of the best ways to do this is to offer a free lead magnet or a digital resource that solves a problem for your audience that is also connected to your nonprofit’s mission.

Before we dive into what type of resource you should create, it’s important to determine the content your audience wants.

We need to balance ideas that are in demand with problems that your organization solves so that the consumer of the content is given a taste of your mission and connects how you helped them to your organization’s greater purpose.

We suggest using Google’s Keyword Planner or another free tool to research topics or problems  that have high search volume using the following steps:

1. Generate keyword ideas based on your organization’s programs, expertise, or strengths, or research what keywords peer organizations are using
2. Note the search volume and competition for each idea
3. Sort keywords with related themes to create topics that your content might address
4. Consider surveying your existing audience to validate the content ideas your keyword research has unearthed (if possible, it’s great to confirm demand before creating a solution)
5. Rank the topic ideas that are in high demand and are highly relevant to your nonprofit’s mission

For Maot Chitim, we considered keywords related to families, connections, holidays, and food within the Jewish community. After consolidating the ideas a few topics emerged:

• Sabbath activities
• Recipes
• Passover games
• Family activities
• Holocaust remembrance

Then we engaged with their existing audience and asked for input on what kind of resource would be most valuable.

A clear winner stood out: A recipe book for important Jewish holidays.

Step 2: Picking the Right Type of Digital Content

If you have a large audience to tap into, the right type of digital content might reveal itself. 

However, if you can’t validate your idea ahead of time, there are other things to consider.

Whether we work with established nonprofits or new organizations, we always like to ask the following questions when choosing the best resource to create:

1. What timeline does your nonprofit have in mind to create this asset?
2. What budget does your nonprofit need to work within to create the content?
3. Do you want to create an evergreen asset that can be used for many years or are you targeting a specific event?
4. What expertise or content can you leverage that already exists within your organization?

The truth is . . . the “right” lead magnet can take many different forms. A lot depends on your audience’s desires and your organization’s capabilities.

We’ve seen success across various options including:

• eBooks
• Guides
• Quizzes
• Infographics
• Templates
• Online Courses

Different resources will require more or less investment from both your organization and your audience.

Along with the questions above, we recommend reading NextAfter’s research on email acquisition. 

In the end, the correct choice will balance cost, impact, and demand.

While the choice of a recipe book was already clear for Maot Chitim, we discussed all the options with them to ensure they understood the time and effort it would take to create it.

Step 3: Creating Amazing Content That Attracts Donors

How you create your lead magnet ultimately depends on what type of resource you decide to build.

Here are some quick suggestions for the other types of resources you might create:

Creating a compelling lead magnet requires subject-matter expertise and often other support including:

• Writers
• Editors
• Videographers
• Graphic Designers
• Engineers

A digital marketing agency can help you coordinate outside resources as well as the expertise already embedded in your nonprofit organization. AI tools like Causewriter can help you shorten the time from subject-matter knowledge to first draft.

For Maot Chitim, we wanted to create a recipe book that both looked beautiful and also engaged the community. In order to do this, we partnered with Jewish celebrity and influencer chefs to provide curated, mouth-watering recipes.

This was a detailed process including:

1. Finding Jewish chefs with followings across TV and social media
2. Picking the best recipes to showcase
3. Pitching each chef to get them to agree to allow Maot Chitim to use their recipes, including providing high-quality food photos
4. Organizing the recipe pages and instructions in a way that mirrored successful consumer cooking apps
5. Compiling, creating, and promoting the resulting digital resource

The extra effort that went into building a recipe book using Jewish experts created a terrific buzz in the community. It ultimately led to recognition from other sources, further increasing the impact of the content.

If you’re interested, we’re going to share the recipe book below. But first, we have one more step to cover: how to persuade visitors to sign up for your lead magnet through a high-converting landing page.

Step 4: Converting Visitors Into Eager Subscribers

The basic premise of a landing page is to turn visitors into email subscribers by encouraging them to exchange an email address for the valuable resource you created.

A landing page should put your visitors first, by speaking directly to their problems and desires, and showcasing how your resource is a perfect solution.

The quality of your landing page will make a large difference in subscriber conversions so we put together a simple 6-step outline you can use to get started.

We recommend structuring your lead magnet’s landing page like this for optimal subscriber conversions:

1. Attention-grabbing pitch and call-to-action: The first section of your landing page is the most important, as it is “above the fold” for any visitor on any device. Here is your chance to engage visitors and quickly demonstrate the value your digital resource offers.
2. Opt-in form and summary: This section should address the problems your audience is seeking to solve in more detail, as well as the solutions your resource provides. Speak in your audience’s language. Address their emotions, rather than the technical details of your content.
3. Sneak peek: Give visitors an intriguing look inside your course, eBook, guide, or download. Demonstrate your expertise and highlight hyper-specific solutions your resource provides. If possible (and relevant), include forms of social proof or testimonials.
4. Special features: Promote the unique features of your resource. We often find it helpful to compare how your resource is superior to other options available to the visitor, so they feel like they don’t have to search any further.  
5. Share the benefits: Demonstrate the value your resource provides to your visitors based on what problems it solves. Help your visitors visualize and understand exactly how they can make use of your resource as soon as they download it.
6. Tie it back to the organization: Finally, help visitors understand how your resource supports the mission of your nonprofit. Educate them on the benefits your organization provides to others.

