For years, museums, aquariums, and cultural attractions relied on word of mouth, school field trips, and the strength of the in-person visitor experience to fill their halls. That’s no longer enough. Today, your audience is making decisions about where to spend their time based on what they find on social media, in search results, and through the recommendations of creators they trust. The institutions that understand this shift are thriving. The ones that don’t are watching attendance stagnate.

There’s good news, though! The cultural sector is in the middle of a genuine renaissance, with more than 200 million visitsto the world’s top 100 art museums in 2025 and institutions like the Cleveland Museum of Art reporting record-breaking years. But this growth isn’t even everywhere and it isn’t happening by accident. It’s being driven by smart digital marketing strategies.

Below are some of the most effective approaches museum professionals, aquariums, and cultural institutions are using right now, along with the reasons to invest in a long-term strategy.

What Are the 6 Components of a Successful Museum Marketing Strategy?

Digital advertising for museums and other attractions is complex, but there are a few core components that will always be a part of any successful marketing campaign, regardless of your particular approach.

1. Understand and communicate the value of marketing, particularly when competing for budget with public programming, facilities, and collections management. In a year when 34% of U.S. museums have lost federal grants or contracts, making the case for marketing ROI has never been more important.
2. Build your target audience. Outline the different personas that define them, including demographics, interests, and digital behaviors. More than 60% of Gen Z now use TikTok as a search engine, which means your audience research needs to go well beyond traditional demographics to attract new audiences and potential visitors.
3. Focus on the right digital channels, defined not by your own preferences but by your audience’s habits. If your visitors are discovering attractions on Instagram Reels and TikTok, meet them there instead of expecting them to find your website through a Google search alone.
4. Create visually dynamic, attention-grabbing content. Short-form video, behind-the-scenes access featuring your curators, and creator partnerships consistently outperform polished promotional content.
5. Run targeted, focused digital ads that drive your audience toward specific actions, whether that’s purchasing tickets, making a donation, or registering for an event.
6. Continually measure your metrics and ROI to understand which tactics are working and why. That helps you improve over time and build a more effective marketing engine.

A strong digital strategy is no longer optional for cultural institutions. It’s the infrastructure that connects your museum’s mission to the people you serve.

4 Digital Museum Marketing Strategies

Your website or social media might well be the first glimpse that many visitors have of your new museum. Here are four ways to make that experience so memorable that they decide to stop by for a visit or donate to your cause.

1. New and Innovative Social Media Tactics

Social media remains one of the most powerful tools for museums to build awareness and convert followers into visitors, but the landscape has changed dramatically. The audiences you can reach, the social media platforms that matter most, and the content formats that perform the best are all different from what they were even a few years ago.

Here’s what’s working right now:

• TikTok has become essential for reaching younger audiences. The Sacramento History Museum has built a more than two million-strong TikTok following by leaning into its quirky personality, posting about everything from Gold Rush history to antique letterpress operations. The Rijksmuseum has taken a different approach, using humor and behind-the-scenes content about Dutch masterpieces to earn millions of views and drive global brand awareness.
• Trend-driven content generates outsized engagement. When the “brat summer” trend took off in 2024, the British Museum renamed itself the “bratish museum” on Instagram. Alison Luchs, a 77-year-old curator and Renaissance art scholar at the National Gallery of Art, recently went viral for her overtly goofy Gen Z slang-laden comments about 500-year-old Italian ceramics. (“Money-maxxing sigmas would pull out Maiolica plates like this at dinner parties just to flex their aura points.”)

• User-generated content remains a major lever. Encouraging visitors to share their experiences, tag your institution, and participate in global campaigns like Museum Week (now spanning thousands of institutions in over 120 countries) extends your outreach without stretching your content team.
• With the right platform, such as HubSpot, you can coordinate your social media posts, email marketing, fundraising, public relations, website, and other marketing channels from a single dashboard, making it easier to measure what’s actually driving ticket sales and donations.

The institutions winning on social media in 2026 have one thing in common: they prioritize personality over polish. Audiences want to feel like they’re getting behind-the-scenes access to a museum exhibition, not watching a commercial.

2. Showcase Your Research

One of the most valuable digital visitors to your website is Google. Google’s core ranking algorithm prioritizes original, helpful content that adds to a growing body of knowledge, and expertly written content ranks highest. Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines, updated in September 2025, continue to emphasize E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Museums have all four in abundance.

Here’s how you can restructure your research for museum SEO:

• Perform keyword research on your topics and construct an outline with metadata based on one or two organic search terms.
• Include your keywords in your headings, alt text, and throughout the body to signal to search engines your intent to rank for a particular term.
• Embed images and video to increase engagement on the page and offer more material for search engines to include in their featured results.
• Use clear, direct language and explain complex terminology to inform your audience.
• Develop an information architecture that makes it easy for search engines to index your research pages and guides visitors to other parts of your website (such as donations or ticket purchases).

You can expand the power of your organic search efforts by supporting them with robust social media and email campaigns.

3. Live Streaming and Other Virtual Events

Live online events continue to be a powerful way to drive interest in your institution and build an audience beyond your physical walls.

Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, a nonprofit aquarium and research organization in Sarasota, FL, has demonstrated the long-term power of combining digital engagement with institutional ambition. Mote leaned into virtual programming during the 2020 lockdowns, hosting live otter feeds, virtual shark feedings, and at-home science experiments that built a dedicated online following. In October 2025, Mote opened the brand-new Mote Science Education Aquarium (Mote SEA), a $130 million, 146,000-square-foot facility featuring more than 1 million gallons of aquatic habitats and three state-of-the-art STEM teaching labs that provide free, hands-on learning for more than 70,000 students annually.

Other institutions continue to invest in virtual experiences as a complement to their physical programming. Behind-the-scenes tours, live Q&As with researchers, and virtual event previews give audiences reasons to engage between visits and help build the kind of sustained relationship that turns casual interest into membership and donations.

The lesson for any museum or attraction: virtual engagement isn’t a substitute for the in-person experience. Virtual engagement is the marketing strategy that makes the in-person experience irresistible.

4. Educational Opportunities for Learners of All Ages

Museums and cultural institutions have always been in the business of education. The smartest ones have expanded their educational reach by meeting students and families where they are: online.

The Children’s Museum of Houston, for instance, has evolved its digital learning platform into All-Time Access, a searchable database of free, curriculum-aligned activities and interactive STEM videos designed for K-5 students. Programs like these extend a museum’s educational mission far beyond its physical walls and position the institution as a resource that teachers and parents return to again and again.

This kind of digital educational programming has taken on new urgency. With the expiration of $190 billion in federal pandemic relief education funding in September 2024 and school districts across the country facing budget shortfalls and staff cuts, museums that offer free or low-cost educational content are filling a real gap. Mote SEA’s commitment to providing free STEM education for 26,000 Title I students annually is a powerful example of how institutions can make education central to both their mission and their marketing story.

Why Build a Long-Term Museum Marketing Strategy?

These digital strategies produce results in the short term, but the real payoff comes from building them into a long-term plan. Here’s why.

1. The Competitive Landscape Demands It

The cultural sector is at an inflection point. According to AAM’s 2025 National Snapshot, 55% of U.S. museums haven’t returned to pre-pandemic attendance levels, and 29% reported decreased attendance in 2025 due to weakened travel and economic uncertainty. At the same time, some institutions are smashing records. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York attracted nearly 6 million visitors in 2025. The Cleveland Museum of Art hit its highest attendance in 110 years. The Art Institute of Chicago was up about 15%.

The difference? Strong digital marketing strategies, blockbuster programming, and a commitment to meeting audiences where they are. Institutions without a sustained marketing plan are falling behind while their competitors pull ahead.

2. Younger Audiences Want to Engage Differently

Millennials (now 29 to 45) and Gen Z represent the largest potential growth segment for museums and cultural attractions. They’re not opposed to the museum experience. They just want to discover it on their own terms. Social platforms now account for more of the discovery journey than traditional search for audiences under 35.

The institutions succeeding with younger visitors are creating content that feels native to these platforms: short, authentic, personality-driven, and shareable. Those that show up consistently on the platforms their audiences actually use are building the kind of brand affinity that converts into visits, memberships, and donations.

3. Digital Engagement Drives Physical Visits

There’s strong evidence that virtual tours, social media content, and online programming don’t replace in-person visits—they make them more likely. Research from the higher education sector shows that prospective students who engage with virtual tours are significantly more likely to schedule an in-person campus visit.

The same principle applies to museums. A compelling TikTok, a well-designed virtual tour, or an engaging educational video doesn’t satisfy curiosity. It creates it. A parent who watches a behind-the-scenes feeding at the aquarium with their kid is far more likely to book tickets for the weekend and check out special exhibits.

4. Federal Funding Uncertainty Makes Marketing More Important

The cultural sector is navigating unprecedented funding instability. In 2025, the federal government proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Over 1,000 IMLS grants were terminated, and 34% of museums reported lost government grants or contracts. While a court order later reinstated many of the terminated grants, the future of federal cultural funding remains uncertain.

Museums that have invested in building their own audience through email, social media, SEO, and content marketing are better positioned to weather these storms. A strong digital marketing infrastructure and concerted marketing efforts reduce dependence on any single revenue source and build the kind of direct relationships with supporters that sustain an institution through unpredictable times and support its initiatives.

Work with an Agency That Knows Museum Marketing Strategy

The good news: you don’t have to build it on your own. Big Sea has worked with museums and cultural institutions, including organizations like Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, to build comprehensive digital marketing strategies that connect their missions to the audiences who care most.

Let’s talk about building a marketing engine that works as hard as your team does.

FAQs about Museum Marketing

What Is the Target Audience for Museums?

The target audience can vary widely, from local families and K-12 school groups to tourists, young professionals, and specialized researchers.

Can Partnerships Boost Museum Marketing?

Absolutely. Partnering with local influencers, community organizations, and other cultural institutions can help you tap into entirely new demographics and share resources.

How Can Museums Use Social Media to Increase Visitor Engagement?

Museums can increase engagement by encouraging user-generated content (like photos and specific hashtags), hosting live-streamed Q&As, and creating interactive polls or challenges.

The post Museum Marketing Strategy: Amplify Engagement, Drive Growth, and Build Impact appeared first on Big Sea.

