Full Transcript

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] We're still in our website audit month. And I am so excited for today's episode, because we've been talking a lot about how your website could perform for you and generate leads and help you get more visibility for your organization's business. And there's some key things that a lot of people get wrong when it comes to their websites. And these are easy things that we can tweak and refine. So I'm really excited to have Dani McGregor on as my guest today to chat with you about the six mistakes that she sees people making on their websites so that you can get them fixed quickly. These aren't major things that are issues. These are minor things that you can take a look at tweak and refine. So I'm excited for you to hear about these six things.

Dani McGregor is a web and design creative with 13 plus years of experience with nonprofits. Her design experience ranges from startups, charities and big national brands. contracted to design for large brands like Forbes, and even hired by the famously fun Hard Rock. Dani utilizes her skills to deliver her clients more donations and more time back and changing the world. She's the owner, Creative Director and digital strategist for the charity design, co design and tech agency helping nonprofits build exceptional websites and digital ecosystems that work for them. Specializing in building donor experiences her websites help nonprofits attract more volunteers and donations and make bigger.I think you're going to really enjoy this conversation. And it doesn't matter what platform your website is built on how fancy it is, or any of that, you're going to learn some ways that you can just put yourself above the competition. So I'm excited to hear what you think in which of these six takeaways she shares is the biggest impact for you.

Before we get into it, this episode is brought to you by our digital marketing therapy sessions, go to https://thefirstclick.net/officehours to book one on one time with us, we can take a look at your website, review these six elements that are mentioned here in this episode and chat about what we might need to do to get them fixed. They're super easy, and you don't need a web developer to help you get them done. But we can definitely take a look and see what other ways we can uplevel your website and get more visitors and get more conversions and donations. So again, https://thefirstclick.net/officehours, I can't work. Can't wait to work one on one with you. Let's get into the episode

[Intro] You're listening to the digital marketing therapy podcast. I'm your host, Sami Bedell-Mulhern. Each month we dive deep into a digital marketing or fundraising strategy that you can implement in your organization. Each week, you'll hear from guest experts, nonprofits, and myself on best practices, tips and resources to help you raise more money online and reach your organizational goals.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  So we both agree that having a website that works for you is important, but it can't work for you if you're making some simple mistakes. So I love that you have come today with kind of six ways that your in your website might be hurting you because these are easy things to fix. But if you don't fix them, can be kind of a critical issue. So let's talk through some of these, we can make sure that we're getting the most out of our website and make sure it's doing what it needs to do for us. So what's your first kind of way that your website might be hurting you?

[Dani MacGregor] Yeah, absolutely. So my first big one is not having any visible impact on your website, right. So you need to have a way for donors, volunteer volunteers, even people coming in needing your services, your programs, to be able to see where their money goes, what actionable things you do for them. And that can be in the form of stats that can be in the form of really testimonials, anything, just put proof of what you're doing and put that impact up. That is really a huge thing for many of our donors to come and see. And yeah, you need to have that visible impact.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  So where should we be sharing that impact on our website?

[Dani MacGregor] Great question. One of my favorite places is actually having an R Impact page. It's kind of a major thing that I like putting on my clients websites. You can also kind of splice it in on your programs or your initiatives pages. And you can also add them to your donor your your donation forms, if your donation embedded forms or even on say you're on a Bloomerang or a Network for Good where you out link. A lot of them have impact statements that go for that dollar amount. So say $25 gives a backpack to a child or $50 You know, serves, I don't know, a full year of Have elephant food, I don't know, you can put something up, you can show that vision, that actual min, monetary impact, and you should place it everywhere you can. And that can really entice that donor to give a little bit extra, they're like, Oh, you're right, you know, 100 bucks versus 50, I can make that jump. And getting them to get that to that click of the actual donate button or getting them to that donate page is spicing in that impact all throughout your website. But a lot of times those more critical donors are going to look for an impact page. And that's also a really great place to put in, encourage your partners to go to your foundations to go to if they're really looking for those tangible stats, in addition, obviously to your annual reports that need to be on your website.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  So it's kind of like how do we have little snippets of things that make sense that are relevant to the page that they're on to have, you know, that small showing of impact, but then driving people to that big page that has everything there for people that want to dive deeper and really take a bigger look?