Feel free to follow along with the outline above as you scroll through the recipe book landing page for Maot Chitim.

While there are many ways to design nonprofit landing pages, the most important goal is to make your value proposition desirable, immediate, and highly credible, so that visitors stay on the page.

In terms of content, your landing page should answer the following questions for the visitor:

• Do you understand my problem?
• What are you offering?
• How will it help solve my problem?
• Why should I pick this resource over others?
• Can I trust you?
• What will you do with my information?
• What happens after I subscribe?

The content and structure of your landing page should guide users down the page, on a frictionless journey . . . regardless of what device they are using.

And don’t forget to use design to your advantage – media and graphics should help visitors process information – they should never be a distraction.

Step 5: Building Relationships With New Email Subscribers on Autopilot

At this point, you’ve created a desirable lead magnet, showcased the benefits of your resource, and convinced visitors to subscribe to your nonprofit’s email list.

But let’s not forget why we’re here: 

We’re here to build relationships with email subscribers that turn into donations, and support that further fuel the impact of your nonprofit.

Email is one of the best ways to grow and retain your donor base with an average ROI of 40:1. That’s because email’s advantages, when compared to other marketing channels (like paid advertising or social media) … far outweigh their disadvantages:

• The majority of potential donors have an email address, while fewer are on social media or paid channels
• Email has higher engagement rates than social media posts or paid advertising
• Maintaining and communicating with your email list has virtually no cost vs. paid media
• Subscribers are more likely to want to hear from your organization as opposed to other marketing efforts that may interrupt their attention
• You own your email list and control how you reach your subscribers, unlike social media where the platforms control the policies and algorithms

To make the most of your email subscribers, have a strategy beforehand to build trust and engagement with your organization.

One of the best ways to do this? 

Run a “welcome series”. (A series of pre-written emails, scheduled to send over the first week after new subscribers download your resource.)

We find campaigns containing multiple emails are effective at building long-term relationships. 

They are typically structured like this: 

1. Deliver the promised resource immediately
2. Connect with your subscribers by asking questions or soliciting feedback on the resource
3. Provide value and assistance related to tangential problems the resource aimed to solve
4. Share an encouraging story about fulfilling your organization’s mission
5. Tell the subscriber about your nonprofit and encourage them to donate or volunteer their support

Don’t forget, this is meant to be the start of a long-term relationship. As such, you should aim to provide a lot of value to your email subscribers before you ask for anything in return. 

And don’t let the welcome sequence be the only time they hear from you!

Step 6: Scaling Growth Through Google Ad Grant Management 

With a compelling lead magnet in hand, a high-converting non profit landing page set up, and a scripted email sequence scheduled … 

… the only consideration left is whether to add fuel to the fire in the form of Google Grant advertising that directs visitors to your lead magnet’s landing page.

This can be even further boosted with paid Google ads (if you have the budget for it).

But remember: Paid traffic only accentuates what is or isn’t working in your marketing funnel. 

If your landing page is performing below expectations, or your lead magnet is not engaging your audience … it is not the right time to scale up.

Thankfully for Maot Chitim, we designed a recipe book and nonprofit landing page which both resonated with their audience, and scaled well with traffic from Google and Bing advertising.

Their Subscriber Email List Results . . . So Far

The results for Maot Chitim were fantastic. 

60 days after launch, Not Your Bubbe’s Recipe Book had captured more than 250 new email subscribers and 36 new donors.

Google and Bing advertising then turned around $40,000 of free spend into almost 580,000 impressions, 21,000 landing page visitors, and 830 new email subscribers. 

The welcome sequence that followed saw a healthy 49% open rate and 11% click-through rate. Ultimately 150+ of the new subscribers were converted into first-time donors, raising nearly $9k in new donations in under 100 days.

Of course, the impact of the recipe book is not over yet. We created an evergreen asset that will drive donations for years to come (between January and May of 2024, the subscribers from this book gave nearly $30,000 in donations!). It can be further optimized and improved over time. And now that it’s worked so well, there’s nothing stopping them from doing it again.

That’s the power of a well-designed digital marketing strategy and lead magnet.

If you’d like to learn more about the strategies employed in this article … pick up our own eBook on finding donors.

Or email us directly here. Always happy to answer questions!