Below, we talk all about the mechanics behind Google AI Overviews (AIO), the exact technical search engine optimization (SEO) moves required to get your brand name to the top, and the formatting tactics that ensure your content gets cited. From structured data to user experience, we cover everything your B2B organization should do to get those much-needed clicks. 

Understanding AI Overviews: What Are They and Why Do They Matter for B2B?

What Exactly Are AI Overviews?

Google AI Overviews are multimodal snapshots that synthesize data from numerous sources across the web to answer complex user queries. Instead of presenting users with the option to click through the most relevant websites related to their search terms, these AI features pull key information into a single box at the top of the Google search results.

Don’t confuse these with traditional featured snippets or a basic ChatGPT prompt, though Google integrates its massive, real-time index to provide cited, authoritative responses. The system generates comprehensive answers by reading text, analyzing images, and reviewing video content (that’s what makes it “multi-modal”).

The Impact of AI Overviews on B2B SEO

Developing hand in hand with AI overviews is the rapid rise of “zero-click searches”: searches where users get the information they need directly on the SERP without clicking on any linked websites. This fundamentally changes how we measure organic results.

While your overall click volume might drop, don’t panic. The traffic that does click through from AI-generated answers is highly qualified and ready to engage. A lower click-through rate (CTR) on top-of-funnel terms often translates into a higher conversion rate for bottom-of-funnel traffic.

Why Your B2B Business Can’t Afford to Ignore AI Overviews

Search intent is changing. Buyers are using conversational, long-tail keywords to find highly specific solutions. They ask detailed questions, expecting AI-powered search to do the heavy lifting.

Not showing up in these overviews means losing baseline trust and authority in your target audience’s eyes. If your competitors secure that search visibility, they win the credibility battle before you even get to make a pitch.

Foundational SEO for AI Overviews: The Basics Still Apply

High-Quality, Authoritative Content is Paramount

Google relies heavily on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). AI models prioritize human expertise over thin, AI-driven filler. To secure your rankings, you have to prove you know what you’re talking about.

How?

• Write what you know, don’t just chase keywords.
• Showcase your authors’ credentials.
• Cite reputable sources.
• Publish unique data.

These establish undeniable authority and ensure your high-quality content stands out against generic AI outputs. Traditional SEO still matters when it comes to proving your worth.

Technical SEO: The Unsung Hero

LLMs can’t parse a slow, broken website. Clean code, fast load times, and logical site architecture ensure search engines can properly crawl your content. A beautiful website won’t count for much if the underlying technical foundation prevents Google from reading your insights.

Technical SEO ensures the machines can access your brilliance. Don’t let bad code or missing details hide your expertise. 

User Experience (UX): A Direct Line to AI Visibility

Intuitive website design directly impacts AI visibility. High engagement rates and low bounce rates signal to search algorithms that your content truly satisfies the user’s needs. Remove intrusive pop-ups. Ensure a mobile-first design. Keep readers entirely focused on your text to improve the overall user experience.

And don’t skimp on the illustrations! A well-designed diagram properly tagged with alt text can land your explainer page in the AI summary for a keyword that punches way above your weight for most organic traffic.

Strategic Content Optimization for AI Overviews

Answering Specific Questions with Precision

Shift your content strategy from broad topics to exact, specific solutions. Give the generative AI clear, step-by-step instructions to pull from.

Listen to your sales calls. Read your customer support emails. Try to mirror the exact natural language your clients use during those interactions. If a client asks a hyper-specific question on the phone, write a blog post answering it with total precision.

Structuring Your Content for Scannability and Clarity

Formatting makes or breaks your rankings. Use descriptive headings (H2s and H3s) to create easily digestible chunks of information. Break up massive walls of text using bullet points.

A clear structure allows the algorithm to extract your insights directly. If your page looks like an unorganized mess, the bot will skip it and find a competitor with better formatting.

Leveraging FAQ Formats

The FAQ format remains a prime target for informational queries. Phrase your subheadings as direct questions. Follow them immediately with concise, factual, direct answers. This approach explicitly feeds the algorithm what it craves.

Advanced Tactics for AI Overviews

Semantic SEO and Entity Optimization

Move beyond exact-match keyword stuffing. Focus on the relationships between topics. Cover all related sub-topics to build a comprehensive resource. Use varied terminology to help the algorithm fully grasp the context of your page. A robust content strategy requires depth.

Data Markup (Schema.org) for Enhanced Understanding

Schema markup acts as a direct translator for search engines. It labels exactly what your data represents. Implementing structured data significantly increases the likelihood that your content will be used in rich results and AI Overview features. Whether you run a B2B SaaS platform or an e-commerce website, schema provides the clarity machines demand.

Building Domain Authority and Trust Signals

Earning backlinks from respected industry publications proves your site is a credible source. Push your digital marketing team to focus on off-site signals. Leverage social media and digital PR to drive brand mentions. These citations validate your expertise to the algorithm.

Measuring Your Success and Adapting to Change

Monitoring Your AI Overview Performance

Don’t let those vanity metrics distract you (charming though they may be). Track impressions, shifts in organic traffic, and the specific search queries driving users to your site.

Utilize tools like Google Search Console to monitor how your content performs alongside these new AI Overview features. Watch how your organic results fluctuate when new updates roll out.

Take Charge of Your AI Search Strategy Today with Big Sea

Google continually updates its AI search capabilities. In this environment, a static strategy will quickly become obsolete. Run continuous content audits to refresh outdated statistics and maintain relevance. Implement structured data immediately. Prioritize user experience above all else. These SEO strategies will protect your brand and drive sustainable growth.

If you’ve been watching your organic traffic shift without a clear plan for what to do about it, drop us a line. We help mission-driven B2Bs build SEO strategies grounded in real audience insight designed to adapt as search keeps changing. Reach out to see how we can get more eyes on your business.

FAQs about AI Overviews

Is Anyone Else Feeling Lost With All These New AI SEO Tools?

Yes, many marketers feel overwhelmed by the influx of AI-generated tools and the shifting SEO landscape. Focus on the fundamentals: answer user questions clearly, keep the website fast, and deliver genuine value.

How Are You Tracking Brand Visibility Inside AI Search Results?

Tracking visibility requires looking at impression data in Google Search Console for specific long-tail keywords. We also monitor drops in referral traffic and analyze user engagement metrics to assess how AI features affect our click-through rates.

How Do You Get Cited in AI Search Results?

To earn citations, publish original research, use proper headings, and implement schema markup. The algorithm favors structured, authoritative data that directly answers specific informational queries.

How Can I Optimize My Content for AI-Generated Overviews?

Optimize by adopting a Q&A format, using bullet points for scannability, and focusing heavily on technical SEO. Ensure your page loads quickly and answers questions with precision to win those coveted spots.

The post How to Appear in AI Overviews: SEO Moves Your B2B Business Should Make Before It’s Too Late appeared first on Big Sea.

Unfortunately, that intuitive sense of forward momentum was wrong. We now have the benefit of a few decades of major reporting and analysis of nonprofit financials from organizations like the Fundraising Effectiveness Project. It turns out that new donors usually cost nonprofits money, and far fewer donors return for repeat donations than many orgs expected; the average is less than 50%.

Effective donor retention can determine the financial stability of a nonprofit organization over both the short and long term. If your organization can build a strong donor retention rate, you’ll have a base of loyal supporters that contributes to your financial sustainability and fuels your long-term impact.

But with donor retention rates declining across the sector, how can nonprofits turn one-time gifts into lasting donor engagement? In this guide, we’ll break down how to calculate your donor retention rate, and we’ll share proven strategies to boost engagement. You’re already making a difference—now let’s make sure your donor relationships are strong enough to power your mission for years to come.

What is donor retention?

Donor retention is a metric that captures how many donors give to your organization repeatedly. A retention-focused marketing strategy means concentrating on maintaining relationships with existing donors, and encouraging them to continue giving month after month, year after year. Focusing on relationship-building with retained donors offsets the high costs associated with a strategy that hinges on new donor acquisition. These givers, while important, typically require more outreach and donor management than recurring donors.

Organizations with low donor retention spend a huge amount of energy on courting new donors and impactful one-time gifts, while organizations that increase donor retention year-over-year can rely on cost-effective fundraising strategies that re-engage lapsed donors and nurture returning ones. These types of fundraising efforts are integral to any sustainable nonprofit fundraising model.

How Do You Calculate Donor Retention Rate?

To calculate your average donor retention rate, simply divide the number of repeat donors in a given year by the total number of donors from the previous year, and multiply by 100.

Donor Retention Rate = Return Donors in Y2 / All Donors in Y1

For example, if you had 100 donors in 2024 and 75 of them donated again in 2025, your retention rate would be 75%.

What’s The Difference Between Donor Acquisition and Donor Retention?

Both donor acquisition (i.e. finding new first-time donors) and donor retention (encouraging previous donors to give again) are crucial for fundraising success, but a strategy focused predominantly on acquisition is costly.

Acquisition involves raising awareness, generating leads, and converting interest into that first-time gift. Retention, on the other hand, focuses on the stewardship of existing relationships, providing exceptional donor journey experiences that deepen loyalty, and therefore inspire repeat donations. A high donor retention rate can be a key indicator of your organization’s future financial stability.

Why Donor Retention Matters

Donor retention isn’t just about financial sustainability; it’s about building a powerful community of dedicated advocates for your cause. Here’s why it matters.

• Increased Special Project Funds: While first-time donors often give based on personal interests or motivations, long-term donor relationships are shaped by the organization’s specific needs and asks. Over time, these supporters are more likely to contribute both small and major gifts aligned with your fundraising goals. That’s why outreach and fundraising events for special projects or initiatives tend to perform better when backed by a loyal donor base.
• Greater Stability: Monthly donors are a godsend that sustains your important work. A loyal donor base provides predictable income, allowing you to plan for the future and weather inevitable fundraising challenges. 
• Amplified Impact: Repeat donors often give more over time. A healthy repeat donor retention rate not only creates financial stability, but it signals trust in new and long-term supporters. 
• Advocacy Network and Community: Loyal donors become vocal advocates for your cause, spread awareness, and inspire others to contribute. They’re a natural expansion of your reach and a catalyst for building community united by a common goal.
• Increased ROI: Retaining existing donors is significantly cheaper than acquiring new one-time donors. Fundraising campaigns built for repeat donors increase the lifetime value of this important group of supporters and require less resources.