[Dani MacGregor] Yeah, at least that's my way to do it. I don't know if you agree, I'd love to

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  know, because I agree, because I think like depending like every page has a purpose. And so it's more about like, how can we make sure that people are getting the information they need for why they're there on that page. And then you know, driving them using those buttons and those links and things to drive people that want to dive deeper to get the information that they want versus just like copy paste the same stuff in every single place, and then hoping that it works. Right?

[Dani MacGregor] Totally. Yeah.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  So we are in agreement there. Okay, so what is your number two?

[Dani MacGregor] Soon to consider my Yes, my number two is not having a secure web site. So we all know, if you've been on the internet enough. Now, you know, it's 2023, the beginning of a URL is HTTP standard. And everybody really needs to have that secure encryption of the AES. And that is just kind of standard practice now. And you would be surprised, as I'm sure you know, how many websites don't have that and how many browsers and personal devices are blocking websites that don't have that encryption and get you need to have an HTTPS encryption 100 HTTPS,

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  because search engines will literally like drop your page in the rankings if you don't have that encryption setup. So how do people get that if they don't have it already? And or how do you know if you have it set up?

[Dani MacGregor] Exactly. So are, obviously you need to check in with your host, you need to check in with where you've purchased your domain. And a lot of times, that's a quick, easy add on check with your web designer, your web developer and see if they have added it. It's usually a very simple, easy, 2030 bucks a year, not even I don't even know how much it is anymore. But it's usually pretty nominal. And even some platforms like Squarespace and others that have a closed system with their servers, offer it in the can in addition to the subscription purchase. So sometimes it's not even something you have to even consider in addition of fee. But builders like WordPress and stuff like that, you do need to consider that fee. And so it's really something that you can check and see if you have it just by checking in with those people on your team checking in with your services in general and see if you have it. But yeah, it'll affect like you said, your ranking, it'll affect so many things you need to have?

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Well, I'm sure you've all had this experience where you've gone to a website you thought was trustworthy, you know, the organization and all of a sudden you get that thing on Chrome that says, this website is not secure, like go back to safety, right? You don't want that happening to you. And people are trying to go to your website.

[Dani MacGregor] Right. It's like it's kind of jarring and disorienting, where you're like I thought I was going somewhere safe and and they do it on purpose. Obviously to keep us all safe. They don't want to have us adding adware and malware to our weapon to our computers and devices. And so obviously, are do gooders that are doing all these fantastic things, these causes who are doing great things on in the world. We know you're not doing poorly, so just add, add the secure app as

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  well. And then the last point to this also is if you are taking donations on your website, that's also critically important to protecting the people's information that might be giving you their stuff through through your website.

[Dani MacGregor] Absolutely, yeah, they're putting in their credit card there. literally giving you free money, make it as secure and safe. And nice for them to feel confident and your, your, your organization, you've already done all the hard work. You've literally already done everything on your website to make it so they click donate. And if the one thing is that little lock in, in the URL box like that you just lost owner.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Yeah, 100%. Yep. Okay, so what is your number three? Tip

[Dani MacGregor] number three is a non responsive website. So I'm sure you remember the days of a mobile version versus a desktop version. There were a few years where it was kind of all up in the air for whether or not it would be a mobile versus desktop world. Or if it would be a responsive world, right? We didn't really know like how the type of return versus you know, like a disk, a mini disk versus CD, like how this technology how society going to adapt, and responsive one out. And so if your website is not responsive, I think as a publisher like 2018 2019, Google Docs you like significantly in ranking, even if your site is SEO banging, you are docked, because it's not responsive for devices. And it's just not a nice experience like UX user experience. It's just poor. So having a website, a template that is responsive is super paramount. Like I'm sure every designer I'm sure every you know, digital expert has been touting this for years. But I know I come across many websites that are still not

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  still not well. And I think like that, that's the nice thing I know about like Squarespace, a lot of those features are built in if you're using a really popular theme, like we always use Divi Elementor, like on WordPress, they have all of those features kind of built in. But if we want to look at our website and kind of see how it shows up, do you have any tools or resources for where people can kind of view what that looks like on different devices?

