Background
The Circle is a non-profit organization based in Scotland that supports social enterprises and third-sector organizations in the Dundee and Angus regions. Their mission is to empower these organizations to start, develop, and grow, ultimately maximizing their social impact (The Circle, 2024). The Circle offers up to five days of free business support through the Just Enterprise programme, funded by the Scottish Government. This support covers various areas, including business planning, finance, governance, and social impact assessment. The Circle’s target audience comprises social entrepreneurs, startup ventures, established social enterprises, non-profit organizations, and charities seeking to expand their reach and impact (Bull, 2019). However, the organization needs to work on its marketing efforts. With multiple service offerings, The Circle needs help effectively communicate its value proposition to potential clients. They operate with a limited marketing budget of only £100 per month and lack a dedicated marketing team (The Circle, 2023).
Currently, The Circle’s marketing strategies include publishing an annual Social Impact Report, tailoring messages for different audiences, engaging with local and national press, maintaining a presence on social media platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter), and seeking awards to raise their profile (Rancati, Codignola and Capatina, 2015). Despite these efforts, The Circle recognizes the need to update its marketing strategy for the next three years to better connect with its target audience and communicate its benefits. The Circle’s short-term goals are to increase brand awareness, attract more social enterprises to their support programs, and amplify their social impact. To achieve these objectives, they must develop a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that optimizes their online presence, engages their target audience, and effectively communicates their value proposition within their resource constraints (Kingsnorth, 2019).
By leveraging a combination of search engine optimization, content marketing, and social media marketing, The Circle aims to overcome its marketing challenges and connect with the organizations that need its support the most. This approach will enable them to build a robust online presence, establish thought leadership, and foster meaningful relationships with their target audience, ultimately driving more social enterprises to their support programmes and increasing their social impact.
The Audience
The Circle should characterize customer personas with whom their target consumers will identify, such as the Social Enterprise Founder and the Non-profit Executive Director, to guide the company’s digital marketing, ensuring the intended message reaches the target customers (Revella, 2015). The Social Enterprise persona represents passionate customers, for instance, Sarah, who needs assistance channeling her passion towards a sustainable business model that would guarantee more of her impact. The Non-profit Executive Director persona represents the head of operations in a non-profit organization. For instance, Michael wants to understand how governance of the organization, division, erization of funding sources, and measurement of social impact can be improved. The Circle needs to adopt multi-channel digital marketing to ensure sufficient communication with them. For instance, content marketing – where different blogs, guides, and case studies on pain points are used to uncover valuable insights (Pulizzi, 2013). This is also evident in email marketing, which nurtures leads and grows inbound contacts by delivering targeted content to the segmented subscriber list (Chaffey and Smith, 2022). It includes inclusions such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, which enhance its reach and credibility in sharing ideas and becoming part of the industrial discussion within the marketplace (Funk, 2014). This includes keeping up with expertise and networking through webinars, other online events and well-strategized paid to advertise, implying the targeting of only such prospects looking for active business support services (Ramos, 2013; Geddes, 2015).
Search Engine Strategy
Suitable Search Engine Optimization (SEO) would bring The Circle up and make it flow more online by drawing in more qualified leads. This optimization would organically increase the rankings on its site and content, driving relevant traffic toward the site (Enge et al., 2012). Therefore, The Circle needs to conduct keyword research to establish the words and phrases used by its target audience in online searches while looking for information about business support services. Tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs may be used in order to unearth high-volume but low-competition keywords apt for your offerings (Patel, 2018). For example, social enterprise support, non-profit business planning, impact measurement tools, and funding for social enterprises.
Reasonable hierarchy and navigation in the website structure of The Circle should be clear and easily convenient for enhancing user experience as well as easy fetching of information by search engines (Fishkin and Høgenhaven, 2013). Content development is also essential for The Circle. It includes the selection of the primary important keywords within the target audience and strategically guiding on their relevance for optimization through blogging, case studies, guides, white papers, garnering inbound links, and sharing on social sites to pop up the website’s authority and search rankings to produce results (Pulizzi, 2014). Besides on-page optimization, The Circle can develop high-quality backlinks from famous social enterprises and non-profit websites. The strategies are such that they include guest posts, broken link building, and influencer marketing, among others (Backlinko, 2020). Another imperative for The Circle is Local SEO since most of the businesses The Circle targets are supposed to be localized in some geographic locations. Therefore, there is a need to gear more toward optimizing Google My Business listings through building local citations and stimulating customer reviews.
Lastly, paid search ads are essential, especially when working with Google Ads. For instance, keywords like “social enterprise consulting” and “non-profit impact assessment” would be bid on for an outreach goal, with services representing the highest value. The Circle can reach potential clients in a time and manner that suits them. Conversely, paid search provides a possible way of receiving instant visibility and, thus, business displacement that The Circle might face while building its paid search rankings (digital Library, 2006).
