The Search Engine Optimization for the website presents these potential problems existing in the Club’s website:
- Very few metadata keywords present in the website available for search engines.
- No headings found. This prevents the signal to the search engines, what the website is about.
- Most of the images in the Club’s website do not have the “alt” attribute. The “Alt” attribute provides the alternative content for images, which can be used by the search engine crawlers.
- Interior page analysis provided the same keyword and description for 3 different pages within the main page.
- The readability level is Secondary/High School, which is good in perspective of the members. But the readability level should be in much higher level in order to impress all level of target audience.
- The time of expiration for the domain of the Club’s website is set to expire in 7 months. In general the search engines penalize the website with domains which are set to expire soon.
- Permanent redirect for the website is missing, which reduces the credit from the search engines.
- Google Page rank is 3, Google indexed page is 56, Traffic rank is not rated, Inbound links to the website is very less, and the website is not listed in major online directories.
- RSS feed is not found.
Poor quality website will lead to serious drawbacks to the Club’s growth. The members visiting the website will not take the club’s mission serious if the website doesn’t appeal to them.
The Club’s website is definitely in need of content management system. Redundant use of the logos, images and information across the pages should be reduced. Content Management System also provides a single access point for the standard templates, newsletters etc.
Vinay – do u have any feedback on Content management system for this website?
Value Chain
The Boys and Girls Club is a Non-profit Organization run by few staff and volunteers. This leads to unorganized programs and inconsistent online marketing plans. The club can be focused to function within the value based framework by making it more entrepreneurial in how it manages social programs, recognizing and measuring social value in the delivery of services and products, using logic models for assessment and measurement, and making the connection between emotional intelligence and effective leadership.
These are the external factors, which affect the value chain for any Non Profit Organization, and they apply to the Boys and Girls Club of Billerica:
Reference:
The strategic planning for the Internet marketing is portrayed in the following logic model:
The strategic plan for the online marketing should have a well-defined mission, an outline for the goals, objectives and activities, assessment of current resources and a strategic analysis. The club should set its mission of increasing the funds inflow through online marketing, increase number of volunteers to work on the marketing objective.
- SWOT Analysis:
Strengths:
- The club has nationwide network, which proves its brand name popularity.
- The club serves as a secure place for the kids to spend after school hours.
- The club serves as a second home for the kids.
- Inexpensive fee structure provides opportunities to the low to mid income people.
- Community based, which makes kids and their parents more connected to the community.
- The technical infrastructure already exists, which maintains the club’s website.
- The location is accessible by public transportation, and pick up service is available from the Billerica public schools which makes it convenient for kids and low income families.
- Local business support the club to improves the community.
- Good relationship between parents and staff members, which improves the quality of service.
- The club attracts members with special events like Elementary School Dance, Movie Night and Family Swim Night.
- Board members are diverse in age, gender, religion, occupation, skills and background.
- Board members share passion and have strong ties to the community.
- Good relationship with the administration in the target schools.
Weakness:
- Board Members don’t attend the meetings on a regular basis. Some of them don’t contribute either money or time.
- Outdated website design with poor navigation between the pages.
- Fundraising is very critical.
- Fewer programs offered to the kids in peak hours.
- Historically challenged in identifying grants from government organizations and local and corporate businesses
- Deficit of experienced people resource allocated for marketing.
- Inadequate online and offline communication with parents.
- Data captured through online database is not being effectively utilized to improve volunteering and philanthropic performance.
Opportunities:
- Availability of long-term grants provided by large corporations and Universities.
- Teenage kids have afterschool hours which need to be utilized in a useful and secured place like the Boys and Girls Club.
- Build a relationship with local school districts to introduce innovative programs to help teenagers in the community.
- Volunteers from the local community who get personal involvement in improving the club.
- A large talent pool of qualified software professionals who can be signed up to volunteer with building a new website and email distribution program.
Threats:
- Fundraising is becoming increasingly difficult in the current economic climate.
-
The private gyms and YMCA in the town offer more activities and choices to the kids and parents combined.
- Bad reputation created by improperly trained staff.
- Higher risk of personal injury claims.
- Resistance from parents and families.
- Competition from other non-profit organizations.
The Boys and Girls club should focus on its weakness and threats to decrease them and concentrate on its opportunities available and utilize them to improve the Marketing Strategy.
- Marketing Problems and Opportunities
Problems related with volunteer programs:
- The volunteer program plan for any marketing idea is not consistent.