[Dani MacGregor] Apps? Absolutely. So it just depends on your builder. And my favorite thing to do is kind of honestly just drag my window. And I use my devices, I asked friends to test to I grabbed my kids iPads and see what things look like. And I don't really have any, like specific websites that can test it out. But each builder is different, right? Like Elementor has tastic responsive tools where you can actually edit each individual screen size. And you know, remove elements for that. Remove blocks for that set or, you know, tweak those elements for it, it makes it the mobile and different device experience completely new, completely custom and bespoke to that to that device, which is fantastic. And it makes it just beautiful. And so you really just need to know what builder you're on need to know what platform you're on. And you need to use those responsive tools that they've already integrated to, to their extent, because they're there for a reason.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Yeah, well, and I will say you can go down the rabbit hole, because inevitably what will happen is you will have some person on your board or a volunteer who has some random device that the majority of people don't use, and they'll come to you and they'll say, Well, this looks terrible on my blah, blah, blah, and then you spiral. And you go down this thing and you're like, oh my gosh, our website's terrible. It's not responsive and see me and Danny told me my website needs to be responsive and you like flip out, right? So we always recommend that you look at your analytics, because you can tell what device people are accessing your website on. So when that person comes to you and says, hey, it doesn't look good on my phone, you can say, well, we could go through a whole process and spend money on this particular device. But like 95% of our traffic comes from these types of devices. So like really use your analytics to determine the ways in which you kind of figure out which devices you need to be responsive for. That's my

[Dani MacGregor] Yeah, that's a really great point about analytics. I wasn't even tracking that. Yeah, no, I totally agree. I usually am just super responsive to my clients. I'm like, yeah, no, it should be fine. Let's let's tweak. And so I like that idea to really just track it back to analytics, because you do have that data. Why not? Yeah, great ideas. Yeah.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Well, especially is like, you know, our developer works on a 4k screen. So he'll send me stuff and I'm like that and that what it looks like on my device. So you know, responsiveness. This is important. I agree 100%. But let's not like about about every single individual who says, Well, okay,

[Dani MacGregor] yeah, no, I think like the user, the user aspect and user error, I do think that there is like that sense of urgency that a lot of clients or nonprofits come to because they do have somebody that is like, Oh, my goodness, I couldn't get on, or Oh, my goodness, this didn't look poor. But as web does develop, and as our nonprofits do start to morph more online and rely more digitally on these systems and tools, like there is an user element that can't be controlled, right? If you zoom in and out on your browser, and it's set to yes, 60%, it's gonna look different than everybody else is set to 100. And there's nothing that any amazing, you know, savant of the developer can do to override that user element. And so kind of pulling back some of this and realizing that, okay, I can't control everything. But these six things you can't control. And we'll at least set you up for sir, for a better experience for your donors.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Yeah, that is such a good point. Such a good point. Okay. So we've gotten through the first three, what is number four?

[Dani MacGregor] Yes. So having a transparency on your website, which is kind of tied into your, the visual impact, but having transparency authenticity, on your website is informs of your annual reports, your credibility, as far as, say you have a candid badge or anything like that, showing them? How trustworthy your organization is, all of these things really just pull into trustworthiness, right? But that transparency element, have you provided your EIN number, so they can go look you up online? Have you provided your status as a 501, c three or another nonprofit status, just being very forward with who you are? That transparency element is super important, especially to some of our more like tax benefit donors that are really just online looking for a way, finding a good cause and being like, I have this much money I need to get rid of before the end of the fiscal year, you know, just have that for your donors. And it also makes it look so it isn't so scammy. Because, unfortunately, that's making a bad name.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  No, I agree. 100%. But what would you say to organizations that are like, Well, if we put everything out there, then some people are going to nitpick? Or they're going to look at stuff too closely, or they're gonna say, well, we don't want to give to you. Because, you know, this percentage of funding is different than what we're looking for, like, what would you say to people that feel like that transparency might hurt them negatively in their opportunity to fundraise?