How Do You Know If Your Donor Retention Rate Is Healthy?

If you run a mission-driven organization, you have to know your donor retention rate. This metric is a financial fitness tracker for your organization. With it you can measure the impact of your retention efforts and identify areas for improvement. It also sheds light on your nonprofit’s donor attrition, the spooky phenomenon in which donors stop giving to a nonprofit organization over time.

Before you calculate these metrics, you need a donor management software system that puts your donor data to work. We love HubSpot for countless reasons, including its ability to produce valuable insights from donor databases.

What Is a Realistic Donor Retention Rate?

Healthy retention rates vary by sector, but a typical retention rate generally falls between 40% and 50%. Aiming to increase this number over time is a key indicator of a thriving donor-centric organization.

Is a 20% Donor Retention Rate Good?

20% retention may be considered good in some circumstances, but it’s below the industry average for nonprofits, which is generally between 40-50%. However, a 20% rate for specifically new-donor retention isn’t unusually low. See the clarification below.

Distinguishing Between New-Donor Retention and Repeat-Donor Retention

To dig more deeply into your organization’s donor retention rate, the next step is to calculate the retention rate separately for new-donors and repeat-donors.

For this process, “new donors” are defined as first-time donors from the previous year. To calculate your new-donor retention rate for last year (2025), you would first create a segment of all first-time donors in 2024. Then, determine how many donors from that list gave again for a second year in a row in 2025.

New Donor Retention Rate = Return New-Donors in Y2 / All New-Donors in Y1

New-donor retention rates are generally much lower than your overall retention rate, often around 20% for nonprofits, so don’t be alarmed if this subset of donors has dismal retention and a higher attrition rate. Once a donor gives more than once (becoming a repeat donor), it’s much easier to retain them.

This fact is why it is key for nonprofits to focus efforts on retaining first-time and new donors. If you can build a relationship over the first year and successfully encourage a donor to give a second time, your chances of a lifelong partnership have increased exponentially.

How Do You Motivate and Retain Donors?

The only way to keep donors engaged is to cultivate genuine connections. Here are some crucial strategies.

1. Personalize the Journey

Treat your donors as partners. Get to know their passions, preferred communication styles, and specific reasons for giving. Once you have a clear sense of your donors’ preferences and motivations, consider creating donor personas to help organize your communications for different kinds of stakeholders. 

Lean into personalized touchpoints that demonstrate the impact of their generosity. Customer relationship management (CRM) software helps you stay in communication by segmenting donor lists by their giving history, location, level of engagement, and more. Our favorite CRM, HubSpot, easily contextualizes email campaigns for each segment, using automation to further streamline communications.

Remember to lead with the forms of engagement that your community of givers respond to best. If peer-to-peer fundraising is their preferred method, use it! If direct mail yields a hearty response, print donation forms and send them like it’s 1999. 

Engaged donors are both fundraisers and evangelists who spread the word about your mission to their own networks. They’re critical in driving both community engagement and donations.

Bottom line: keep things as personal as possible. Handwritten thank-you follow up messages from board members and exclusive invitations create a sense of deep connection with your organization and your mission.

2. Show Impact Through Nonprofit Storytelling

Donors want to see their generosity translate into real-world change. Don’t just tell them about your mission; showcase it! Share well-designed annual reports each year. Include impact stories within regular communications. Use visuals, data, and beneficiary testimonials to paint a vivid picture. When you highlight the wins, your donors will become even more committed to your cause. Storytelling creates a sense of shared purpose and reinforces the power of their giving.

3. Go Beyond “The Ask”

Relationships shouldn’t revolve around fundraising drives. Volunteer events, educational workshops, and exclusive behind-the-scenes experiences ensure that donors feel actively involved in your mission.

4. Listen and Adapt

One-sided communication leaves donors with a sour taste in their mouths and a feeling of lack of connection. You’ll create authentic relationships by making dialogue a central part of your plans for engagement. Provide intentional forums for your donors’ concerns and preferences, with both in-person and virtual events (via social media, surveys, online socials, etc.). You’re more likely to hit fundraising benchmarks when your organization is receptive and actively committed to its improvement.

5. Celebrate and Recognize

Appreciation goes a long way! Publicly acknowledge the significant contributions of your major donors through naming opportunities, dedicated events, or donor walls. Celebrate milestones and anniversaries with personalized messages and gestures. Your supporters should know they’re valued and integral to your mission.

How Do You Retain Major Donors?

To retain your major donors, they need personalized attention with respect for their unique motivations and philanthropic goals. Here’s how to cultivate long-term generosity among your major donors.

• Build Deep, One-on-One Relationships: Invest in personal connections. Assign dedicated staff to understand donors’ individual giving journey, motivations, and long-term philanthropic goals. Regular in-person or virtual meetings, phone calls, and personalized updates allow you to forge trust and demonstrate genuine interest in their priorities.
• Offer Exclusive Engagement Opportunities: Go beyond generic invitations. Extend personal invitations to exclusive events, board meetings, or behind-the-scenes experiences that align with their interests. This provides a sense of VIP access and deepens their connection to your cause.
• Tailored Communication and Impact Reporting: Share stories of beneficiaries impacted by their generosity and highlight their unique role in creating positive change. This can sound overwhelming for organizations with limited staff, but something as simple as sending a personal email along with your annual report that includes a note explaining how their contribution made “x” possible can be a great, low-investment strategy for connecting directly.
• Public Recognition and Appreciation: Publicly acknowledge their significant contributions through naming opportunities, dedicated events, or donor walls. This fosters a sense of belonging and inspires others to follow their lead. Remember, major donors often value not just their own impact, but also influencing others to join the cause.
• Flexibility and Responsive Communication: Be attuned to their needs and preferences. Adapt to their preferred communication styles and engagement methods. This demonstrates respect and builds trust, laying the foundation for a long-lasting partnership.

When major donors feel truly valued, understood, and connected to your mission, they’re more likely to remain engaged and continue their generous support, even in challenging fundraising climates.

And while major donors are key for your organization, smaller donors often provide the backbone of an organization through monthly giving programs and grassroots community. Don’t fall into the temptation of ignoring smaller-level donors in favor of courting and retaining major donors alone.

Let’s Talk About Donor Retention Rates

We know (and love!) nonprofit marketing. From grassroots organizations to national campaigns to mutual aid efforts, we’re here for it. Ready to supercharge your donor retention rate? 

The post Donor Retention: A Nonprofit Marketer’s Guide appeared first on Big Sea.

But with so many different types of fundraising tools available, it can be tricky to figure out which one is best for your organization.

Big Sea’s here to help. With over 20 years of helping nonprofits leverage online fundraising, we know what steps to take (and avoid) when choosing a nonprofit CRM; how to monitor multi-channel campaigns (think: a Facebook and programmatic advertising campaign driving people to your website’s donation page); and how to pick the right fundraising solutions to grow your impact.

Let’s dive in.

There’s no shortage of nonprofit tools that help streamline the giving process and keep you connected with donors. Here are some of the most effective fundraising platforms our nonprofit clients are using.

1. Fundraise Up

Pricing Model: Transaction fees + no monthly subscription
Transaction Fee: 4%
Special Feature: Machine Learning

Fundraise Up is a fantastic platform for nonprofit fundraising. With outstanding campaign pages, top-notch security features, great customer support, and easy integration with several other platforms, Fundraise Up simplifies and centralizes processes across a range of fundraising activities. This includes any fundraising you do on your website, over the phone, through telethons, or during events. Plus, Fundraise Up uses powerful machine learning technology to optimize your fundraising efforts.

Bonus: Integrate with HubSpot

We recommend HubSpot as a powerful CRM for our nonprofit clients, and integrating Fundraise Up with HubSpot can help supercharge your campaigns. HubSpot allows you to collect and understand data about your community, create targeted marketing materials, automate your marketing efforts, and produce powerful web pages that convert. Fundraise Up is available in the HubSpot app store.

2. Classy

Pricing Model: Annual subscription + platform fee + transaction fee for credit cards
Annual Subscription: Custom pricing
Special Feature: Crowdfunding Campaigns

Classy (now GoFundMe Pro) is a powerful fundraising platform that maximizes impact with world-class tools that make it easier for donors to give generously. The platform modernizes the donor experience and accelerates social impact for worthy causes through engaging, intuitive UX that fosters loyalty and ongoing support.

While Classy allows you to create a variety of fundraising materials, their peer-to-peer fundraising and crowdfunding campaign options are especially notable. These ways of giving are especially popular with younger donors and Gen Z.

3. Givebutter

Pricing: Free to use (optional tip model) + standard processing fees
Annual Subscription: Pro plan cost based on the number of contacts
Special Feature: Truly All-in-One Features

Givebutter is taking the nonprofit world by storm. It’s a completely free platform that offers a remarkable array of tools. From donation forms and livestream events to auctions and mobile bidding, it handles it all. You can easily manage event management, launch text message blasts, and use their text-to-give features to capture real-time excitement at an in-person fundraising event.

4. Donorbox

Pricing Model: Tiered plans with monthly fees + platform fees 
Pricing: Pro plan at $139 a month with a 1.5% platform fee
Special Feature: Crypto and Stock Donations

Donorbox offers many unique, user-friendly options for connecting with your donors. Features like text-to-give, which allow community members to donate easily via smartphone, and crypto/stock donations provide donors with a wide variety of ways to support your cause. They help you establish a donor portal so supporters can manage their recurring donations and view their giving history.

Donorbox also offers a huge catalog of resources for nonprofits to learn more about fundraising and the tools associated with it. 

5. Blackbaud (Raiser’s Edge)

Pricing Model: Annual subscription
Price: Custom subscription (often $6,000 per year)
Special Feature: Full website builder/CRM platform

A fully comprehensive, cloud-based fundraising platform? The future is here, and BlackBaud’s Raiser’s Edge platform is leading the way. With multiple giving programs, flexible online donation forms, and a variety of payment options, this comprehensive CRM platform helps you manage complex donor data, constituent profiles, large-scale volunteer management, donor relationships, and more. They boast end-to-end gift management, AI-driven donation suggestions, custom analytics, and deep donor management capabilities.