Content Development
For The Circle to be engaging, its website and digital activities must focus on its audience’s needs. This is possible by creating an informative, educational, engaging, and inspirational mix that captures the social enterprise, non-profit expertise, and impact of The Circle (Pulizzi, 2014). Creating blog posts and case studies helps shed light on the success stories of social enterprises and non-profit organizations benefiting from The Circle. This will be a good source of insight and inspiration to other organizations needing direction and resources. For instance, creating a standard library of resources with sample templates, checklists, and how-to guides for the usual stumbling blocks facing social entrepreneurs and leaders of not-for-profits. Examples here range from downloadable content exchangeable for one’s contact information to assist in building the Circle email list and nurturing leads (Lieb, 2012). Put a content calendar for The Circle detailing which content will be highlighted, what topic, what form, and on what platform. These content calendars are devised through intense market research about the needs and wants of the brand’s target customers.
Repurposing the content for multiple blog channels, social media updates, email newsletters, and webinars strikes the desired impact against investment. Additionally, content creation can be promoted by influencers, thought leaders, and associated organizations in this business to tap into and thus start earning a stamp of authority in the industry (Odden, 2012). Thus, The Circle would attract a watertight audience empowered through making relevant content of the highest order on a constant note, gaining their trust, and building and receiving more engagements in fulfilling its missions.
Social Media Strategy
According to Funk (2014), LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are the most appropriate social media platforms for The Circle since they have the highest numbers of utilized professionals working from within the social enterprise and non-profit sectors. With LinkedIn, The Circle can share content about thought leadership and argue this in relevant business groups while interacting with future partners and clients. Twitter is the right platform to post short updates, news, and views combined with relevant hashtag conversations. Meanwhile, Facebook keeps that ongoing steady focus on the supporter community on generation through long-form content that tells the story of the organizational impact with words and images.
To effectively manage interactivity, The Circle requires a social media policy that will outline the guidelines within commenting, messaging, or making inquiries in a professional and timely manner, alongside tracking tools for mentions and portrayed sentiments in social media, to address any concern or issue before they occur among other crucial needs. Critical social media strategies for The Circle need to touch on increased brand awareness, driving website traffic, and especially the most vital factor: lead generation. Some of these goals can be achieved through constant quality content posting, audience engagement, and turning to paid ads in social media to reach new possible clients (Tuten, 2023).
Objectives Analytics and Metrics
Objectives
The primary objectives of the recommended digital strategy for The Circle will be defined using the SMART framework, which ensures that each objective is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (Robins, 2014). One of the key objectives is to increase brand awareness and reach among social enterprises and non-profit organizations in Scotland by 25% within the next six months. This objective is designed to expand The Circle’s visibility and attract more potential clients within their target market. Another crucial objective is to drive targeted website traffic from social enterprises and non-profits by 50% within the next 12 months. This goal focuses on attracting high-quality, relevant visitors to The Circle’s website, essential for generating leads and increasing conversions (Kingsnorth, 2022). In addition, the digital strategy aims to create 50 marketing qualified leads (MQLs) per quarter from social enterprises and non-profits actively seeking business support services. This objective is critical for ensuring a steady flow of potential clients more likely to convert into customers (Croll and Yoskovitz, 2013).
To enhance user experience and engagement, the digital strategy also seeks to improve website engagement metrics, such as average session duration, pages per session, and bounce rate, by 30% within the next six months. These metrics provide valuable insights into how users interact with The Circle’s website and help identify areas for improvement (Chaffey and Smith, 2022). Lastly, the strategy aims to achieve a 5% conversion rate from MQLs to customers within 12 months. This objective is essential for measuring the effectiveness of the digital strategy in converting leads into paying clients and generating revenue for The Circle (Sterne, 2010). By setting these clear, measurable, and time-bound objectives, The Circle can effectively evaluate the success of its digital strategy and make informed decisions to optimize its efforts and achieve its desired outcomes.
Analytics and Metrics
Key performance indicators (KPIs) should be monitored and examined to assess how well the digital strategy is working to accomplish the goals that have been established. Website traffic indicators, such as total visits, unique visitors, traffic sources, and geographic location of visitors, provide insights into the reach and effectiveness of the digital strategy in attracting the target audience (Chaffey and Smith, 2022).
Engagement metrics aid in assessing the caliber of a website’s content and user experience, such as pages per session, average session length, bounce rate, and exit rate (Kingsnorth, 2022). According to Sterne (2010), social media indicators like followers, impressions, engagement rate, click-through rate, and referral traffic are used to assess how well social media initiatives increase website traffic and brand exposure. Lead generation indicators, such as the quantity of multi-qualified leads (MQLs) produced, the visitor-to-lead conversion rate, and lead source attribution, help evaluate how well the digital strategy is working to draw in new customers (Croll and Yoskovitz, 2013). Ultimately, the influence of the digital strategy on The Circle’s financial line can be seen through conversion KPIs, which include revenue earned, the number of customers recruited, and the conversion rate from MQL to customer.
Conclusion
In conclusion, zeroing in on the general scope and dimension in considering search engine optimization, content, social media marketing, targeted advertising, etc., to step up brand awareness, lure website trafficking, and boost lead generations would buttress more social enterprises and non-profits. The strategy will be driven by The Circle’s measures, which will guide the operations in digital marketing with the help of regular checking and evaluation of the indicators necessary for the purpose. Thus, The Circle can pass on coherent information to its value proposition and expand inside the social enterprise and not-for-profit space.
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