Nonprofits and for-profit companies use marketing, especially inbound marketing, a little differently. B2B or consumer-focused companies may employ inbound marketing tactics to encourage potential customers to buy a product or service. As a nonprofit, your primary goals are likely educating your audience (while also encouraging them to opt in to learn more about your organization) and, ultimately, convincing them to donate or volunteer. Inbound marketing can help you accomplish these objectives –– and meet a number of goals.
[bctt tweet=”Inbound marketing can help you accomplish these objectives –– and meet a number of goals.” username=”prosperstrat”]You may have read in our previous inbound marketing for nonprofits series about some ways nonprofits can take advantage of inbound marketing that we’ve previously discussed:
Now that you understand why inbound marketing is effective for nonprofits and the different ways in which you can use it, perhaps you’re intimidated reviewing the options for nonprofit inbound marketing tools. We can help. Whether your organization wants to accomplish all of these goals or just one of them, you need the tools to get your inbound marketing funnel in place. Here’s a breakdown to help you choose which is right for your organization:
Nonprofit Inbound Marketing Tools Compared
SharpSpring
With SharpSpring, you can manage many inbound marketing tasks, from drip campaigns –– which are automatically-deploying emails designed to “nurture” your audience to a desired goal –– newsletters, dynamic content, forms and lead scoring. However, user reviews indicate that while it is highly customizable, it can be a little tricky to create sleek emails without HTML knowledge.
According to Marketing Automation Insider, SharpSpring is three to ten times less expensive than nonprofit inbound marketing tools like Pardot or Marketo, so it’s an option worth considering for budget-conscious nonprofits.
Pardot
The most common reason our clients choose Pardot for their inbound marketing management is that they already use Salesforce for their CRM or donor management, and Pardot is fully integrated with Salesforce. So, if you don’t use Salesforce for development, you may want to consider other options.
You can use Pardot to develop forms to gather contact information, create emails in a user-friendly design tool, maintain lead scoring and keep track of your marketing efforts’ return on investment.
Infusionsoft
If your organization offers products or services as a revenue generation strategy, Infusionsoft may be a good option for you. Infusionsoft is primarily built around its CRM and is popular among marketers with an e-commerce component to promote. With Infusionsoft, you can build email marketing campaigns and landing pages, and send emails that all connect to that CRM.
However, reviews indicate that the reporting system is very detailed and is built for small organizations, but it’s not quite as user-friendly as other nonprofit inbound marketing tools. And, it can take some time to get up to speed with the platform’s capabilities to use the tool effectively.
HubSpot
As a HubSpot-certified agency, we can be a little biased toward this inbound marketing tool, but we also understand that it may not be the right choice for every organization. HubSpot is truly a one-stop shop, offering tools to build landing pages with unique forms, post your organization’s blogs, manage your social media presence, design and deploy beautiful emails, and integrate with your donor relationship management tools and other databases.
As compared to other nonprofit inbound marketing tools, users report that it’s extremely user friendly, and the support available with some packages is responsive and helpful. However, it can be expensive for some organizations, and less-expensive packages offer more basic support. If your budget is on the low side, you may want to consider another alternative. Or, learn what you can do with HubSpot’s free version.
We’ll help you find the right nonprofit inbound marketing tool for you.
At Prosper Strategies, we’re huge advocates for inbound marketing for nonprofit organizations, and have worked with (almost) all of the nonprofit inbound marketing tools currently available. We understand every organization has its own unique needs, and we work closely with our clients to determine which platform is the best fit for them.
Contact us if you have any questions about choosing nonprofit inbound marketing tools. We’re here to help you accomplish all of your inbound marketing goals. Or, if you’d like to continue to dive in to how your organization can leverage inbound marketing, download our “Ultimate Guide to Inbound Marketing for Nonprofits.”