6. Harness Giving

Pricing Monthly: Monthly subscription + donation fees
Price: $99 a month + 1% donation fee for the premier plan
Special Feature: Impact Calculator

All-in-one fundraising platforms might sound too good to be true, but with over 2,000 clients, Harness Giving touts an easy-to-use platform focused heavily on recurring giving. With a unique Impact Calculator, Harness Giving helps nonprofits connect with their stakeholders by quite literally showing them the numbers: just how much of an impact their donation has had on the community.

7. HubSpot

Pricing: Tiered (Professional CRM Suite starts at $1,600/month, but nonprofits get a 40% discount)
Special Feature: World-class Marketing Tools and Automation

While not strictly a donation processor, HubSpot is the ultimate nonprofit CRM for tracking donor relationships. With dynamic dashboards, segmentation, and customizable workflows, you can personalize your outreach and drastically improve donor retention. When integrated with tools like Classy or Fundraise Up, it becomes a marketing powerhouse. Functionality-wise, it’s also an incredibly easy-to-learn tool for your entire nonprofit team.

>> Learn more about how to get the most out of HubSpot in our blog “The Complete Guide to HubSpot for Nonprofits.”

8. Facebook

Pricing Model: Free
Special Feature: Social Media Fundraising

Facebook fundraiser is a great, no-cost tool that nonprofits can use to streamline their donation process through social media.

With the fundraising option integrated directly into Facebook, users can both engage with a powerful story and donate via whichever platform they choose, including Facebook Payments, Network for Good, PayPal Giving Fund, and Razor Pay. They’re already scrolling through Facebook—so catch them where they are.

9. FreeFunder

Pricing Model: Free
Special Feature: Crowdfunding

The major advantage is right there in the name: it’s free. For the fundraiser, at least. FreeFunder donors are asked (but not required) to donate to the platform itself at check-out. Still a lesser-known platform, FreeFunder’s bread and butter is personal causes like medical treatments, but it also works just as well for nonprofits—particularly smaller, community-based organizations. 

Features such as text-to-donate, team member management, email distribution, easy onboarding, and embedded fundraising widgets make it easier to use than some platforms.

10. Virtuous Raise (Formerly RaiseDonors)

Pricing Model: Donations are integrated within a platform of your choice (PayPal, Stripe, etc.)
Price: Custom tiered pricing
Transaction Fee: 2.90% + $0.30 per transaction for Stripe (see the pricing page for info about other platforms)

Virtuous Raise is an online fundraising platform that allows you to create webpages and integrate with the payment processing platform and CMS of your choice. If you’re already set up for payments through a platform like Stripe, you can use Virtuous Raise to create pages or forms to provide your new donors with a great donation experience.

11. Bloomerang

Pricing Model: Monthly subscription + transaction fees
Price: $119/month for the standard plan
Transaction Fee: 2.90% + $0.30 transaction fee for credit cards and 1% + $0.30 for ACH
Special Feature: Full CRM

If you’re looking for a full customer relationship management platform that specializes in nonprofit fundraising and that is especially suited for email marketing, look no further than Bloomerang. Bloomerang offers a full-service CRM that includes donor databases, powerful analytics tools, custom templates, and strong options for personalized marketing campaigns and donor engagement.

12. Bonfire

Pricing Model: Free to open a store + processing fees for donations
Price: 8% processing fee
Special Feature: Merchandising

Bonfire is a unique platform that allows nonprofits to start selling merchandise such as t-shirts, hats, totes, and much more. It’s also completely free to start a store, and there are no monthly fees either. If you add a donation option to your store, they do charge an 8% processing fee. They also offer integration with Classy so you can add apparel to your peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.

13. PayPal Giving Fund

Pricing Model: Transaction fees
Transaction Fee: PayPal covers fees for the giving fund (except off-platform)
Special Feature: Ubiquity

PayPal is a great option for fundraising because it’s a powerful transaction tool that is universally recognized and trusted. It’s also great for crowdfunding campaigns, and it offers features like campaign pages, though it doesn’t have as many options as some other platforms listed here.

The primary drawback for the Giving Fund is that PayPal is the ultimate arbiter of donation distribution. That means that even if someone selects your organization, you may not necessarily receive those funds. However, the Giving Fund is still a great way for organizations to collect donations, provided you don’t make it your sole source of income.

How to Choose the Best Nonprofit Fundraising Platform for You

When thinking about fundraising tools, consider your three audiences.

1. The Donor

• What makes them care about your mission?
• How can you make the donation process easy and engaging?
• How can you guarantee loyalty and return visits?

2. Your Internal Team That Will Use the Tool

Campaign ideas are fun and all, but the tools you adopt should be easy to set up and connected with the other systems you’re using to promote and manage the campaign.

3. Your Community

What’s the community you’re serving? Keeping them front and center keeps the “why” in mind for your organization and potential donors.

What stories are you telling, to whom, and how can your fundraising tool help you share them more widely?

Our nonprofit fundraising experts recommend looking for tools that are under iterative improvement cycles. You want to know that the tool you choose is tested and improved regularly. If it’s not working for you, try something that does.

Small updates to user experience and workflow can make a huge difference in your donation totals, so learn about each tool’s roadmap and landing page conversion rates before you commit.

There are dozens of amazing software platforms that all have very specific use-cases and strengths, but how do they all work together, and how do you know you’re getting the most out of your tech investment?

Trust a Marketing Agency That Specializes in Nonprofits

At Big Sea, we’ve helped boost online donations for countless nonprofit organizations, and we can do the same for you. From grassroots community programs to cultural organizations to big national brands—we’ve raised hundreds of thousands.

With one look at our results, you’ll see why.

The post 13 Best Nonprofit Fundraising Platforms and How to Choose the Right One appeared first on Big Sea.

Ghosting is for bad dates, not loyal supporters. When donors only hear from you during an ask, you stop being a partner in impact and start sounding like a bill collector. That’s when donor attrition creeps in, and the donor retention rate starts to slide. We’ve watched organizations spend years asking, asking, asking, and never once telling a donor why this organization is the one best suited to solve the problem.

This article came about because of a simple question from one of our nonprofit clients: How do we nurture people who just donated without immediately hitting them with another ask? But that question opens the door to a much bigger conversation about donor retention and year‑round engagement.

The time between campaigns—let’s call them “quiet periods” or campaign cooldowns—is one of the most cost-effective opportunities you have to deepen relationships, increase retention of your current donors, and turn one‑time donors into long‑term supporters who stay with you year after year.

A quick note on terminology:When we say “quiet period” here, we aren’t talking about the “quiet phase” of a massive capital campaign, which is that hush-hush soft opening where you secure major lead gifts before going public. We’re talking about the everyday “in-between” moments when you aren’t actively running a major public appeal!

Why the “Quiet Period” is Your Secret Weapon

The Fundraising Effectiveness Project has made one thing clear: donor retention is one of the biggest challenges nonprofits face. Year after year, the average retention rate across the sector has slipped, making donor acquisition an increasingly expensive uphill battle. But in 2025, something encouraging happened—a small uptick. A reminder that intentional stewardship and thoughtful, consistent outreach can move the needle.

And that’s exactly why the quiet period matters so much.

When a first‑time donor or new supporter only hears from you during a fundraising push, they’re far more likely to become a lapsed donor. They gave once, felt unseen, and quietly drifted away. Not because they didn’t care, but because they didn’t feel connected.

The time between campaigns is where that connection is built. Quiet periods are when you shift from chasing transactions to cultivating donor lifetime value. This is where relationships deepen, trust grows, and supporters begin to see themselves as part of your mission.

Used well, the quiet period becomes one of the most cost‑effective tools you have to strengthen donor relationships, increase donor retention, and turn one‑time givers into long‑term partners in your work.

Segmenting Your Donor Data (Because One Size Doesn’t Fit All)

Donor management always begins with accurate donor data. Your CRM is the heart of your donor database and the key to avoiding generic outreach that treats every constituent the same. 

If your case for support to your entire list starts with, “We are a 501(c)3 and have served the community for 27 years…” we need a rewrite and a segmentation strategy. Donors don’t give because of your tax status. They don’t give because you were founded in 1998 (or 1898 or 1798). They give because something needs to change, the problem is urgent, and they can see how their gift makes a difference.

Segmentation helps you tailor communication to the donor journey, speak to that specific urgency, and create engagement strategies that feel personal.

The “Just Donated” Group

This group is often overlooked. If someone supported you last year or last week, they shouldn’t be receiving more donation forms or fundraising appeals. Pause their fundraising emails and focus on stewardship. This group is the most likely to become repeat donors if they feel appreciated.

Recurring Donors and One-Time Donors

A recurring giving program requires a different stewardship approach than one‑time gifts. Recurring donors want to feel like insiders. One-time donors often need reassurance that their gift mattered and that they’re welcome to stay involved.

Major Donors

Major donors who give major gifts need highly personalized outreach. Think fewer mass emails and more direct mail, phone calls, or personal updates. These relationships grow through trust and consistent communication.

5 Campaign-Free Donor Retention Strategies

Strategy 1: Share Impact Stories, Not Asks

Impact stories connect donors to your beneficiaries and mission. A mid‑year update, annual report, or simple “look what you made possible” message highlights what their support accomplished and strengthens donor engagement without another ask.

Make it Real: Stop leading every touchpoint with an ask. If 8 out of 10 emails say “donate,” you’re training people to ignore you. Answer “why us” before “will you give.” Instead of sending a generic Canva graphic or a “Happy National Nurses Day” post that gets three likes, send a dedicated email featuring the story of a real person who came through your program and came out different on the other side.

Strategy 2: Leverage Social Media and Digital Touchpoints

Social media is a powerful way to show behind‑the‑scenes moments, highlight initiatives, and celebrate wins. These lightweight touchpoints keep your nonprofit visible and reinforce impact without linking to a donation page.

Make it Real: Kill the potluck photos (seriously). Every post should pass one test: Does this make someone who’s never heard of us want to learn more? Post an unpolished, authentic 30-second video of your team loading up delivery trucks, or share a quick quote from a frontline worker about what they saw today.

Strategy 3: The Power of Direct Mail and Phone Calls

A handwritten note or a personal phone call can make a lasting impression. These small, unexpected gestures build trust and signal genuine appreciation, deepening donor relationships.

