I’ve been doing a lot of work/research about improving landing pages on nonprofit websites.

What’s a landing page and why should you care?

A landing page is a page on your website where you want visitors to complete a specific transaction, such as donating money or joining an email list.

Obviously these are some of the most important pages on your website. In Seth Godin’s words, “Landing pages are the new direct marketing, and everyone with a website is a direct marketer.”

As you can imagine, this is always harder than it sounds. Bad design, uninspiring text, and slow load times are just a few challenges. Below are tips that can help you improve the results on your landing pages:

Before you create your landing pages

1. Know your audience. Understand that their motivations are often different from yours.
2. What’s your goal? Pick one, and only one.
3. Who’s your audience? It’s tempting to think that your landing page needs to engage all of your audiences. But if you try and create a message that speaks to everyone, all you’ll end up doing is inspiring no one.
4. What’s your story? Pick one.

Designing and writing landing pages

1. Maintain the same branding on all landing pages. On your Facebook custom tab and avatar, in your email newsletter template, and in your direct mail pieces.
2. Use white space to direct the eye. White space at the margins will tend to direct your visitor to the center of the page.

1. Use a paragraph break every two sentences. No one reads the text on landing pages, they scan it. Then, if they’re interested, they’ll read more closely.
2. Use bullet points and numbered items. Bullet points are extremely humble little creatures. But they subconsciously convey two powerful messages: “You will be getting several things here” and “These things are very specific.”
3. Use big fonts. A study conducted by Stamford University confirmed that font size influences trust. 16 is the new 14.
4. Use big buttons. Amnesty International found that bigger donation buttons help convert more donors.
5. Focus attention with a compelling and concise headline that states the outcome. Malaria No More does this very well.
6. Optimize your landing page for search engines. Guess who owns the top spot for “Donate Now”? Network for Good.
7. Write copy in second person narrative. The word “you” (second-person pronoun) directly addresses the reader, and makes the landing page 100% about them.
8. Have only one call to action, but repeat it two or three times. Visitors want to be told what to do – just tell them!
9. Focus attention with a compelling image – preferably a person. Are the thousand words on your landing page telling people to go elsewhere?
10. Spend the money on licensing a professionally shot photograph. Good sources for these images are Fotolia and Getty Images.
11. Use fewer words. Only focus on story and call to action. A good exercise is to take your existing copy and cut it in half. Chances are you’ll end up with a much more effective landing page.
12. Keep the important stuff above the fold (area of the browser that’s visible without scrolling down).

Improving functions within landing pages

1. Reduce clutter. Again, what one thing do you want them to do? If you’re using WordPress for your website, a theme like Headway even allows you to eliminate the navigation bar on landing pages.
2. Ditch the sidebars. Unless the information in the sidebar contributes to the landing page, get rid of them!
3. Ditch the pop-ups. If you find them annoying, why wouldn’t your constituents?
4. Leverage social proof. People will be more likely to act if they see others doing the same. Check out ToMamaWithLove for a great example.

1. Reduce page load times. People start to drop off if your page takes longer that 2 seconds to load. Use Google Page Speed.
2. Get more out of your thank you page. Your cause is top of mind for people when they donate or sign a petition. Use that moment to get them to take another action (share, join an email list or text message list, etc.).

Measuring landing page results

1. Measuring will answer these questions:
   • Where do people arrive from?
   • Where do they exit?
   • Which inner pages point to the landing Page?
   • How long do they stay?
   • What other Pages did they visit?
   • Which social media sites send us the most traffic?
   • How are they finding us in search?

   Check out these video tutorials on using Google Analytics.

2. Use heat maps (see above). They will show you where people are clicking most on your landing page.
3. Perform the three second rule:
   • Have a few people look at your landing page for three seconds.
   • Close the browser and have them write down the purpose of the page was.
   • You’ll be very surprised at their response.
4. Perform the “Header Removal Test.“ If you remove the logo and tagline from your website, will people still know what your site is about without scrolling?

Debrief and discuss your results

1. Data means nothing if there’s no discussion about its meaning and how you’ll respond to what you’ve learned.

What’s your tip for landing pages? Share below

Related

• See our Facebook tutorials (Socialbrite)

The post 29 tips to improve your nonprofit site’s landing pages appeared first on Socialbrite.

Campaigns, timely updates, passionate supporters add up to move the needle

By Kim Bale
Socialbrite staff

Lots of nonprofits and social change organizations have used Causes (formerly Facebook Causes) to raise funds and amplify their efforts, but the vast majority of them haven’t moved the needle much. So we set out to discover: What makes a successful campaign on Causes?

Each week, people donate hundreds of thousands of dollars on Causes. But participating organizations often have goals beyond raising funds: Many are trying to recruit new supporters, raise awareness about issues, enlist people to attend events and so on. Organizations using Causes, a small unit within Facebook, often use Facebook apps and the viral power of friends of friends to generate attention in a way not possible in the days of stand-alone destination websites.

The really remarkable stories on Causes, though, involve the individual activists — not the nonprofits themselves — who launch a cause and generate interest in some of today’s most pressing issues. Some causes grow in membership by word of mouth, while others are part of a planned outreach campaign. Large or small, each cause showcases its top recruiters, donors and fundraisers in its Hall of Fame, prompting more people to participate.