- The volunteers need to be screened before they are in charge for sensitive data or given any responsibility. A simple background check and reference from others will add to the reliability of the person.
- Volunteers need to be supervised for a particular period, so that
- Training should be provided to the volunteers until they get accustomed to the program. This requires additional resource.
Marketing Opportunities:
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Search Engine Optimization – The technique used to make the website attractive to the search engines. This includes: adding keywords in the website’s title or in link, link popularity based on how many sites linked to the Club’s website, developing content that others want to link to which is called “link-baiting”, get listed in the online directories.
- Attract the offline members to club’s website through FAQ section and support questions.
- Banner advertisements are available free of cost which increases click through traffic.
- Simple “bookmark reminder” pop-up window will request visitors to bookmark the website.
- Promote volunteer programs for high school kids. This can be added to their community volunteer hours for their school curriculum. The club provides certificates for their volunteer service.
- Select board members who currently work in media like newspaper, television or radio. This helps to market the new campaign launched in the club.
- Advertise the benefit for the donors when they donate like Tax deduction in bold. This attracts large corporations and wealthy donors.
- Local business which is willing to advertise in the Club’s website.
- Whenever the club related members interact with outside people, they should encourage them to visit the club’s website.
- Offline marketing is to include the website address in all the club related material and communication like brochures, business cards, letterhead, T-Shirts, Coffee cups, press releases, event announcements and invitations.
- Identification of Target Market/Market Segments
The target market for the online marketing strategy can be categorized as follows:
Target Market for Online Marketing:
Internet user segments are categorized based on Geography, Demography into connectors, Simplifiers, Routiners, Surfers, Bargainers, Sportsters.
Target Market for Fundraising:
The cost effective fundraising approach is to focus on the best potential donors. The Internet marketing should reach these donors in easily accessible method. The donors should be able to make the donation in few simple steps.
Target Market for the Club:
The Target segment for the club will be parents of school age kids, Students of Middle/High School. The school kids will be a valuable source of reference to their classmates. The word of mouth advertisement is very cost effective and has more turn over rate.
- Marketing Plan Actions
This marketing plan recommends completely revamping BGCB’s online strategy and modifying its offline strategy. While the goal is to provide better service to the community, this marketing plan is not targeted towards any particular product or service. The marketing plan is geared towards raising money to construct a new building and provide better facilities. In addition, it is geared towards two groups of volunteers:
- Volunteers to implement the marketing strategy.
- Volunteers to provide services for current and future programs offered by BGCB.
- Integrated Marketing Communications
- Online and Offline
- Customer Acquisition and Retention Plan
The centerpiece of the Acquisition and Retention will be a complete re-design of the website. It will be completely revamped to make the navigation easy, more personal and more informative. It will highlight programs based on age groups, promote fund raising and encourage volunteering. It will be media rich that will entice people to come back to the site. The club website will also continue to have advertising space for businesses in the community. Let us look at the website in more detail before we look at Acquisition and Retention Plan separately.
Acquisition Strategy
The comprehensive acquisition strategy involves both online and offline actions. BGCB should make its presence felt in the student community in the high schools, middle schools and elementary schools in Billerica and the surrounding areas. In addition that presence should also be made more prominent in the Town libraries of Billerica and the surrounding areas. They should also tap in businesses, both privately owned and large corporations. Billerica and surrounding areas like Burlington, and Chelmsford have lot of large corporations with huge offices – many of them corporate offices. Boys and Girls club should tap into those businesses and their employees.
Offline Acquisition Strategy
The offline acquisitions strategy should focus on involving existing youth to spread the message in their respective schools. They should set up a table with all the information, especially on days where parents are invited to meet with teachers. They should send handouts, either with students or mail them to their homes, so that parents get more informed about the activities at BGCB. The offline strategy at the libraries is to keep handouts at the library entrance and at the kid’s areas in the library. BGCB should also do direct mail material with the focus on volunteerism and donations. In cases where they don’t have email addresses for past volunteers and donors they should have specific direct mail during tax season to remind them of their donation, either time or money, and encourage them to repeat their action.
Corporations can prove to be a huge source of volunteers and donors. The offline and online strategy should pay special attention to Corporations. Corporations very often make donations to local non-profit organizations and want to make a difference in the local community. If proper relationship is developed, the corporation can also be requested to encourage its employees to make donations and involve themselves as volunteers. In most corporations, the employer matches all employee donations to non-profits. In other words a $100 donation by an employee equates to a total of $200 donation to BGCB (after the $100 employer matching).
