Google Ad Grants work just like Google Ads online advertising, by displaying your message to people searching for keywords relevant to your organization. If you’re a qualifying nonprofit, you are eligible to receive $10,000 in in-kind Google Ads advertising every month. Your organization must be verified as a nonprofit organization by TechSoup or the local TechSoup partner. Governmental entities and organizations, hospitals and medical groups, schools, academic institutions, and universities are not eligible for Google for Nonprofits, but philanthropic arms of educational institutions are eligible. 

There are a few conditions Google places on participants’ advertising: 

• Ads placed through the Ad Grants program must be entirely text-based (no videos or images).  
• Ads appearing through the Ad Grants program will appear only on Google search results pages, in positions below the ads of paying advertisers. 

Tucker/Hall can work with you to conduct keyword research and ensure you are getting the most out of your Ad Grant. Optimizing your keywords is crucial to your participation in the Ad Grant program because Ad Grants accounts must maintain a five percent click-through rate (CTR) each month (at the account level, not necessarily each keyword). If the CTR requirement isn’t met for two consecutive months, your account will be temporarily deactivated.  

In order to ensure that their Ad Grants drive meaningful impact, Google also requires participating organizations to have conversion tracking set up following tailored requirements intended to suit the needs of nonprofits. Conversion goals may look a bit different in the nonprofit sector compared to a business, but the analytics tool is adaptable: whether you are trying to drive donations, membership registrations, volunteer sign-ups, new membership form completions, or other types of engagement on your website, there is likely to be a conversion goal to match your needs.  

Contact Tucker/Hall today if you think you may be eligible for a Google Ad Grant and let us help you adapt your communications plan to incorporate this useful tool. 

Gary Vaynerchuk. Vaynerchuk is a social media professional and serial entrepreneur whose advice has helped thousands of people with marketing strategies. His company VaynerMedia developed social media strategies for several Fortune 500 companies, and his brand has more than one million followers. Vaynerchuk is also an investor and author with four bestselling books. His social profiles share plenty of helpful information for developing your strategies and finding inspiration for marketing campaigns.

Mike Stelzner. If you’re a marketer, you’ve probably heard of Social Media Examiner. The online publication is responsible for social media marketing trends, ideas, and new technologies. Stelzner, the Social Media Examiner founder, is an excellent person to learn from because he practices exactly what he preaches online. Stelzner has his impressive following online, not only because he founded the company but because his social media persona is relatable and informative.

Mari Smith. Smith is a notable entrepreneur, author, and thought leader in the social media marketing world. Her books and blog are used by thousands of marketers, mainly because of her in-depth understanding of Facebook marketing. She was one of Forbes’ top three social media influencers for three consecutive years and had a bestselling book, Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day. Smith also shares free content on her website and social platforms, which are very resourceful.

Seth Godin. Seth Godin is known not just for his expertise in digital marketing but for his thoughts on leadership, personal development, and creativity. Godin’s viral blog became famous for its simplicity and almost journal-like structure. However, Godin’s many books and blogs are incredibly insightful, inspiring marketers and entrepreneurs at all stages of their careers.

Scott Britton. Scott Britton is a no-nonsense marketer specializing in business development, email marketing, and social media. His blog and podcasts attract thousands of followers, and his content is known for being very straightforward and effective. If you want to learn solid marketing skills, Scott Britton is the person to learn from.

When developing a cause marketing campaign, here’s how to pick the right charity partner:

Choose a partner that’s respected. You want to work with a charity that is well-respected in the community. Charities that have earned respect over time usually have excellent marketing and fundraising abilities, which will help you implement an effective cause marketing campaign.

Choose a partner that connects well to your brand. Choosing a charity partner that could easily be associated with your brand can also significantly help a cause marketing campaign. One example is Warby Parker’s “Buy a Pair, Give a Pair” campaign. During this campaign, Warby Parker worked with a medical non-profit group that provides eyeglasses to patients in need. For each pair of glasses sold, Warby Parker covered the cost of a pair to the charity—connecting the company brand directly to the gift of sight.

Consider partnering with a small organization. Working with large non-profit organizations can be a great way to connect your company to a well-respected organization. But if you’re just one of a hundred other companies involved with that charity, you might not stand out. Consider instead a smaller charity—like a small food bank—so your company can make a big difference in a very targeted way.

Ask your employees to vote. If you have several charities you’re considering for your cause marketing campaign, consider asking your employees to choose the charity they want to support. If they are involved in the decision, they may be more involved in the cause marketing project when it launches.