While Causes has not lived up to everyone’s lofty expectations as a money machine, even small-scale causes — like the $3,400 donated to help wildlife hurt by the BP oil spill — can add up to make a difference.

There are many elements to creating a successful cause campaign — frequent updates, active supporters, playing off news headlines and joining larger fundraising efforts are four key factors — and lots of ways to measure success. Here are 10 of the best efforts we’ve seen on Causes. Have your own favorite? Add it in the comments below!

The Race To End Cancer

1With nearly 6 million members, The Race to End Cancer is the largest Facebook cause and has raised $74,105 for the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Started by 19-year-old Michelle Miles, the cause has become enormously successful as members recruit their friends in hopes of raising money and growing it to the next level. Incentives such as competing in America’s Giving Challenge (Causes is one of three sponsors) and helping the hospital win a playroom makeover sponsored by Xbox keep members donating and recruiting friends. Other successful cancer campaigns include Campaign for Cancer Prevention and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, among many others.

Overseas China Education Foundation (OCEF)

2The OCEF has more than 10,000 members and has donated more than $240,000 to improve school systems in rural China and help disadvantaged children get an education. Part of their success is due to tying in to larger campaigns, including the Facebook app for Chase Community Giving and America’s Giving Challenge; OCEF won the 2009 Giving Challenge, receiving over 13,000 of the 105,420 donations made.

Love Without Boundaries Foundation

3This small, volunteer-staffed nonprofit managed to pull ahead of larger organizations in the 2008 Causes Giving Challenge to raise an eye-poppnig $144,898 from just 4,115 donors. The secret to their success? Many of its staff members signed up for Facebook just to join the challenge and then used the organization’s heartfelt stories and touching photos to bring in thousands of new supporters who had never heard of them. Love Without Boundaries provides Chinese orphans with medical care in preparation for adoption. The organization allocated $50,000 of the prize money to save the lives of 10 babies through heart surgery. To date, the cause’s 30,000 members have generated $158,459, telling us that ginning up online support during the Giving Challenge was critical key to success.

The Nature Conservancy

4More than 230,000 supporters have chipped in $367,819 so far for The Nature Conservancy cause. The Facebook application (Lil) Green Patch has been especially helpful — people who use it have recruited 1,219 members and raised $210,000 to save the rainforests. The organization is providing updates about the Gulf oil spill, generating additional interest and contributions.

Save Darfur

5While many causes are started by outside activists or supporters, a staffer of the Save Darfur Coalition launched this cause as part of the nonprofit’s outreach to the wider community. Save Darfur was one of the first causes on what was then called Facebook Causes. With more than 1.1 million members, Save Darfur has raised $99,000 in donations and generated significant awareness about the situation in Darfur. Save Darfur drives traffic to Causes from multiple social networks by playing off news headlines about Sudan and the tragic suffering of its people.

Amnesty International

6Brian Glasscock created the Amnesty International cause, which he updates daily with relevant posts and discussion topics. As the top recruiter with 555 recruits, the 16-year-old has helped grow the cause to more than 546,000 members, catching the eye of Amnesty International and landing him a job managing their online presence. Support is as lightweight as reading a short blog entry about human rights abuse. People have donated more than $38,000 to date.

Feed Hungry Children in Haiti

7In the response to the food riots and “silent tsunami” of food shortages in 2008, the Friends of the World Program created the Feed Hungry Children in Haiti cause to aid relief efforts. The cause took on added urgency after the January 2010 earthquake that devastated the country. So far, more than 93,000 members have helped generate $68,297 to donate to the United Nations World Food Program. For 25 cents, the program can provide a meal to a child, and the Prem Rawat Foundation has vowed to match every Facebook cause donation up to $100,000. Thanks to this partnership, more than 440,000 meals have been provided to children in Haiti.

Stop Global Warming

8The Stop Global Warming cause is one of the largest causes on Facebook. To date, its 3.5 million members have donated more than $40,000, most of which has benefited Al Gore’s organization, The Alliance for Climate Protection. The cause originally raised money for the Friends of the United Nations Environment Programme, though after Gore won the Noble Peace Prize the group and its administrators collectively decided to fund his organization. The organizers do a good job posting updates about news around climate change or the Gulf oil spill.

Tibetan Freedom Movement

9The Tibetan Freedom Movement, run by Students for a Free Tibet, works on behalf of the people of Tibet to advance their struggle for freedom and independence. The cause has more than 76,000 members and has raised $180,150 to date. Run out of the United States and Tibet, the cause page has become a global forum for discussion of human rights and sovereignty issues. The cause page is currently promoting a Free Tibet Acton Camp in upstate New York on June 23-29 — the deadline to apply is today.

“The Cove” – Save Japan Dolphins

10“The Cove,” a multifaceted online effort to stop the brutal killing of dolphins in a Japanese fishing village, got a publicity boost when it won the Oscar for best documentary feature earlier this year. On the Causes site, The Cove issues action alerts to spread news about cruelty to dolphins and whales. Its nearly 700,000 members have donated more than $55,000 to date.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Amnesty International Uses Social Media to Attack Shell (marketingpilgrim.com)
• Facebook for non profits: Lend a Paw to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (krishnade.com)
• Chase and Facebook Announce Winning Charities in Final Round of Chase Community Giving (eon.businesswire.com)
• Donation Marketing Tips NTEN – April 2010 (slideshare.net)

The post Behind the success of 10 top Causes appeared first on Socialbrite.