[Dani MacGregor] Yeah, I can understand that. I would just though, make sure you have some nice PR blanket statements, if that really does come up. But I can't imagine that there's really anything that you're trying to hide. And if there is clean up your house, like taken care of. Because there shouldn't be anything for somebody to really come and find. And if there is then maybe that, you know, constructive criticism is an opportunity for you to grow. And if you really don't want somebody looking in at some of that information, yeah, you can leave it off. But you need to realize that could be donor money left on the table as well.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Well, and also to that point, it's like in the time of recession or economic uncertainty, we want to make sure that we're putting as much stuff out there for people to build trust with us, because it's going to be even harder to get those new donors coming in the door. So it just helps with your overall professionalism in general.

[Dani MacGregor] Totally. I totally agree. I really don't think there's any reason why a nonprofit shouldn't have that stuff up for transparency. But if you really are afraid of it, then you know, maybe look at some other issues, they might there might be something bigger, they might be someone else there. So

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  where might we want to put this information? Like where might we want to put our rankings like our like, you know, if we have a GuideStar seal, or where might we want to set that really weird? Where might we want to include some of these elements so that people can find them? And, and they're trusting us?

[Dani MacGregor] Yeah, absolutely. I love putting these things in the footer. Do cuz it's just a constant reminder of where you are and how awesome you are. And so my two main things that I always put in the footer is signing up for the newsletter and your transparency badges, your EIN should go in your footer, your nonprofit status should go on your footer. At least that's my opinion, I think you can just remind people constantly, more and more, at least what I'm seeing more and more your footer is kind of becoming your secondary main navigation. The new kind of theme trend and web design right now is keeping that main navigation super clean and minimal. And then just not fully dumping but kind of dumping in the footer. And so a lot of users are just straight up scrolling all the way to the bottom and trying to find what they want down there. So you're actually getting tons of great bounce rates for websites, which is awesome based on just users using that footer as a main navigation. But with that, you're also getting more eyes on that section. So utilize more eyes on that section.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Yep, that's a great pro tip right there. I agree. Okay, so what is number five?

[Dani MacGregor] Yes. Okay, so number five, we are looking at just an outdated and disorganized website. Yeah, it hurts, it hurts your donors, it hurts. It hurts everybody. If it is not, it doesn't have to be the most beautiful, eloquent, you know, gorgeous thing you've ever seen. But you definitely need to keep it organized and updated. If you have dates and things that are, you know, two, three years old, you look unprofessional, you look poorly organized, you look just not with it. And donors aren't going to want to give to something like that. So keeping things updated, keeping things without typos, keeping things current are incredibly important.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Yeah, one of the biggest things that I see is people will have an event page, and maybe they don't do that event anymore. But when you look on the event page, it'll show like, hey, sponsors from 2019, and you're like, like, are they still around? Like what's happening here?

[Dani MacGregor] Yes, yes. Yes. Like I usually try to encourage my nonprofit. So you did have an event, give yourself a week to pull it off. But in that week needs to that that event needs to come off that off the website, you can send your thank you email, you can do all those cleanup things. But that needs to all happen that week post like I'm sure you are exhausted, you were still handing out silent auction items, you're still ringing off for people saying it was amazing, like fantastic. But the web maintenance, the digital maintenance needs to be a part of that checklist. Absolutely every single time because it hurts it really does hurt you. These more Gen X Gen Z donors who are actually coming up this newer donor base, we are actually quite philanthropic and that's being seen. But we are looking for authenticity and we are being nitpicky because we grew up with technology. And with that you are going to lose that donor base and that is a fantastic donor base that you can be nurturing to be these larger planned gifts that these people want to be noticed. So just just take take note take care

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  I'm so glad you brought that up because that is something that we've been preaching with a lot of our clients because like we don't need to market to Gen Z yet yes you do. Um but also something as simple as like changing out your header image or your graphic or like making sure that what's updated on when people first went on your website is showing do and refresh like How important do you think that is to continue to be continually Why can I not talk all the sudden to continue to engage with people that are coming to your website so they keep coming back?

