Mobile Marketing Best Practices for Nonprofit Organizations

1. Add a “Mobile” subscribe field to your mailing list pitch on your website.

First and foremost, your organization needs to start building your mobile list. Unlike e-mail and snail mail lists that can be bought and traded, people have to opt-in to receive your text messages. Even if your organization is months away from launching a mobile campaign, the Internet and social media are definitely going mobile and fast. The sooner you start building your mobile list, the better because it takes time. So, be like Beyonce and add a “Mobile” field to your mailing list pitch on your website. See upper right at www.beyonce.com.

2. Add a “Mobile” subscribe field to event sign-up sheets and donation slips in your print newsletters and funding appeals.

Most mobile service providers allow you to manually subscribe cell phones numbers to your list(s), but potential subscribers then receive a text confirmation to which they must they must reply “Yes” or “Y” to confirm their subscription. Make sure you add a "Mobile" subscribe field to donation slips in your print newsletters and funding appeals, as well as to sign up sheets that you use when tabling at events.

3. Post Tweets on Twitter and Status Updates on Facebook asking your followers to subscribe your text campaign.

When you launch a mobile campaign, your service provider will give your organization a keyword that can be sent to a short code that enables individuals to subscribe to your mobile campaign by sending a text message. Use Twitter and Facebook to build your mobile list by posting your subscribe keyword and short code pitch. Example Tweet:

New Text Campaign! Send "nonprofitorgs" to 41411 to subscribe. Or visit: http://www.textmarks.com/NONPROFITORGS

4. Less is more. Don't text your supporters too often!

Just like in e-mail marketing, always err on the side of caution when it comes to texting your supporters. Sending frequent messages to your group could easily annoy them and prompt them to opt-out. The frequency of messages varies from organization to organization, but as a general rule text your group two or three times a month, especially in the beginning. Monitor your unsubscribe rates and develop a sense for your mobile community.

5. Mix up your text message schedule.

Don't message your group like clockwork every other Monday at 12pm, for example. Your texts should be timely and go out when an event, news story, or call-to-action is relelvant on that day or week. The goal is to build a mobile community that responds quickly when the need arises. If you only send messages on a set time schedule, then you unintentionally run the risk of numbing down the power of mobile advocacy and activism.

6. Make sure your text messages don't arrive during sleeping hours.

Nothing is more annoying than getting woken up by your cell phone beaping that a new text message has arrived (from your nonprofit) at 5am. Make sure your text messages arrive when your supporters are awake! If you are a national organization with subscribers on both coasts, then be sure to factor in time zones.

7. Link the the mobile versions of your social networking profiles on your organization's mobile website.

In addition to adding Web 2.0 icons to your organization's desktop site and blog, it is important that you also add smaller versions of the Web 2.0 icons to your mobile website. That said, make sure on your mobile website that the icons link to the mobile versions of your Twitter profile(s) (m.twitter.com/nonprofitorgs), Facebook Page (m.facebook.com/nonprofitorgs), YouTube Channel (m.youtube.com/nonprofitorgs), etc. Thanks to the explosion of smartphones in 2009, social networking websites are the most trafficked websites on mobile devices today, and likely will be even more so in 2010. See www.nonprofitorgs.mobi for an example of Web 2.0 icons on a mobile website.

8. Make it easy for people to subscribe to your text alerts and e-mail newsletter on your mobile website.

Just like you use your website and blog to build your e-mail newsletter and mobile lists, create pages on your mobile website that make it very easy to subscribe to your e-mail newsletter and text alerts on a mobile device. It's also a best practice to have the "Subscribe" page(s) linked throughout your website. See www.nonprofitorgs.mobi as an example.

9. Limit text alerts to 140-160 characters.

Mobile service providers limit text messages to 160 characters. If you send a message longer than 160 characters, either two things will happen: 1) The mobile service provider will send the recipient two messages from your nonprofit (annoying), or 2) Your text alert will be cut off at 160 characters and your message will be incomplete. This is a pretty obvious best practice, but I still regularly receive text alerts from nonprofits that are too long, and thus I don't receive the entire message. I think Twitter has it right. 140 characters is the perfect amount for short bursts of data. Try to keep your text alerts between 140-160 characters.

