Here at 27th Letter Media we love to work with nonprofits and added several new nonprofit clients in 2016. As we’ve added more nonprofits to our mix, we’ve noticed there are a handful of marketing basics they often miss.

Here are the 5 things we’ve learned are crucial to nonprofit marketing:

Keep Your Brand Up to Date
With a smaller marketing budget than many for profit business, nonprofits often fail to keep their brand updated, resulting in them look outdated and cheap. A brand refresh may be less expensive than you think and is a great investment for your nonprofit. Beautiful and consistent visuals are incredibly important to capture your audience. Ask your designer to provide you with brand guidelines to help you and your team stay consistent throughout all of your materials, both online and off.

We believe it’s never too late to make a New Year’s Resolution. We love to see small businesses grow and succeed! Whether you are just getting started or have been in the game for years, get the New year started on the right foot with a few resolutions.

Here are our 5 resolutions for small businesses:

Stay Positive
In the drag of the everyday it can be hard to keep yourself positive. Emails keep coming, clients and customers are asking for help and it doesn’t feel like there are enough hours in the day. We get it. But it’s time to grab the bull by the horns. Remind yourself that without those clients and customers you aren’t in business. When you get a new request, smile and remember they are helping grow your business!

Are you frustrated with the conversions from your blogs? We’ve talked about how important blogging is for your business, and now we’re here to give you a few more tips. It’s one thing to post regular blogs, it’s another thing to regularly post quality blogs.

Here are 5 tips for writing better blogs for your business:

Start Strong
Hook readers in by starting out with an engaging question, statistic or story. Relate to your readers quickly and make them want to read what you have to say. Writing blog posts takes valuable time and you don’t want it to go to waste.

Be Personable
Readers want to get to know you, so let them. Your blog posts don’t have to be buttoned up and professional. Throw in a few jokes and make yourself relatable. The easier it is to read, the more likely it is to be read. Let your personality shine through to keep readers coming back for more.

Write it Down
If you’re like us you likely set aside time each month to write one (or a few) blog posts. In between writing sessions, keep a running list of new blog ideas. Did a customer call in with a good question to answer in written form? Did you recently learn something new from an event? Read something inspiring? Add it to the list. By tracking inspiration as it strikes, you will make your writing blocks easier and more effective.

Know Where You’re Going
Before you get started it’s important to know where you’re going. Once you pick a topic for a blog post, decide what type of blog it needs to be before you get started. Some common styles include research pieces, lists and how-tos. Knowing where you are going with your post gives you framework for your research and makes the writing process faster.

Make it Scan-able
With all of the content available in the world today it’s very uncommon for readers to read every word of a blog post. Write for the scanners. Keep your paragraphs short, use subheadings, include lists and pull quotes to make it easy for readers to quickly scan through the post.

What other tips have helped you with your business blogging? Comment below!

Looking for blogging help? Schedule a consultation today, we can help! ​

Being a business owner means you wear a lot of hats. We’ve put together a list of habits to work on developing in order to see your business grow and make it through your task list each day. It sounds scary, but we promise it’s not.

Here are our 10 habits for all business owners to adopt:

Set Goals
In order to get where you’re going, you need to know where you’re headed. Set short and long term goals and write them down. If possible, create a visual way to track your progress to keep you motivated such as a whiteboard. Check in on your goals weekly, monthly or yearly to keep yourself heading in the right direction.

Hey world! It’s your favorite #SocialMediaGuru, Keely. As a single 20-something I’ve been perusing the vast world of online dating for the past several months. If you’ve ever tried out online dating, you know just how much fun it can be. *rolls eyes* I’ve had some dates, some fun stories and a lot of frustration. The other day I got to thinking and I realized how similar online dating is to marketing, so I decided to take over our blog page for a day to share some insights.

Here are the 10 things I’ve learned about marketing from online dating: ​

Does it ever feel like you’re spinning your wheels trying to make it through your to-do list? We all have the best of intentions with making the most of our time, but the distractions are just so… distracting. Instead of feeling frustrated at the end of the day, try implementing some new strategies to make you become more productive.

Here are our 10 tips to increase your productivity: ​

We’ve talked before about marketing yourself offline and events are an excellent way to introduce potential customers to your products or services. We’ve complied a quick list of best practices for event planning newbies. With proper planning and marketing you can throw a killer event your customers will be talking about for months to come.

Here are our 7 tips for throwing a successful event:  

Social Media
Managing social media accounts seems easy enough, all you need to do is publish an update every now and again, right? While that idea isn’t wrong, you won’t see much benefit by using that strategy. By outsourcing social media management to the pros, you will know you’re making the most of social media efforts. A designated social media manager will keep an eye on engagement, reach, trends and more to keep your brand relevant. Plus, they should report regularly on their effort so you can see how it’s working. Take a look at our social media management price sheet if you’re interested in taking this one off your list. ​

Many businesses experience slower times during the holidays. Instead of checking out, take the downtime as an opportunity to ready your business for the New Year.

Here are our 10 tips to use your time well while it’s slow:

Revamp your website
Design trends are constantly changing. An out of date website can be a turn-off for potential customers. Start by updating your pictures and content. Consider talking to a web designer (like us!) about a new design and keep your business looking sleek.