[Dani MacGregor] Yes, I love doing this with some of my clients who I get to work with on a regular basis. I love updating imaging and messaging and stuff like that whenever we can we try to stick with say it's your causes are similar, you know, parallel sort of month say you know, obviously February and Black History Month or April is month of military child is also mental health awareness month. You tie those into your visuals online, you those are easy updates. I mean, obviously as a designer, I love Adobe but get on Canva Canva is super cheap for nonprofits and if you're on TechSoup I believe they can even help me pay for Are they? Yeah, so like, there's no excuse, upload your brand standards on Canva, upload your colors, upload your logos and just up, update your visuals and keep those fresh because as soon as somebody logs on and they're like, oh, that's new. Oh, that's fantastic. It shows that there's lively and breath and newness going on. And even if it's just regurgitated the same thing over and over, they don't need to know that it looks new. Yeah, it shows them that you're, you're trying. And it makes them just want to help you that much more. Yeah,

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  we did a podcast episode about creating engaging headers. I use some examples and recorded it. And my editor was like, Do you want me grab screen screenshots? So we can use them for like YouTube videos? Like, yeah, that'd be awesome. Literally, I recorded the episode, he edited it two days later. And he's like, that header is gone. I was like, what? And I was mad, and so impressed at the same time, because, you know, they were clearly updating it based off of what their biggest priorities were in the moment. And it was a national organization. But I think, yeah, we always say, just put a monthly reminder on your calendar, whether you change it every month, or not just to at least review it and make sure that it's current, right? Because that's also like the main thing that people are seeing every single time they hit your website, like that's prime real estate.

[Dani MacGregor] Yes, yeah, I totally agree. And change your popups to like, that is a great place to also just get people engaged, change them around different events that are happening, change them around different. Donate options, if it's the holidays, change the visual for the holidays, like, there are no that you need to be kind of following the calendar following what's going on in your organization. And that just brings me back to making sure your platform works for you. You don't have to, you don't have to get on to either one that you and I you know, love get on one that works for you and that you are comfortable going in and updating updating is the most important. So yes, stay on it. Don't care. Yeah,

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  well, and I think too, like you see, Google does this. I mean, if you just start to pay attention, when you go to Google, like, over the holidays, there's a Santa hat on the G or like, they have Christmas lights, like, you know, during Black History Month, they change their logo. And we're not suggesting that you have to like, live up to people's standards, because they probably have like 10 people on their team that are just responsible for like making sure the Google search page is doing what it's supposed to be doing visually. But it's just an example of something you can look at to your point, Danny, and kind of get inspiration for what types of things might you do? Okay, so what is number six, and this is, this is a biggie,

[Dani MacGregor] this is the biggie, you cannot make your donating hard. And I'm sure I mean, the amount of clicks and the amount of tolerance that people have for checkouts and stuff like that, is just going down and then up. And it's kind of all over the place. I think everybody just kind of has digital fatigue, in general. But making your donating hard, make it stupid, simple. Once somebody is making made that decision, and that choice to donate and give you free money, don't make it difficult. So if your donor form is long, cumbersome, you know, five full page scrolls to get through and you're asking them for their blood type and, like stop, like, simplify it. If you really need to gather that information. Maybe do it on a redirect later or something but capture the money first and make it optional. And yeah, like you can't make it hard. I don't know if you've run across any of those painful

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  well, and here's a thought weird if you do need to get a lot of information from your donor or want that information, maybe just pick up the phone after they've donated it and call them and ask them some of those questions and engage with them and start a relationship.

[Dani MacGregor] Yeah, I love that. It's like the blending of the two worlds right?

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Yeah, no, and I agree and I think um, Don also are the days where you can where you send people to a PayPal page. Like there's so much technology out there integrations are so easy like you can't that's no longer acceptable in my opinion.