10) Feature your smartphone App(s) on your website and blog with screenshots and "Download the App" buttons.

It's crucial that in the web marketing of your smartphones App(s) that you create a page on your website and/or blog that effectively features your App(s). You need a short summary, screenshots, and a "Download the App" button. The Monterrey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch iPhone App is the best example I have seen to date (January 2010). This is the page you want send out in Tweets, post as Facebook Status Updates, and in e-mail newsletters.

11) Link to your mobile website in text alerts, not your desktop site.

Even on smartphones like the iPhone, desktop sites are hard to read on mobile phones. Sometimes impossible. If your organization is utilizing group texting, then make sure you are linking to pages on your mobile site in text alerts, not your desktop site. If you don't have a mobile website, then create desktop pages that have one small image at the top (no wider than 180 pixels, aligned left) and simple text in the body of the webpage.

12) Make sure your "Donate Now" page functions in mobile browsers.

Linking to the desktop version of your "Donate Now" page in text alerts or on your mobile website just won't work. You need to create a very simple "Donate Now" page that is very easy to read and utilize in mobile browsers. Donors want to be able to quickly scroll down, enter contact and credit card information, and tap a "Donate Now" button. The same concept is true if your organization is utilizing Text-to-Give technology. The mobile website for the Special Olympics of Northern California is a great example: http://sonc.mobi

13) Do not require potential subscribers to enter their email address to receive text alerts.

Individuals are subscribing to receive text alerts, not e-mail newsletters. After they have subscribed your text alert campaign, you can then ask them to subscribe to your organization's e-mail newsletter via text message, but if you make it mandatory field on your mobile subscribe page, then your mobile is not going to grow very fast.

14) Add your KEYWORD and SHORT CODE pitch to your Twitter background.

Many nonprofits add their Facebook, YouTube and MySpace URLs to their Twitter backgrounds, such as the Harvard Business Review. Currently, I can't find any Twitter backgrounds that have the KEYWORD and SHORT CODE pitches, but adding "Text HAITI to 90999 to Donate $10!" to the Twitter background for the the Red Cross makes a lot sense. Another example would be the SEIU adding "Text SEIU to 787753 to receive text alerts from the SEIU!" If you are reading this now and know of a nonprofit that has a KEYWORD and SHORT CODE pitch on their Twitter background, please e-mail me at heather@diosacommunications.com.

15) Add your KEYWORD and SHORT CODE pitch to your print materials.

Whether it is a subscribe to receive text alerts KEYWORD and SHORT CODE pitch, or a text-to-give pitch, nonprofits that are utilizing texting technologies need to add their KEYWORD and SHORT CODE pitches to their print newsletter, their funding appeals, postcard mailings, and brochures that are distributed at events. It's not enough to just use your website, e-mail newsletter, and social networking sites to build your mobile lists.

16) Write a brief, useful App Description for the App Galleries/Stores.

Write a brief, useful description of your App that clearly explains its functionality. A description that talks about your organization and your mission statement is not enough to inspire many to download your App. They want to know what you App can do and why it's different from other Apps. If your App offers news, volunteer opportunities, blog posts, the ability to donate, an activist center, a calendar, etc., then clearly indicate those functions in your App description.

17) Use "nonprofit" and the "name of your organization" as App Keywords for the App Galleries/Stores.

It's very difficult to search for nonprofit iPhone Apps in the Apps Gallery. A quick solution to this problem is to add the keyword "nonprofit" to your App prior to submitting it to Apple. Also, make sure your organization's name and acronym as added as keywords. And of course, use keywords that speak to your organization's mission. For example, if your organization works to help save the whales use "environment, whales, marine life, oceans, sustainability, nonprofit, name of nonprofit, etc.".

18) Don't ask smartphone App users for their e-mail address before they have a chance to see what your App is about.

Some nonprofits have smartphone Apps that you can't even use unless you enter your e-mail address. Allows users to search around and get an overall sense of your App and what it does before asking them to enter their e-mail address. They took the time to download your App, so don't annoy them by marketing to them from the moment they tap to open your App for the first. It doesn't make a good first impression and you'll likely lose a great number of users.

19) Get professional training on how use mobile technology and social media!