Case Study: Local Non-Profit Twin Parent Group

About this Project

Did you know that there’s a nationwide support group for twins, triplets and other multiples? There is! And every state has its own statewide and local organizations, too. 

This particular local group operated primarily using a Facebook group, with a number of local meetups funded through membership fees and fundraisers. 

The problem is, their website was about a decade old, and they had no marketing plan to bring in new members. 

The club didn’t have their website or workflows setup well enough to determine where their members were coming from.

So our primary goal here was to make the club more attractive to people searching for more info on them, to help them gather data about their traffic, and to improve their workflow so this all-volunteer management could breathe a little easier. 

The Outline

A quick rundown of the services provided:

1) Website – New Design, SSL Certificate Install, Google Analytics Setup

2) Google For Nonprofits Registration, including migrating email and data into G Suite

4) Google Ads Setup

Step 1: Website Redo

Their website was quite old, had no mobile version, and the desktop version’s image slider was glitchy to the point of hurting the eyes.

It probably cost them at least a few new members. However, we couldn’t know that because no system was setup to collect data on website visitors.

The nonprofit’s website had no SSL certificate, so it was running as https:// instead of https://. Typically this is a 5-minute install on a web host. 

Unfortunately they were stuck with GoDaddy hosting for a few more years, and GoDaddy doesn’t support easy, free options like LetsEncrypt. Instead, GoDaddy charges a big upsell for SSL certs, about $70 or more. 

So instead, I created a tutorial for the staff to use to manually install an SSL cert on their website every 90 days to make sure the website is secure. 

Next, the website itself was redesigned using the Divi page builder into something simple for the staff themselves to maintain. 

We created a membership page to describe benefits of joining and explain membership terms, in case leads hit the website instead of just their Facebook page. 

We also collaborated to work on Google Forms to collect new member data, including letting prospects identify where they heard of the Nonprofit, to help figure out referral sources. 

Step 2: Google For Nonprofits Registration

Speaking of GoDaddy, because nonprofit budgets are so tight, the group was using GoDaddy’s webmail to conduct business. 

Unfortunately, GoDaddy is currently phasing out their web hosting options that allow free webmail. Chances are by the time their next hosting plan renewal was to come up, they would be in trouble with their email. 

Enter: Google For Nonprofits

The group, despite primarily being a support group for moms, was a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit, which qualified them for Google For Nonprofits. 

Someone in their group tried to request an account with Google a few years ago, but they weren’t trained in how to do it, and Google denied them. 

I was able to get their request approved. Google For Nonprofits means G Suite For Nonprofits — the basic version is completely free.

Result: Moving all of the business’ operations off of a standard Gmail account, and onto G Suite, which enabled much better protection for their data and a modern, free email system to conduct business. 

Step 3: Google Ads Setup

Google For Nonprofits has one huge benefit besides basic G Suite: Google Ad Grants. 

The bright side: It’s “free money” to advertise on Google, which can do nothing but help these moms of multiples get the word out. 

The issue: There are a number of restrictions which limit how much you can bid with Ad Grants (so you don’t overspend with Google’s own money), and your Ad Grants account can get suspended if you don’t maintain a certain click-through rate (CTR) for several months. 

Another problem is web search traffic volume: Each twin parent group in this state only covers 1-2 counties, which means an awful small slice of parents to advertise to. Also, not a lot of parents searching for support groups to begin with. 

The group also had never advertised, and had no budget to run Non-Grant Google Ads first. Meaning although we were going to run Ad Grant ads, the first few months are essentially educated guesses while we test what works and what doesn’t. 

Result: Setup Google Ad Grants Account, trained staff in how they operate, setup Analytics and other Google Services to assist in reading data about their web traffic.