Combining digital and print advertising with Tracked Links

If you’re a nonprofit who’s invested in print advertising and you’re looking to expand your reach online — all without losing current momentum — then you’re in the right place!

There are a lot of people out there who want every decision to feel like it’s all or nothing. But we believe that the best marketing happens by making small, incremental adjustments in the right direction. It’s really more like a remodel than a new build.

You’ve put in a ton of hard work to get where you are today. So how can you amplify those efforts and reach your audience on even more channels?

Gaining digital insights on traditional channels

Today, the digital environment has pulled a lot of focus toward our screens, but that doesn’t mean you want to stop meeting people face to face (or in their local newspaper, or with a hand-written letter). 

If you’re a donation-based nonprofit, some of your major donors have come to expect and love those physical reminders of their commitment to your mission. So don’t let them down.

Traditional advertising, including TV, print, radio, and direct mail have a firmly established place in effective nonprofit marketing plans, but gone are the days of marketing blindly. What I mean is that you have a responsibility to know what’s going on with your campaigns. 

Digital advertising has offered marketers incredible insights into their efforts, which makes it impossible to go back to the days of taking a vendor for their word. 

It may never be as easy to measure print ad campaigns, but with Tracked Link campaigns for nonprofits, you can now collect all the data on your ongoing campaigns in one single dashboard, allowing you to connect the dots between your physical and digital worlds.

This can include local partnerships in print advertising as well as your direct mailers. Anytime a person lands on a website that you own, with Tracked Link campaigns, you can now know exactly why they made it there.

Below we’re going to talk through what a Tracked Link campaign is, why they’re so pivotal for nonprofits, and how to get started using them, linking your real world campaigns with those online.

What exactly is a Tracked Link campaign?

In its simplest form, a Tracked Link campaign tells you precisely how someone landed on a page of your website (or really any website that you manage) by tracking the link that they clicked on or typed in. 

Did they click a link on an email? Or take a picture of a QR code on a poster downtown? Or type in an easy-to-remember URL that they first saw on TV or in a magazine?

Remember that Super Bowl ad a few years back with the QR code bouncing around the screen. That’s the same technology used by Tracked Link campaigns for nonprofits, connecting real world events with their digital counterparts. 

By creating a unique link that brings someone to your page, Tracked Links give you the ability to see exactly where they found out about your mission. You’ll learn the time and place where a person interacted first with your content.

Why would I track a link?

We all know the phrase, “knowledge is power.” But the most powerful knowledge is what you can act on. And this is a perfect example of just that.

Knowing what hooked your audience is the difference between gaining a quick win and building a track record of success. When you can pinpoint what channels are working and why, then you can build plans where the wins are all but guaranteed.

Marketing may be a blend of both art and science. But by leveraging the first-party data that you have access to, you’re going to make it just a little more likely for your organization to optimize its marketing efforts, resulting in more donations, sign-ups, ticket sales, or just general support. 

It’s all about connecting the dots. When you know what motivated someone to visit your website, you’ll have a much better idea of how to engage with them the next time.

How to set up Tracked Links

Ok, so now that we’re all on the same page about how impactful these campaigns are, it’s time to talk about how easy it is to start tracking your audience.

Within Feathr, Tracked Link campaigns are actually one of the simplest campaigns to set up and launch with only 4 steps! It’s all about building unique URLs that will get someone to the page you want them to land on while sending you back critical info on how they found you.

But Tracked Link campaigns don’t need to only be about connecting print media to your digital reporting. They can just as easily connect other digital campaigns to your consolidated nonprofit reporting dashboard.

Don’t only link your direct mailers or print advertising campaigns, but add in Facebook or LinkedIn (or really all the apps you use to engage with your community) and put everything in one spot so that you can more easily use that knowledge to make the best decisions for your organization.

It’s time to link up

What’s stopping you from connecting the dots between your nonprofit’s physical and digital advertising through Tracked Link campaigns?

Put data in the driver’s seat and kick guesswork to the curb. The work you’re doing is too important to hope for good results. We want you to start expecting the best!

We’re fans of nonprofits of all stripes, and we know that you have plenty of choices when it comes to finding the right software to spread the word. But if you do have more questions about Feathr and Tracked Link campaigns, please don’t waste another minute. 

Reach out and start a conversation today — even if it’s simply to bounce around ideas!

Feathr is built specifically for nonprofits to best engage with their committed communities — whether that’s online or in the real world. From email templates to pre-built campaign plans (something we call Flights), we have resources at the ready to help you take off!