[Dani MacGregor] I totally agree. As soon as I come across the clients it's like hey, can we can we include Pay Pal and like how about we try some other options because that that doesn't work Pay Pal is great for paying babysitters, you know lawn workers, whatever. That row two, fantastic that is not the transparency, that authenticity that professionalism, your nonprofit deserves. Gone also are the days that razor's edge is the only donor management system that nonprofits can be on. Like there are so many fantastic tools. And if you're on razor's edge, great, but there are so many other tools out there that are not costing, you know, seven figures. And not seven figures. But you know, my point like it, yeah. There's so many other options. And so you do not need to be using something that is not made for nonprofits that is not made for charities, or donor bases or volunteer bases there, you can find a tool that will work for you, and you need to use it.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Yeah, yes. And we could go down that rabbit hole for hours, for sure. But what I love about like, okay, so I want to recap all six of these because what I love about this is like, it's really, one of the one of the pieces of advice that I got, when I was younger was dress for the job you want, not the job you have. And I feel like that's your approach to what you're saying here is like no matter what size organization you are, where you're at, what your budget is, what your growing is, like, look for, like, have your website look like, who you are going to be when you grow up so that people have that trust and secure or secure with giving money to you. Even if you don't feel like you're at that level yet.

[Dani MacGregor] Yeah. And because you are ultimately like, no matter how many, no matter how baby you are, no matter how brand new you are, you are still doing good. And you deserve these six things to be nothing on your website, because they're not hard. They're, they're simple. And if you do that, it like you said, it's nurturing that donor base, because you You do deserve them, you deserve to not have them on your website. And building up that donor base, building up that reputation with within your community with in community partners within people who are willing to give to you, it's making that a scalable option for you, it's a lot easier to add on bells and whistles or things like that. But these things can legitimately hurt your reputation in real time in real life. And you can fix them. So as soon as you get this kind of cleaned up and looking good, it's only moving and creating and growing. But these things can really screw you up.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  They can't. Okay, so let's walk through them again really quickly. So the first one is not having a visible impact on your website. Second is not having your HTTPS your security setup. Your third is having an unresponsive website, your fourth is not being transparent. Number five is outdated and disorganized. And number six is making it hard for people to give you their money. If you and I'm throwing this out there putting you on the spot if you were going to add a seven bonus pro quick tip, what would that be as we wrap this up? I know there's a lot but

[Dani MacGregor] I would say not putting your board or like your staff on your website. So obviously, everybody has a different sort of like governance or how you're organized. But if you do have the board setup, and how how you are set up, putting those names, pictures, putting real faces and real community connections on your website, even if they're minimal, even if you only have two people that have bought in to your cause, and are volunteering and helping. Those are two names that somebody can get on and be like, Hey, I I know Sammy, or hey, I know Tom. And they're fantastic. You know, I go and play pickleball with him or I saw them at the restaurant the other day. I'm having that social connection is so important. Your nonprofit. And I would, I would say that would be huge. If you do not have any names of people in your community that are connected on your nonprofit, on your website to your nonprofit, you need to get those names on there.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  That's so good. That's building on that transparency and building that trustworthiness that you were talking about through this whole thread. So that's a great tip. I love that. Well Danny so many good things. I think you've got a quick checklist. If you're listening to this just knock things off and the beauty of it is nothing here is well depending on how outdated your website is, but other than that nothing here is super crazy for you to take a look at. So Danny if people want to Learn more about you or connect with you. How do they do that?

[Dani MacGregor] Yeah, absolutely. You can reach me at the https://thecharitydesign.co. Or you can send me an email at danny@thecharitydesign.co.

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  Yeah, and we'll link all of that up in the show notes at the first click dotnet slash 196. Danny, thank you so much for being here today.

[Dani MacGregor] Thank you, Sam. It's so much fun to talk with you always. So

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  what was your biggest takeaway? I think there are so many things that you can get done lickety split from the list of six and I hope that you start working on them today. Some of them might take a little bit longer might require a little bit extra review from your team, but all are going to make a big impact on how your website performs. I hope that you will subscribe wherever you listen to this episode so that you don't miss out a single one and grab the show notes and resources at https://thefirstclick.net/196. For now, I am thankful that you take time to listen to these episodes and hope you're enjoying the month of websites. I'll see you in the next one.