If you’re interested in other tips or tools to use in your cause marketing campaigns, visit the Tucker/Hall Resource Center. For more information about comprehensive branding strategies, contact us.

Below are four Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) you should consider measuring and tracking. Using these metrics, you can listen to the marketplace and adjust your campaigns according to customer responses.

Customer Acquisition Costs: Ideally, you want to get to a place where most new customers come to you rather than you reaching out to them. But if you’re a new company, you will probably have to spend considerable money engaging customers. You’ll notice when your marketing campaigns take off when customer acquisition costs start to lower. If you are still paying a substantial amount per customer after a campaign has been in effect for some time, it may be wise to reconsider your strategies.

Increase ROI: You don’t want just to measure the ROI but compare it over time. The cost to acquire each customer should steadily decrease. Even if you feel good about your ROI, it should constantly improve—and if it’s not, you might need to reconsider tactics. Each quarter, you should isolate each marketing expense and review the data.

Engagement: You can find various online and traditional media statistics, but engagement is the holy grail. People who share, comment, backlink, and review your content are actively involved in your brand and are some of your greatest assets for brand awareness. Measuring engagement is complementary qualitative data to other marketing metrics.

Organic Traffic: The best marketing strategies are those you don’t have to maintain with dollars or time. If someone comes searching for you rather than reaching out, you’ve done something exceptional. Maintaining this organic traffic, whether it’s to your website or storefront, is crucial to success.

Tucker/Hall helps clients track and grow critical metrics and constantly uses that feedback to improve communications. If you’re interested in learning more, click here.  

What is Experiential Marketing?

Experiential marketing gives customers a unique experience with a brand—to improve customer loyalty or attract new customers. These campaigns aim to create positive memories between a company and its customers. There are hundreds of ways to launch a campaign, but the guiding principles are the same.

You are creating memories. All successful experiential marketing campaigns create lasting memories with customers. You want participants in your event to associate your brand with the idea of fun or some other emotional connection, such as a charitable cause or addressing a critical community issue.

Allow customers to make the experience their own. People enjoy experiences they make on their own, so you want your campaign to be flexible. Customers will be more likely to remember a customized experience because it is part of their personal story. Plus, you will learn more about what your customers enjoy, allowing you to target future efforts more finely.

They are interacting on the customer’s level. Experiential marketing allows a company to interact with its customers on their level. People identify with people, but many brands are considered cold and impersonal. You can toss aside that coldness during a campaign and get to know your customers more personally.

Emphasize sensory elements. Your customers need to feel, smell, taste, and interact with the product. Product samples, testers, and one-on-one interactions with your staff will help your customers see the benefit of your product or service in their lives.

Your marketing isn’t about your product. In experiential marketing, your customers aren’t focused on learning about your product or service. They’re interested in the experience your product provides. Many campaigns don’t even feature a specific product—they focus on getting customers involved with something exciting that the company is doing. Examples of non-product-centric experiential marketing campaigns include branded sporting events, hosting concerts, or trade shows hosted at your place of business.

For more ideas and information on experiential marketing campaigns and how to make the best of them, contact Tucker/Hall.

Here are 5 PR Tactics to Catch Consumers’ Attention:

1. Influencer marketing. One of the best ways to get a buzz about your product is to send samples to influencers. This works best with social media influencers and “celebrities” in niche markets. If they use your product in an Instagram photo, people will be tipped that a new product is on the horizon and anticipate its launch.

2. “Leak” to social media. Gossip spreads like wildfire on social media sites like Twitter. If you share information about your product launch privately with industry influencers, they may spread the word and promote interest. Be careful about spreading news too early, however. Social media can be a very harsh environment for businesses if they’re not careful, so be sure you can deliver and exceed people’s expectations before starting social media gossip.

3. Tie your product release to a big event. Make your product launch more about the customer than your company by tying the release to a big event. For example, if there’s a large festival in your community, participate in it and connect your product to it. This should help more customers learn about what you’re doing. You might even be able to garner some media attention if you come up with an interesting enough approach.

4. Partner with other organizations. You can sometimes win the trust of one customer segment by partnering with a company that already targets the same audience. You can also promote a new product by partnering with a charity or fundraising campaign. Consider donating part of the profits of your latest product to a charity to penetrate the market and boost sales at the beginning of the launch.

5. Send news releases to industry magazines and websites. People most invested in your industry will pick up these magazines and websites to learn about the latest and most significant companies. This can help you grab the attention of early adopters and introduce your latest product into an established market. The online form of press releases – guest posts on popular blogs – works.

If you want a team of public relations professionals behind making your product launch, contact Tucker/Hall today.