Online Acquisition Strategy
The online Acquisition Strategy begins by building a great personalized, easy to navigate website. It also needs to be very well integrated with social media. In addition, the BGCB has done a very good job at the past in creating a very good email database. The database has also captured interests of the individual. This database can be exploited to send targeted emails. While the individuals in the database are or have been customers/patrons of the BGCB, they would still be treated as acquisitions when it comes to donations or volunteering. A completely revamped website will give a renewed enthusiasm to past members who may be interested in volunteering or donating. They will be invited to the new website through a link in the email. The email will also be an html email, so it will also incorporate some of the website’s look and feel.
Online Retention strategy
Again, the website plays a key role in the retention strategy. The website design is very personalized and is easily navigable. Members will be able to signup to create their profile and will be able to sign in into the website. Members are provided with all kinds of information from the website like the following:
- Programs enrolled (self and kids) – This is a one stop shop where patrons can view the programs they have enrolled in. It also provides information on related programs being offered in subsequent months. For example, a member whose kid is enrolled in a basic swimming lesson, will be suggested to an advanced swimming lesson that is being offered in a couple of months.
- Donation history – Members will be able to see the donation history. The donation history will also show a breakdown of how the donated money was being utilized. This is in addition to the facility where the user can choose to pick how the donated money should be utilized at the point of donation.
- Volunteering history – Members will also be able to view their volunteering history. A link will follow the history which takes them to the page with information about current volunteer requirements in the club.
On the donation and volunteering sections, the patrons will also be provided useful links to the IRS site so they can claim exemptions. Users will be able to link to their donations and volunteered time through face book so they get kudos from their contacts on the good work they are doing. This will also turn out to be an acquisition strategy by attracting more people to the site by attracting their interest.
Informative e-mail correspondence will also be sent based on interests of individual members. This correspondence could be related to their past activities, link their past activities to any potential future activities, or just plain correspondence about some events and activities.
The website will also be equipped with a discussion board where different groups can voice opinions, get suggestions or even keep in touch. The website will be media rich where members will be able to post pictures and comments on the website. These pictures will also be linkable to specific events or programs.
Features like Technical support, and contact info are part of the main navigation and can be easily accessed by users of the website.
The New Website
Let’s look at a few wireframes of the website. It has been designed with an eye towards minimal scrolling, easy navigation, task based, and it will have the right color and font. It will be media rich with lot of relevant pictures, and also have an area where users can upload their own pictures and video.
Fig. 1 Main website (as a guest user)
Let’s start out by looking at the Home page. Users not logged in will be brought to the Guest site. displays the Main website. Logged in users will get to a more personalized page. Once logged in, a cookie will be dropped on the user’s computer to remember the user to be able to load the personal site. Users will however be asked to log-in to access critical account info. Let us now look at some of the features of the website for acquisition and retention.
Quick Links
Quick links identifies the user demographic in addition to the login link. Each of the demographic links directs the user a page that contains information that is more applicable to the group. Notice which shows the parents quick link page. This page explains programs that are more pertinent to parents –such as After-school programs, summer camp etc. In addition, parents can collaborate with other parents through discussion groups, events and focus groups through this page. The quick link pages also allow parents to be ‘fans of BGCB’ on their Face book pages.
Fig. 2 Parents quick link page.
‘Share’ links
These are links that allow users to share the BGCB website or any individual page on their social media page, obtain an RSS feed from BGCB or send an email about the BGCB site. These links work as an acquisition activity as they bring in new people to visit the website.
Advertising space
Advertising space is also available on BGCB’s current website. This space currently displays advertisements from local businesses.
Main Navigation
The main navigation bar directs the user through the different parts of the website. Some of these navigation links also contain secondary navigation on the left as shown in shows the ‘Ways to Give’ link page, which has additional navigation on the left side. Each landing page for the top navigation gives important summary links for features on that page. Some of the items organized on the navigation bar are Programs, Events, Volunteer, Ways to Give, tech support and Contact. Here’s a brief description of some of the important Acquisition and Retention specific navigation pages.
Fig 3. ‘Ways to Give’ page
- Programs – This is the main page that lists all the programs offered by BGCB. These programs are categorized and searchable by type, age, and interests. Logged in users will also be able to look for related programs to the one’s they have already completed, or currently enrolled in. Each program description page will also have a review area where members can review each program.
