Arts and non-profit organizations: Get noticed on a budget

What does your organization spend marketing your programs or services?  How much do your efforts get your organization in return? As a feeder to drive traffic to your main website or as the site itself, a blog can be a natural engine to draw attention to your business on the web. Most importantly, for cash-strapped non-profit organizations, blogs can be created and maintained without great expense.

Earlier this month, D.S. Leach Consulting launched a site on behalf of the Friends of Brockport Dance, a new arts organization that is being founded to raise money for scholarships to support students of the Dance Department at SUNY Brockport. In the first few days after launching the site, its "hit" count—"loosely" defined as the number of page views—began growing. And this was before a lot of the "optimization" of the site to the web was completed!  We hope that this tool will help to create the community that the Friends need to succeed in their goals.

What does this mean? A blog may be a good marketing option for small businesses, arts, and other types of nonprofit organizations. It is a great way to get your message out and get it noticed.  The main requirements are time and enthusiasm, not technical proficiency. Although time is always in short supply, enthusiasm is usually available in abundance in arts and other nonprofit organizations. Most blog platforms do not require a lot of knowledge of coding HTML or other technical skills.  Blogs can maintained by more than one person, so they are natural for staff at non-profits who have different "stories" to tell or who reach out to different constituencies.  Thus, you can leverage staff and volunteers to provide you with content and links to “feed” the blog.

We can work closely with you and your organization to develop a blog/site that will attract new interest, clients and, possibly, donors to your organization's programs or events. Our partner, WME Blogs, has extensive experience building high quality blogs and helping clients to learn how to maintain them or maintain them on behalf of the client. Or, if you prefer, you may contact us directly here at D.S. Leach Consulting and we’ll see if what package will suit your organization most effectively. Please leave a comment if you have a question, or contact us through the email link in the right panel if you'd like to learn more.