Make it Real: Have your program director or a passionate board member block off just 15 minutes on a Wednesday to call five recent mid-level donors. The script is simple: “Hi, I saw your gift come through, and I wanted to personally thank you. Because of you, [insert specific impact] is happening today.” No ask, just pure, unadulterated gratitude.

Strategy 4: Offer Exclusive Access

Invite donors to webinars, virtual town halls, or Q&A sessions with leadership. These insider‑style donor experiences help your supporters feel like partners in your mission, not just contributors.

Make it Real: Host a “Coffee with the Director” 20-minute Zoom call on a Tuesday morning. Keep it incredibly casual. Let your donors ask questions directly about the boots-on-the-ground work. If a donor can’t articulate what makes you different, your brand isn’t doing its job. Letting them hear it straight from leadership fixes that instantly.

Strategy 5: Non-Monetary Engagement

Instead of sending new donors back into your general list, build a short, automated welcome sequence that nurtures them during the quiet period.

• Email One: Immediate Thank You — This should be warm, personal, and focused on gratitude.
• Email Two: Impact Story — Show what their gift supported with photos, quotes, or a short video.
• Email Three: Invitation to Engage — Offer a non‑monetary action such as joining a webinar, following on social media, or reading a beneficiary story.

This series helps new donors feel seen and valued, sets expectations for future communication, and lays the groundwork for long‑term support.

Make it Real: Our favorite for-profit brands are loud about building their email lists, but most nonprofits aren’t thinking about list growth at all. Tactics don’t matter if your emails put people to sleep. Growing your list and sending something people actually want to read will yield more donations, more trust, and a bigger community ready to support you.

Nurturing Your Recent Donors

Recent donors require a different kind of attention. They’ve just taken meaningful action, and the quickest way to lose them is by sending another fundraising appeal too soon. Quiet periods are where thoughtful stewardship matters most.

Your CRM can help you protect that experience. By setting up an automated suppression list for recent donors, you ensure they don’t accidentally receive donation requests while they’re still in the “gratitude window.” This automation keeps your communication intentional and prevents missteps that can erode trust.

Once donors are properly suppressed from appeals, your focus shifts to nurturing—not asking. Your welcome series (outlined above) does the heavy lifting, introducing new supporters to your mission, reinforcing the impact of their gift, and offering meaningful ways to stay connected.

The goal is simple: help new donors feel seen, appreciated, and included. When donors experience that kind of care early on, they’re far more likely to give again and eventually become long‑term supporters.

Retaining Donors Is Not About Transactions

Donor retention is built on community, connection, and consistent communication. Quiet periods give your donor base room to breathe and reconnect with your mission. When the next fundraising campaign arrives, your supporters will be more informed, more engaged, and more likely to give again.

Take one small step today. Log in to your CRM and set up one automated impact email for recent donors. A single thoughtful touchpoint moves your donor retention rate in the right direction.

Feeling stuck on how to map out these quiet periods? Reach out to our team at Big Sea to help you craft a custom donor communications plan that keeps your supporters engaged, educated, and ready to give when the time’s right.

FAQs

What Are the Best Practices for Donor Retention?

Consistency, segmentation, and gratitude. Keep your outreach steady, personalize your messaging, and make thanking donors a priority. Use outreach templates in your fundraising strategies to improve efficiency as your total number of donors grows year over year.

How Can a Nonprofit Organization Improve Donor Retention Rates?

Focus on stewardship, meaningful touchpoints, and ongoing outreach that isn’t tied to fundraising efforts. Earnest connection will boost your average donor retention rate and other meaningful metrics.

What is a Good Donor Retention Rate?

Industry averages for the nonprofit sector often fall around 40 to 45 percent. Anything above that suggests your engagement strategies are working.

What is a Donor Journey?

It’s the lifecycle of a supporter from first-time donor to constituent to long-term or legacy donor. Every touchpoint shapes their experience and donation process.

How Can Storytelling Enhance Donor Retention Strategies?

Impact stories create an emotional connection. Donors who feel connected to your mission are more likely to become recurring donors and long-term supporters. By sharing stories about your organization’s impact, you’ll continue building relationships with the people who already care about your work.

The post Donor Retention Strategies That Go Beyond Just Asking for Money appeared first on Big Sea.

HubSpot was built to help lean, mission-driven teams work smarter and accomplish more. Yet the most common use case we see is: send email, check open rates, repeat. For an organization paying hundreds or thousands of dollars a month, that’s a lot of untapped potential sitting in your dashboard.

When Big Sea worked with KSKJ Life, a nonprofit fraternal benefits society, we were looking to run an engagement campaign targeting two very different audiences: members and agents. So, we used HubSpot’s audience segmentation to launch a direct mail piece with a QR code that funneled respondents into separate, personalized four-part email workflows in which members received promotions and agents got sales prompts. KSKJ’s team could monitor open rates and click-through rates in real time and adjust accordingly. That’s HubSpot working as designed.

Are you looking for ways to better utilize the HubSpot CRM? Then you’re in exactly the right place.

This blog is the practical shortcut you’ve been looking for. We’ll walk through the HubSpot features that deliver the biggest impact: CRM setup, lifecycle stages, automation, lead scoring, integrations, and dashboards. 

Set Up Your HubSpot CRM Like You Mean It

A well-configured HubSpot CRM looks nothing like the default setup most teams inherit. What most organizations actually have is a glorified address book: inconsistent data, duplicate contacts, and fields nobody fills out correctly.

When it’s being used well, a strong CRM setup should cover these four things:

• Contact Records: Every contact should carry consistent, meaningful data. Decide which fields matter for your organization and enforce them during import and form submission. Gaps in contact records create gaps in every campaign you run.
• Custom Properties: HubSpot’s default fields won’t capture everything you need to know about your constituents. Custom properties let you record the information that actually reflects your work—whether that’s donation history, volunteer role, program interest, or constituent type.
• Deal Stages: Map your deal stages to your real fundraising or sales process, not HubSpot’s generic defaults. If your pipeline has five actual stages, build five stages. Accuracy here pays dividends in reporting.
• HubSpot Lists: Static lists capture a fixed group at a point in time. Active lists update automatically based on the criteria you define. Know which one to use for each use case and use both deliberately for segmentation.

Lifecycle Stages: The Feature Most Teams Configure Incorrectly (Or Skip Entirely)

Lifecycle stages classify where a contact sits in their relationship with your organization—from first-touch stranger to loyal, long-term supporter. When they’re done right, they become the backbone of your segmentation and automation.

However, lifecycle stage and lead status aren’t the same thing. Treating them as interchangeable is a common point of confusion that creates messy data and broken workflows.

Here’s the distinction:

• Lifecycle Stage = The big-picture view of that contact’s journey through your funnel (e.g., Subscriber, Lead, Marketing Qualified Lead, “Customer,” etc.).
• Lead Status = A property that lives within certain lifecycle stages that tracks what’s happening in the outreach process (e.g., New, In Progress, Attempted to Contact, Connected, etc.)

Lifecycle stage is the macro view. It answers: “Where are they in our funnel?” Lead status is the micro view. It answers: “What’s the current status of our outreach to this person?”

HubSpot’s custom lifecycle stages let you adapt the platform’s defaults to reflect your organization’s unique constituent journey. For instance, a nonprofit’s version of “Customer” might be “Active Donor.” A social enterprise might add a stage for grant-funded beneficiaries.

Get lifecycle stages right, and almost everything else in your HubSpot account gets easier. Your segments become cleaner. Your automation becomes more precise. Your dashboards actually tell you something useful.

HubSpot Automation and Workflows: Stop Doing Manually What HubSpot Can Do for You

Automation isn’t a list of tactics. It’s a strategic system for staying in touch with the right people at the right time without burning out your team.

First, a clarification that saves a lot of confusion:

• Workflows are automated, trigger-based actions for contacts, companies, or deals. They handle marketing automation, lifecycle stage updates, internal task assignments, and notifications. They work in the background, around the clock.
• Sequences are a sales tool. They send time-delayed, one-to-one emails directly from a rep’s inbox designed for personal outreach cadences, not broad marketing campaigns.

Most small teams don’t need 20 workflows on day one. Start with three or four that address your biggest gaps:

• A new subscriber welcome series
• A lapsed donor re-engagement flow
• An internal alert when a high-value contact takes a meaningful action

Enrollment criteria deserve extra attention. Setting the wrong triggers will flood your workflows with the wrong contacts or miss the right ones entirely. Spend time here before you hit “Turn On.”

Don’t forget to ensure your workflows comply with GDPR by honoring subscription preferences and consent settings before enrolling contacts.

One more thing: Every automated email should still feel human. Good templates and follow-up sequences do that. Personalization tokens, conversational language, and a clear CTA go a long way toward making automation feel less… automated.

Email Campaigns That Do More Than Land in the Promotions Tab

Everyone uses HubSpot for email campaigns. Few use them well.

The difference between emails that convert and emails that get ignored comes down to a few fundamentals:

• Segmentation: HubSpot lists and custom properties let you send the right message to the right person. A major donor shouldn’t receive the same email as a first-time volunteer sign-up.
• Personalization: Go beyond “Hi [First Name].” Dynamic content and custom property tokens can make an email feel genuinely one-to-one by referencing a contact’s program interest, history, or regional location.
• CTAs: Every email should have one. Build and track your calls-to-action inside HubSpot so you can see exactly what’s driving clicks, not just opens.
• Landing Pages: Email and landing pages work as a conversion path, not independent pieces. Build them together with a clear flow in mind.
• A/B Testing: Even simple subject line tests compound over time. Running consistent tests will meaningfully improve open rates across your campaigns.

Email in HubSpot functions as one node in a broader inbound marketing system. It connects to your CRM, workflows, reporting, and landing pages. Treat it that way.

Lead Scoring: The Feature You’re Definitely Paying For and (Probably) Ignoring

Lead scoring assigns a numerical value to contacts based on behaviors and demographic fit. Page visits, email clicks, form submissions, job title, organization size: each gets weighted according to what signals genuine interest or alignment.

The concept sounds complex. The execution doesn’t have to be. A simple 0–100 scale with 5-10 criteria is genuinely useful. Your sales team can see at a glance which contacts to prioritize in follow-up, rather than working through a list with no context.