- Volunteer – This is the main page that lists volunteering opportunities. These opportunities can also be searched based on interests.
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Ways to Give (Donate) – This page, as shown in lists the various ways to donate to BGCB. In addition to the regular donations to either the Capital Campaign (the building fund) or to other programs, donors can be more specific and decide which programs they want their money to make a difference to. In addition, users can make non-monetary gifts like Stocks. Donors can also donate in memory of someone else.
- Media - This is where users can upload their own images or videos of different events and can link them up with different programs. When a member is viewing a program page, the shared media will also be available for their viewing. The media page will also list all media organized by events, programs and miscellaneous media.
- Tech support and Contact Us: Tech support page is more directly linked to any problems with the website, specifically relating to, but not limited to donations using credit cards. There will be phone numbers, email contacts and live chat available to the users. The Contact us site will also feature some of the same features
Featured this week
This space on the left side of the main website (as shown in contains Featured Programs, Featured Volunteer, Featured Donor and Featured Member area. This definitely helps in retention and will encourage members to visit the website every week to see updates.
Site Map, Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions
These are located at the bottom of the page and are available to the visitors for their review.
What is worth noticing is that the Donate Now, Volunteer today and other social media and sharing links/buttons are available from an level of navigation within the website.
Personalized Page
Many of the features of the guest page are also available on the personalized page. An example of the personalized page is shown in
The greeting on the personalized page is personalized to the member based on either the logged in info, or through a cookie. Members can upload a profile photo that will also be used in many of the web2.0 features of the site, e.g. in discussion boards etc. Members will be able to update their photo or other information through the Personal Information link. The Account info link shows his or her account standing such as membership dues, program fees etc. Members will be able to pay their dues from that page as well.
The ‘My Boys and Girls Club’ link navigates to a page that summarizes the member’s volunteering and donation history. It will also show the programs the member has enrolled in, or has completed in the past. User will be also able to enroll for programs through this page.
The personalized page also has a Notifications area, which shows any notifications that need attention from the member. These notifications may be things like account standing, event reminders, program changes, etc.
Fig. 4 Personalized Pages
The new acquisition strategy will work once the website is up and running. Until that happens BGCB will need to surgically target the email database. In addition, the corporate and small business offline acquisition strategy will have to be complemented with email marketing. Currently, the BGCB only sends newsletter emails. These emails are almost static – they do not contain any links to the BCGB website (see . With the new marketing plan, the email strategy will not be limited to newsletters. The new newsletter emails will be more interactive with links that point to appropriate landing pages. The first newsletter will be sent out soon after the marketing plan is in place. The new newsletter will highlight the deplorable state of the current BGCB facility and the need for volunteers. The newsletter should tell a story that stirs emotions of members, especially those who went to BGCB while they were kids. As mentioned earlier, while this email is sent to existing members, this can still act as an acquisition strategy since it could help acquire new donors or volunteers. The other problem with the emails is currently the sender shows up as Roy Nagy, not as Boys and Girls club of Billerica. This may cause users to delete the email, as they may not associate with the sender.
Fig. 5 Example of a current BGCB newsletter
- Distribution and Fulfillment
Since there is no physical product being sold, distribution is not part of the marketing plan. However since donations can be made online, fulfillment definitely is part of the plan. The website provides a comprehensive fulfillment strategy. The personalized page (fig. 4) contains the ‘My Boys and Girls Club’ link where users can track their donation. The same applies for Volunteers - they can track their volunteered time. While not part of this marketing plan, members can also track the programs they have registered for through that link. Members will also be able to register online for programs and make online payments towards those programs.
When donations are made, donors will also send a confirmation email thanking them for their gift. When the money is utilized, donors will also be notified about the use and the difference it has made to BGCB. The same set of notifications will also be visible on their personalized website.
- Quality and Customer service
Volunteers would be recruited from the Billerica High School and from Shawsheen valley technical college to test the quality of the website. Customer service is provided through the ‘Tech Support’ and ‘Contact Us’ links. The ‘Tech support’ navigation link is geared towards any technical issues with the website. The ‘Contact Us’ provides all other contact media. The ‘Contact Us’ page will contain a FAQ for each of the different areas of the club – Programs, Donations and Volunteering. In addition, phone numbers and email addresses will be provide to obtain customer service. There will also be live chat available for users to get quick resolution to their issues online. The bottom of the webpage also has the site map to help users get around the site. The privacy policy and terms and conditions of use are also available.
