I just got off of a webinar hosted by The Nonprofit Times and Rachel Clemens of Mighty Citizen that was chock full of great reminders and new ideas about what a nonprofit website should include. I would venture to add that some of these tips that Rachel shared would also translate nicely for small businesses.
Here is a summary of my takeaways from the session. Things and ideas that really hit home for me when it comes to simple ways to maximize your website, your digital doorway to your organization.
There’s no getting around it: more and more people are using the website to donate, especially using their mobile phones. Some clear questions about how easy is it for that visitor to give you money and in some cases, how easy is donating to your organization if they are using their phone. The more work they do, the less likely they are going to do it.
The messaging of you are conveying on your site must hit three points:
- Why are you doing what you are doing?
- How is it making a difference?
- What can I do to help?
One point that Rachel shared stopped me in my tracks: your website is NOT a tool to use to bring awareness to your organization. There are other things that do that by bringing people to your site. Once there, the job of the site is to get them engaged based on what you prioritized as the key message point. What the real question is, why do you need to grow awareness? This ties right into your ‘why’!
I was also fascinated to hear her recommend that those (pesky – my word) sliders or rotating images on websites are actually a real no-no because they are too distracting to visitors. I know from my own experience, I’ve been sucked in to try and recapture one of the passing images and clicking my way to find it, temporarily why I even came to the site in the first place. She shared a URL to check out to make the point. Click here to check it out.
There were several other great ideas that were shared in today’s session. Here is a link to their summary of the best websites they have spotted this year. You can also easily navigate to other pages on their site to learn more about their services. Start with this general information today to get your digital doorway ready for your next visitor. If I can be of service, please drop me a line!
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