For nonprofits, lead scoring works can mean donor prospecting and volunteer pipeline management. A contact who has downloaded your annual report, attended two virtual events, and visited your donation page three times in one week is telling you something. HubSpot can surface that signal automatically.

Integrations: HubSpot Plays Well With Others

HubSpot’s value multiplies when it works with the rest of your tech stack. That means connecting it to the tools your team already uses to streamline your workflow.

Common integration categories worth considering:

• Fundraising Platforms: Classy, Givebutter, FundraiseUp, Donorbox
• Event Registration Tools: Eventbrite
• Accounting Software: QuickBooks, Xero
• Communication Tools: Slack, Zoom
• Project Management: Asana, Trello

Good integrations reduce duplicate data entry, improve record accuracy, and give contact records a richer, more complete picture. Phone number tracking, for example, can surface in contact records and support more personal outreach from your sales reps or development team.

Native integrations are almost always better than workarounds. The HubSpot App Marketplace is the best starting point for evaluating what’s available.

Dashboards and Reporting: What Reports Should You Actually Build?

Default dashboards rarely reflect your actual goals. Most teams either rely on them anyway or avoid reporting altogether.

Build dashboards around real outcomes:

• Marketing Teams: Email performance, landing page conversions, traffic sources, campaign attribution
• Sales and Development Teams: Pipeline velocity, deal stage conversion rates, activity volume per rep
• Leadership: Revenue or donation forecasting, goal attainment, ROI by channel

Connect your metrics to outcomes. Impressions and open rates matter, but what they led to matters more. A well-built HubSpot dashboard is one of the clearest ways to show your board or executive director exactly what’s working and what isn’t.

How to Get Your Team to Actually Use HubSpot

HubSpot underutilization is usually an adoption problem. Teams resist tools that feel like surveillance, that weren’t designed around their actual workflow, or that they were never properly trained on.

Practical ways to improve adoption:

• Involve your team in configuration decisions early. People support what they helped build.
• Create short internal tutorials using real examples from your organization’s work.
• Use accountability structures that feel supportive rather than punitive.
• Celebrate visible wins. When a workflow saves someone two hours a week, make that visible to the whole team.

How Hard Is It to Learn HubSpot, Really?

The learning curve is real. For a lean nonprofit team where everyone’s already doing more than their share, opening HubSpot for the first time can feel genuinely overwhelming. That’s a fair reaction.

Luckily, most teams can find their footing within a few weeks, especially when they stop trying to learn everything at once and focus on the features that matter most.

• HubSpot Academy is your best free resource. It offers certifications, tutorials, and step-by-step courses for every skill level. If you’re just getting started, prioritize the HubSpot Marketing Software and Inbound Marketing certifications. Both are practical, well-paced, and directly applicable to what you’ll be building.
• The HubSpot Community is worth bookmarking, too. It’s an underrated forum where users share templates, answer niche questions, and troubleshoot problems together. When something breaks (and it always does), reaching out there is often faster than submitting a support ticket.

If you really want to significantly accelerate onboarding, work with a HubSpot-certified agency like Big Sea. 

You’ve Got the Platform. Let’s Make It Work.

Knowing best practices and actually implementing them are two different things. That gap is completely normal, especially for teams already stretched thin across programs, communications, and operations.

Big Sea is a trusted HubSpot partner that helps mission-driven organizations get real, measurable value from their HubSpot investment. Whether you need to rebuild your CRM from scratch, set up lifecycle stages, configure automation workflows, or optimize your dashboards, we work alongside your team to make it happen without the overwhelm.

HubSpot FAQs

What HubSpot Features Are Most People Paying for But Not Using?

Lead scoring, lifecycle stages, automation workflows, and custom reporting are the most commonly overlooked features across nonprofit and social impact organizations.

How Do I Prove HubSpot ROI to Leadership?

Build custom dashboards that directly link platform activity to revenue, donations, or program outcomes. When leadership can see the line between marketing activity and mission results, the conversation changes.

When Should You Switch From Spreadsheets to a HubSpot CRM?

When you can no longer reliably track contacts, follow-ups, or campaign performance in a spreadsheet, that’s the signal to switch. If you’re regularly losing information or spending hours reconciling data, HubSpot will save you time almost immediately.

What Reports Should Every HubSpot User Build?

Start with four: pipeline velocity, email performance by campaign, traffic sources, and lifecycle stage progression. From there, build toward attribution reporting and goal-tracking.

The post HubSpot Best Practices for Teams Who Want More Than an Expensive Email Tool appeared first on Big Sea.

That’s why we hosted a live webinar called “Nonprofit Content Clinic: Make Every Word Work for Your Mission.” The session brought together hundreds of nonprofits and nonprofit marketers looking for practical ways to level up their content strategy and make their marketing efforts more focused and effective. We talked about the challenge many teams face: how to be consistent and effective at content creation while making sure every piece you write serves the actual needs of the people you’re trying to reach.

During the webinar, we walked through how to:

• Clarify your messaging
• Identify the real questions your audiences are asking
• Develop a realistic editorial calendar that supports your broader marketing plan
• Fit SEO into your nonprofit content marketing
• Interview clients and staff to uncover powerful stories
• Use AI without sounding like a robot
• Structure your content marketing plan to consistently support fundraising campaigns, advocacy, and engagement

If you’re the only person managing content for your organization (or one of a happy few managing different types of content while juggling other responsibilities), this webinar is for you. Consider it a practical starting point for improving your organization’s strategy and getting more impact from the time you invest in content creation.

We break down some of the advice explained in the webinar below.

Want the full recording? Download“Content Clinic: Make Every Word Work for Your Mission” to see the complete training and examples.

The Six-Point Content Clinic Checklist

Before writing a single word, run your content through these six questions. This checklist works for new content and for revisiting content. It’s the foundation of how we evaluate every piece we create or edit at Big Sea.

The Six-Point Content Clinic Checklist at a Glance

Use this before publishing any new content or beginning a content refresh.

1. Intent and Audience: Who’s this for? What’s their relationship with your mission?

2. Structure: Is there a clear H1 and logical subheadings? Is the page scannable?

3. Voice and Clarity: Is it written in plain language? Free of jargon and nonprofit-speak?

4. Proof and Specificity: Is there at least one stat, quote, or concrete example that only your org could produce?

5. SEO Alignment: Is there one primary keyword? Does it appear in the title, first paragraph, and at least one subheading?

6. Call to Action: Is there one clear next step? Is it visible? Does it make sense for that content?

1. Intent and Audience

Every piece of content needs a particular audience. A funder reading a grant report has different needs than a potential volunteer seeing your site for the first time. A partner organization scanning your program overview is looking for something entirely different than someone who just received services. When you write for everyone, you connect with no one.

Before you write, name the person this content is for. Be specific. “Prospective donors who found us through a Google search” is a more useful persona than “donors.” That specificity shapes every decision that follows.

2. Structure

This matters for your readers and for Google. People and web crawlers have one thing in common: they scan before they read. Search engines index your heading hierarchy to understand what your page is about, and people use your headings to skip to what they need and decide whether your content is worth their time.

Every page should have one clear H1 that names the topic. H2 and H3 subheadings should follow a logical sequence. Paragraphs should be short. Bullets should appear where they genuinely aid scannability, not just to break up text. If someone can scroll your page in ten seconds, understand the structure, and find what they want, you’ve done your job.

3. Voice and Clarity

Plain language doesn’t have to dumb things down.

A lot of nonprofit writing has a recognizable vocabulary: “holistic approach,” “multifactorial challenges,” “ecosystems of support.” For us, these phrases can feel safe and familiar. Using them means you’re a pro, right? They signal effort. But they can obscure as much as they communicate, and after a while, readers learn to skip past them.

Write the way you’d explain something to a colleague over lunch. If you’d say “we help families find stable housing,” don’t write “we provide comprehensive wrap-around support services for housing-insecure populations.” 

4. Proof and Specificity

Numbers, quotes, and concrete examples are the hardest things to replicate. They’re also the most credible.

“Our volunteers make a difference in our community” is a sentiment. 

“Last year, 142 volunteers packed 3,600 meal kits, and we’re doubling shifts this spring” is evidence. 

One is forgettable. The other builds trust.

Every piece of content should include at least one specific data point, one real quote, or one concrete example. These are things only your organization can produce. They’re what separates your content from anything AI could generate from scratch.

5. SEO Alignment

Each piece of content should be built around one primary keyword. One question. One search intent. That means being intentional about the problem this content solves and the language your target audience uses when they search for that solution. When you know your primary keyword, you know where it belongs for optimization: in the title, in the first paragraph, in at least one subheading, and naturally throughout the body.

6. Call to Action

Every piece of content needs a next step.

An impact story should invite readers to sign up for your email newsletter or learn more about your programs. A how-to guide should end with an offer to talk or download a resource. If you’ve earned a reader’s attention and then give them nowhere to go, you’ve left value on the table.

The call to action doesn’t have to be aggressive. It just has to be clear. One step. The logical next move from wherever they are.

>> Download “Content Clinic: Make Every Word Work for Your Mission” to see the complete training and examples.

People-First Content: How to Write for Humans (and Rank on Google)

The phrase “people-first content” comes from Google’s own guidelines for what it rewards in search results. The underlying idea is straightforward: content that genuinely serves your audience will perform better than content engineered to game an algorithm.

This reframes SEO as something much less technical than it might seem. A lot of what Google rewards is what good writing has always required.

What E-E-A-T Means for Your Content Marketing

Google uses the acronym E-E-A-T as a framework for determining high-quality content:

• Experience – Is there evidence that a real person with real experience wrote this?
• Expertise – Is the author knowledgeable and qualified?
• Authoritativeness – Is the website a reliable source?
• Trustworthiness – Is the content accurate?

Human reviewers at Google use this framework when evaluating how a site should rank.

For nonprofits, this is good news. Your organization has authentic expertise and real-world experience that a generic content farm doesn’t. The challenge is making that visible on the page. Named authors, specific statistics, direct quotes from staff and clients, and evidence of real program outcomes all contribute to E-E-A-T signals. These aren’t just good writing practices. They’re exactly what Google is looking for.

