Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Putting Together a Plan to Reach Donors

After you have a good idea of what it takes to get your site noticed and to keep visitors coming back for more (see the preceding section), you can put together a plan for your own online efforts. Your plan should include these action items:

• Identify your prospective donors. Whom do you want to target? Be specific — an “Everyone” response doesn't count. What does your typical contributor look like? Include descriptors such as age, gender, marital status, personal interests, or any other factors that typically reflect your most faithful donors.
• Determine the desired donor actions. What do you want people to do after they find your Web site? Are you interested solely in cash donations? Or are you soliciting in-kind donations and supplies? Perhaps you want to recruit volunteers, too.

  When you determine all the possible actions, rank them in order of importance. Then you can decide how to place, or showcase, the opportunities within your site.

• Describe the rules of engagement. How can you capture (and keep) the attention of your visitors? For example, consider the content you use on the site. Have people shared testimonials or success stories of how your organization has helped others? Use these stories to pique visitors' interest, and follow them with instructions on how to get involved.

  Visitor awareness building and education are probably ...