IMAGINARY INTERNET MARKETING AND ADVERTISING

Imaginary internet marketing and advertising



Imaginary internet marketing and advertising

Introduction

The organization has to identify the markets that would have the most stakes in the mission. Keep in mind that an organization can have several types of customers, all with different types of stakes and interests in the same mission. Customers can generally be narrowed down to the following types: internal, external, service, and referral sources.

Internet: Website, Social Networking Sites, E-mail, Podcasts, Craigslist

The World Wide Web is becoming the most powerful tool for organizations and individuals alike to market themselves. It is almost considered a must for nonprofits to have a website, and most have dedicated a lot of time and energy on making their websites both attractive and usable. There is also the typical use of e-mail in lieu of mailing such things as newsletters and fundraising appeals. Nonprofits can also become creative and decide to post podcasts or list advertisements on sites like Craigslist. The possibilities are endless for ways to market an organization on the Internet. Additionally, there is also a growing trend of using social networking sites to market one's organization. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr, and YouTube are all becoming the fastest, cheapest, and best ways to reach certain demographics (Philip, 2005, 77).

These sites can be used to advertise events, inform the public on topics of concern for the nonprofit, post volunteer and job opportunities, and/or to ask for donations. The possibilities for the uses of the many social network sites are endless, and since the vast majority of these sites are free, nonprofit organizations should have a presence on all of them.

Marketing on the Internet also offers a unique ability to easily track the costs of marketing and return on investments through web programs, such as Google adwords and Google analytics. In a matter of a few clicks, a nonprofit can know how many people have visited its website, how many have found the website by searching for certain words, which ones (anonymously) actually explored the website beyond the first page, and who ended up donating or contacting the organization. No other marketing venue can offer this extensive information, especially at such a low cost to the organization.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing unfortunately has a bad reputation because of organizations handling the use of cold calling inappropriately. If done correctly, telemarketing can actually be very successful for a nonprofit organization. It really takes ...