Write for Your Audience’s Stage in the Process

Not everyone who lands on your website is in the same place. Some readers just learned you exist. Others have been following you for years, and they’re considering a first-time donation. Some may be researching a service you provide. Others are considering a partnership.

Your content should be designed with a specific persona and a specific stage in mind. First-time visitors need orientation and clarity, while a prospective donor who just read a blog post might be ready for an invitation to give. A program partner looking for collaboration criteria needs specifics and evidence of outcomes.

When you know who your readers are, you can create a content marketing strategy that meets each reader where they’re coming from, rather than trying to serve everyone at once.

Example: Emergency Rental Assistance

During our Content Clinic webinar, we walked through some real examples of these methods in action. Check out the example below:

The revised version names its audience upfront (this page is a how-to for people applying for rental assistance), adds subheadings and bullet points to make it scannable, and replaces the buried link with a prominent button that states exactly what comes next.

The content didn’t change, but the structure did. The result is an optimized page that could actually convert visitors into applicants.

The Editorial Calendar: Your Content Strategy’s Missing Backbone

Most nonprofit content teams fall behind not because they lack ideas, but because they lack a system for consistently executing on those ideas. A nonprofit editorial calendar is one of the most underused yet most impactful tools in the sector.

Start with the Narrative, Not the Calendar

But before you open a spreadsheet, answer three questions:

• Who is each piece of content specifically for?
• What’s the story you want them to remember about your mission?
• What action do you want that person to take?

Those answers are your strategy. The calendar is just the container. A calendar without a narrative behind it produces organized content, but not content that serves your broader strategic goals. 

This is why so many organizations build a beautiful content calendar in January and abandon it by March. The calendar was the goal instead of the output.

Build a Content Calendar That Won’t Overwhelm a Two-Person Team

Looking ahead toward a year of content can feel overwhelming until you look at it like this: one new piece of content per month plus one refreshed older article. That’s 24 pieces of content over a full year, roughly one piece every two weeks. For most small teams, that’s a meaningful, sustainable output at a manageable pace.

It’s less glamorous than a daily social media strategy. It’s also far more likely to produce results, because each piece gets the attention it deserves.

Use Key Dates as Content Anchors

One of the most effective ways to build an editorial calendar without staring at a blank spreadsheet is to start with dates that already have meaning for your audience. Think of:

• End-of-year giving season
• Holidays
• Awareness months relevant to your mission
• The anniversary of your founding
• Major program milestones
• Government policy changes that affect your community
• Annual report releases

Plug those dates in first. Then work backward from each one. If end-of-year giving is in December, your October and November content should build toward it. Planning backward turns the calendar from a scheduling tool into a narrative arc.

What Goes in a Content Calendar

It’s nothing more complex than a Google Sheet with these columns:

• Planned publish date
• Content format (blog posts, case studies, landing pages, infographics, social media posts)
• Working title
• Primary keyword (for any content you want to rank in search)
• Status (outline, draft, in review, approved, published)
• Owner (who’s responsible for this piece)

That’s it. Keep it simple enough that you’ll actually use it.

>> Download “Content Clinic: Make Every Word Work for Your Mission” to see the complete training and examples.

Content Refreshes: The Fastest Way to Grow Organic Traffic

Most nonprofit organizations we work with have never heard of a content refresh. When they learn what it is and see what it produces, it becomes one of the most-requested services we offer.

What a Content Refresh Actually Is

A content refresh means returning to a piece of content you’ve already published and rewriting it to be more useful, more current, and better aligned to how your audience is searching today. It’s not just changing the publish date. It’s rethinking the introduction, updating metrics, tightening the call to action, and expanding sections that answer real questions.

The goal is to boost content that already has some traction and defend your position in search results before a competitor edges you out.

Why Refreshes Often Outperform New Content

Publishing something new requires Google to discover, index, and evaluate a page it’s never seen before. That process takes time. A page that already exists, has inbound links, and ranks for related keywords starts with a significant advantage.One of our clients tested this directly. Over the course of a year, we focused almost entirely on refreshing existing blog content. The results were significant: their blog received five times more organic traffic, with nearly four times as many keywords ranking in the top three positions and close to double the total number of keywords.

When to Refresh vs. When to Write Something New

Refresh when: 

• A page is ranking on page two or the bottom of page one
• The content is useful, but the data or examples are outdated
• An annual report or program overview was published, then left unchanged
• The page gets decent traffic but has a low conversion rate

Write something new when: 

• No content exists on that topic at all
• The target audience for the new piece is significantly different from that for any existing content
• Adding the topic to an existing page would distort its focus

A Step-By-Step Content Refresh Process

1. Rewrite the introduction to make the piece’s outcome clear up front.
2. Update any outdated statistics, dates, or facts. 
3. Add internal links to other relevant pages on your site, especially any content published since the original post.
4. Tighten the call to action. Make it specific, visible, and logically connected to the content.
5. Add micro-conversions throughout the piece to allow readers to act before they reach the end.
6. Expand the FAQs section or add one. Look to Google’s “People Also Ask” results for your target keyword. If those questions aren’t answered somewhere in your content, add them.
7. Audit images and accessibility. Update alt text, verify that images load properly, and ensure the page is readable on mobile.

How to Stay Human While Using AI

AI is now part of nearly every content workflow, whether teams have intentionally adopted it or not. The key is to use it without losing the voice, specificity, and credibility that make your content worth reading.

Where AI Genuinely Helps

AI tools are most useful when the work is structural or generative rather than final. It excels at:

• Creating outlines and content structures before writing
• Generating variations on headlines and calls to action for you to evaluate
• Brainstorming angles or questions you haven’t considered
• Summarizing long reports into key points you can then verify and expand
• Repurposing a long-form blog into a shorter email or social post

These are tasks where AI accelerates work you’d do anyway, without requiring AI to produce something that depends on firsthand knowledge or human judgment.

Where AI Falls Short

There are places where AI should either be used very carefully or not at all:

• Final Statistics and Specific Facts: AI will fabricate data that sounds plausible. Always verify every claim independently.
• Sensitive Human Stories: Impact narratives that come from real interviews with real people can’t be generated; they can only be gathered.
• Direct Quotations: AI tools will alter quotes to sound more polished or complete. This is not a minor issue. It’s a credibility and accuracy problem.
• Lived Experience: AI can’t write authentically about what it feels like to navigate your programs, serve your community, or work in your organization.

The Start-With-You, End-With-You Rule

The most useful frame for AI in a nonprofit content workflow is this: you start it, AI helps develop it, you finish it.

That means giving the AI tool as much real material as you can before asking it to do anything. Upload your brand voice guidelines. Include the quotes from your most recent client interview. Paste in the statistics from your latest data. Give it the specific outcomes you want to communicate—the more specific your input, the more useful the output.

Then finish with you. Read it, edit it, fact-check every claim. Verify that every quote appears exactly as it was said. (And run it through the six-point checklist.)

How to Detect and Remove AI Patterns from Your Writing

AI-generated content has recognizable habits. Once you know what to look for, you’ll see them everywhere. Here are the most common ones to remove:

• Em dashes: For some reason, AI loves them. (Especially for phrases that go: “it’s not just this—it’s that.”) Use two sentences instead. Or a semicolon. Or ditch the connector altogether and just say the thing outright. 
• Filler Words: “However,” “moreover,” “in conclusion.” Delete them. They slow down reading without adding meaning.
• Rhetorical Questions Followed by the Answer: “What does this mean for your organization? It means a lot.” That gets gimmicky quickly.
• The Triplet Formula: “Fast, easy, and affordable.” AI defaults to groupings of three adjectives.
• Vague Superlatives: “Incredibly impactful,” “deeply meaningful,” “truly transformative.” Replace with a number or an example.

>> Download “Content Clinic: Make Every Word Work for Your Mission” to see the complete training and examples.

Getting the Stories That Actually Move People: A Nonprofit Interviewing Framework

Interviewing helps uncover the moments, emotions, and turning points that make a mission real to an audience. When someone shares their experience in their own words, it creates a sense of connection that stats can’t easily replicate. 

A skilled interviewer listens for details: the hesitation before a difficult decision, the unexpected kindness that changed someone’s life, the quiet moment when hope returned. These details reveal the lived experience behind your work. When captured well, they let readers and viewers see themselves in the story. 

What Content Benefits from Interviewing

Not every piece of content requires an interview. But certain content types are dramatically stronger when they’re built from a real conversation:

• Client and Participant Impact Stories: The firsthand account of someone who received your services.
• Frontline Staff Reflections: The perspective of someone who does the work every day.
• Donor or Volunteer Origin Stories: How someone first got involved and why they stayed.
• Complex Policy or Technical Topics: Expert interviews translate difficult material for a broader audience.
• Multimedia Content: Video testimonials, podcast-style thought leadership, and social media engagement all require real voices.

How to Conduct a Better Interview

The goal of an interview is to get as much real material out of the person as possible, not to confirm what you already planned to write. That distinction changes how you prepare and how you listen. Here are some tips:

• Do your research, but ask simple questions. You want to understand the context well enough to ask good questions. But don’t let your preparation close off directions the conversation might go naturally.
• Gather background before you go for the main story. Ask about age, where they grew up, and what they were doing before the moment your organization entered their life. The hook for a great story is often in an unexpected detail.
• Ask about the hardest moment. What was the point where things felt most uncertain? What do people misunderstand about this experience? What would you tell someone just entering it?
• “Could you say more about that?” This is one of the most useful questions in any interview. When someone says something specific or surprising, follow it. Don’t rush back to your prepared questions.
• Let the story go where it goes. Your outline is a scaffold, not a script. The best material often comes when you follow a thread you didn’t plan on.

Need Support for Your Nonprofit Content Strategy?

When you dream big for your organization, there always comes a point where your ambition outpaces your capacity. You may have clear marketing goals, but not enough time or specialized expertise to execute everything.

That’s when partnering with a marketing agency makes the most sense. An experienced agency like Big Sea can help translate your mission and ideas into a cohesive strategic plan, bringing structure to your messaging, campaigns, and content so that every effort moves in the same direction. 

For 20 years, we’ve been working with mission-driven organizations at exactly these inflection points. We help you move your mission forward, tell your story, and reach the right audiences, whether you need a senior-level marketing strategy to clarify your goals and messaging priorities or flexible execution to turn strategies into content that delivers real results.