- Technological Infrastructure
The website will be hosted on the same system as the current website. The current website is hosted by websitesource.com. Due to the media rich nature of the new website we will need to get additional storage and computing power. The computing power needed can only be judged after fine-tuning the website for optimum performance. That metric will be known once the technical details become available.
- Testing Plans
Plan for Testing Critical Marketing or Program Variables
We will use a multivariate testing software like will be used to get optimize conversion, and acquisition. This testing will be done on the Home Page, landing pages, program, donation and volunteering pages as well as emails. In addition, we will gather metrics using free services like Google Analytics, HubSpot, and QuantCast. We will also recommend using website tracking using coded pages and server request logging. Server request logging would be especially important to track the donation activities coming from business IP addresses, as businesses and their employees are the biggest bang for the buck when it comes to donation as mentioned earlier.
We also plan to include prototype tests, Beta tests and usability tests. Volunteers recruited from various public schools and technical colleges in the area will perform these testing cycles.
Plan for Usability testing of website
The following usability tests will be performed on the website
- User experience testing – This involves testing the navigation aspects of the website. Due to budget constraints the user experience testing will be restricted to manual testing where users will be tested on their satisfaction in completing their task. The testing will also include the ease of navigation through the website of novice users.
- Search engine optimization testing – This will be done to verify that search engines index the website and make sure that organic search on websites yield the website.
- Testing for broken links – Testing will be conducted to verify that there are no broken links in the website.
- Transactional testing – These tests will be conducted to test the quality of all transactional testing. This includes testing pages that the members use to complete a monetary transaction, and perform tasks that end in monetary transaction. This includes the Donation flow, from the ‘Ways to Give’ page, or from any of the ‘Donate now’ buttons.
- Personalization testing – These tests will be conducted to test the personalization of the website and all navigation flows associated with it.
- Web2.0 testing – These test involve testing the Web2.0 aspects of the website. They include the discussion boards, , social media testing etc.
- Evaluation Techniques
The data collected through the website can be utilized in evaluating the performance of the website as well as the Club itself. A database has to be maintained in order to maintain the data and store them in the servers. Though it sounds like an expensive idea, the outcome improves the performance that the cost will payoff itself. Reports need to be generated from this database.
Some of the reports can be:
- Assessment Reports: the numbers in this report assess fundraising success. How many donors were mailed and how many responded.
- Donor Category Reports: Categorize the donors based on the donation range.
- History Reports: used to track the pattern of donation from a donor, or the entire history of donation for a particular period.
Evaluation of the Online Marketing Strategy can be attained measuring the following factors:
- How much money was raised
- How website traffic was increased – usually Non Profit organization like Boys and Girls club doesn’t need to focus on the website traffic.
- How may people who visited the website complete the transaction, i.e. how many were acquired?
- Growth in fundraising and volunteering after the program is implemented….is it in line with the objectives.
Example of Measuring Fund Raising Performance:
Number of Donors Responding . . . . . . . .55
Gross Contributions Received . . . . . $ 3,800
Fund Raising Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 600
Profit Margin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 3,200 or 84%
Profit per Donor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 58 ($ 3,200 / 55)
Rate of Return . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533 % ($ 3,200 / $ 600)
- Budget
- Implementation Timetable
The implementation timetable to reach the desired objectives can be categorized based on the action plans of the objectives as follows:
- Redesign of the Website.
- Generate email list
- Exploit web 2.0 using Social network sand blog badges.
- Include RSS feed feature in the website.
- Adding Google’s Ad Sense ads.
Starting and Building a Non Profit – Peri H.Pakroo. Page 103
http://www.billericaboysandgirlsclub.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=
http://www.billericaboysandgirlsclub.com/index.php?option=content&task=blogcategory&id=36&Itemid=56
http://website.grader.com/wsgid/2204639/default.aspx
Marketing Your Non Profit, Starting and Building a Non profit, Page No.196.
Understanding the Internet Consumer, Internet Marketing Integrating online and offline Strategies, Mary Lou Roberts, Page No.127.
http://www.fundraising123.org/article/making-order-out-chaos-part-i-database-reports-proof-effectiveness
http://www.exinfm.com/training/pdfiles/course15.pdf