If this guide resonates with you, we’d love to talk. Not a pitch, just a conversation about where your content stands and what a stronger system might look like for your organization.

Talk to our team about your content strategy.

The post Content Marketing for Nonprofits in 2026: Every Word Counts appeared first on Big Sea.

Museums and cultural destinations that thrive today aren’t just stewards of collections or promoters of the arts. They’re community organizers, safe havens for ideas, and gathering places for people who want to feel part of something larger than themselves. Regular programming, events, activities, and classes are among the most powerful tools for building community, driving membership, and deepening long-term loyalty.

The catch? Community-building only works if people can actually find, understand, and register for those activities. That puts your website front and center.

Why Community Programming is a Missed Opportunity for Most Museums

Post-pandemic, people are actively seeking connection. Casual visitors who feel welcome and engaged are more likely to become members, donors, and advocates of your cultural institution. Community programming is one of the most direct ways to live your institution’s core values of inclusivity and accessibility.

And yet, many museums, zoos, and aquariums underinvest in programming that reaches across age groups, schedules, and demographics. The more varied your offerings, the broader the community you can genuinely serve. 

According to a national survey by the American Alliance of Museums, more than one-third of museums (36%) provide direct educational support, such as tutoring, after-school programs, and school supplies, and one-fifth (19%) offer workforce development or job training. Museums also provide mental health and wellness resources, digital access and literacy services, civic engagement opportunities, and language access services. 

More and more, museums and cultural institutions are understanding the need to invest in the future of their communities in new ways.

Partnerships amplify this reach even further. When an art museum co-hosts a program with a local school, library, or community center, both organizations gain new audiences. For example, BRIC in New York City works with the public school system to provide arts and media education, partners with local organizations to bring events like BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! to multiple parks across the borough, and collaborates with government agencies to provide workforce development and training initiatives.

Remember: the facilitation model matters. Events led by guest educators, local artists, or community voices feel participatory rather than institutional.

How to Make Your Website the Backbone of Your Community Engagement 

A strong community engagement strategy needs an equally strong digital foundation. Your website is where intent turns into attendance. When a potential visitor hears about your museum through social media or word of mouth, their next stop is your website. What they find there either confirms their decision to visit or sends them elsewhere.

Two things have to be true for your website to support community engagement effectively: it has to stay current and make it genuinely easy to find and register for events.

Common Cultural Institution and Museum Website Mistakes

Events are buried. A visitor who has to click through three menus to find your upcoming programs won’t bother. If your events aren’t accessible from the homepage and the main navigation, you’re losing registrations every day.

Registration is friction-filled. Separate ticketing systems, unclear confirmation emails, and non-mobile-friendly forms create confusion and abandonment. If a visitor doesn’t know where their tickets are after they’ve purchased them, they may simply not show up.

Siloed systems overburden your staff. When your email platform, ticketing tool, and event calendar don’t talk to one another, administrative staff spend hours on manual updates instead of on program development. That inefficiency shows up on the visitor side as outdated listings and inconsistent information.

These aren’t niche user experience complaints. They’re the difference between a museum that fills its programs and one that wonders why registration numbers are soft.

What a Community-Centered Website Looks Like

Fixing these issues requires intentional museum website design. Here’s what effective museum websites do well when it comes to community programming.

Events are front and center. Upcoming events should appear on your homepage. Full stop. A sortable, filterable event calendar—viewable by date, program type, or audience—should also live in your main navigation. 

Registration is frictionless. Mobile-optimized registration forms are non-negotiable. Aim for as few clicks as possible between “I want to go” and “I’m registered.”

Platforms are integrated. A visitor registers once and automatically receives email and text reminders. No hunting for a confirmation email. No logging into a separate system to access their ticket.

Accessibility and Mobile-First Design for Cultural Institutions

Being community-centered means being accessible to all people from all devices. You say it in your mission, make it concrete with your website.

Why Museum and Cultural Institution Leadership Should Care About Accessibility 

More than 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. has some kind of disability. For cultural institutions receiving public funding, inaccessible websites both limit your audience and can introduce legal risk under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Beyond compliance, an inaccessible website directly contradicts the inclusivity values most museums hold central to their mission.

First-generation museum-goers, visitors with visual or motor impairments, and older adults navigating the website on a mobile phone all need a website that works for them. That means intuitive keyboard navigation, contrast radios, support for screen readers, and extremely easy-to-digest information. 

>> Dive deeper into accessibility in our other blog, “The Importance of Accessibility in Digital Marketing.”

Web Accessibility: What to Consider First

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide a practical framework. Key areas to address include:

• Keyboard Navigation: Can users move through your site without a mouse?
• Contrast Ratios: Is your text legible against its background?
• Screen Reader Compatibility: Are your images, forms, and menus labeled correctly?
• Plain Language: Is your content easy to understand for a wide range of visitors, including those encountering your institution for the first time?

Mobile-first design matters here, too. Most people will find and register for your events on their phones. Designing for the smallest screen first, rather than shrinking down a desktop layout, produces better outcomes, fewer bugs, and a significantly smoother visitor experience for your audience.

Make it Easier for Visitors to Make Plans

When a visitor decides they want to attend your next event, their experience from that moment until they confirm registration determines whether they show up or give up.

The museums, zoos, aquariums, and cultural institutions that consistently see strong event attendance share a few things in common:

• Event listings appear on the homepage and are accessible from the main navigation
• Integrated tools mean visitors register, pay, and receive confirmation in one place
• Mobile-optimized forms make the process smooth on any device
• Automated email and text reminders reduce no-shows

This directly affects your revenue metrics. Complicated registration flows are one of the leading causes of abandoned sign-ups.

Reduce the Burden On Your Staff

A website that’s hard for visitors to use is usually hard for staff to manage as well. When event calendars live in one platform, ticketing in another, email in a third, and donor records somewhere else entirely, your team spends enormous energy on coordination instead of programming.

The right infrastructure connects these systems. HubSpot, for example, integrates CRM, email, and marketing tools in a single platform—with a 40% discount for 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Pairing it with a purpose-built event calendar plugin (like the events calendar plugin for WordPress) and a ticketing solution that supports class and camp registration creates a streamlined experience on both ends: easier for engaging visitors and easier for your team to manage.

Some other plug-ins we like include:

• Give Donation Plug-in
• Fundraise Up
• GiveButter

A Welcoming Digital Lobby Attracts More Visitors

You put real thought into your physical space. The lobby, the signage, the welcome your staff extends to every visitor—all of it reflects what your museum values. Your website should do the same work.

When it reflects what makes your institution special and welcoming, it draws in more visitors. When it’s outdated, hard to navigate, or inaccessible, it signals the opposite of everything your mission stands for. Community-centered institutions need community-centered websites to stand out. Fortunately, this is a solvable problem.

The museums and cultural institutions that get this right share a few things in common: they treat their websites as living tools, not static publications; they connect their digital systems so that staff and visitors experience less friction; and they build for the full range of people they want to serve.

At Big Sea, we work with museums, aquariums, arts centers, and cultural institutions to build websites and marketing strategies that reflect their missions and grow their communities. Let’s talk about what your cultural institution specifically needs in a website.

FAQs

What Drives Visitor Engagement in Art Museum Visiting?

The most effective drivers of audience engagement combine compelling programming with frictionless access. Interactive exhibits, hands-on activities, and special events create reasons to visit repeatedly. But programming only converts to attendance when visitors can easily find it, register for it, and receive clear communication before they arrive. Both sides of that equation—programming quality and digital accessibility—have to work together.

How Can Museums Effectively Use Storytelling to Enhance Their Marketing Efforts?

The most impactful technology investments are those that reduce friction for visitors and staff simultaneously. An integrated CRM like HubSpot, a well-configured event calendar, mobile-optimized registration forms, and automated email reminders all make it easier for visitors to show up and for staff to manage attendance. Apps that support self-guided tours or provide deeper context for specific exhibits can also enhance the museum experience once visitors are on-site.

What Other Opportunities Do Museums Have to Engage With New Audiences, Especially Younger Generations?

Younger audiences respond well to programming that feels participatory rather than passive—workshops, community events, behind-the-scenes access, and social media-friendly exhibits. Partnerships with schools, universities, and community organizations help reach diverse audiences who may not have considered a museum visit before. Evening and weekend programming expands access for those with daytime work or school commitments. Museums that prioritize inclusivity in their event design, including free or pay-what-you-can options, build a sense of belonging that sustains engagement over time.

How Can Museums Use Technology to Increase Visitor Engagement?

Storytelling works best when it’s specific. Rather than describing what a museum contains, effective museum marketing shows what it feels like to experience it, through visitor testimonials, behind-the-scenes content from curators, and narratives tied to specific exhibits. Across social media, email, podcasts, and your website, a consistent and authentic voice builds trust and emotional connection with both current supporters and new audiences.

The post Museum Visitor Engagement Starts with Community Programming and the Right Website appeared first on Big Sea.

The pressure to keep every touchpoint personal and on-brand is real, but there are only so many hours in a day before even the most dedicated nonprofit marketer, stretched thin by sheer volume, starts turning out copy that’s clearly running on caffeinated muscle memory and a prayer.

HubSpot AI is built to solve exactly this problem. It embeds AI-powered tools, called Breeze Assistants, directly into your customer platform so your team can offload the repetitive, time-consuming work that drains creativity. These AI agents automate complex tasks such as prospecting, content creation, and data cleanup, freeing your staff to focus on work that truly requires a human brain. 

HubSpot’s AI features are designed to augment human creativity, not replace it.

This guide breaks down nine practical ways to use AI inside the Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, and Service Hub while keeping your brand voice intact. We’ll also tackle the big question: Does human-written content outperform AI-generated content?

What Is HubSpot AI?

HubSpot’s Breeze is an umbrella of AI features embedded across its products. It lives inside the Smart CRM, content creation tools, and prospecting agents. Unlike standalone tools like ChatGPT, Breeze works directly with your existing CRM data, so context follows you from task to task. No more copy‑pasting between tabs like you’re performing CRM triage.

HubSpot supports AI in two ways: it integrates with external models like ChatGPT via API, and it also offers its own built-in generative AI through Breeze agents. All of this is backed by HubSpot’s transparent AI ethics policy, and the best part is that these AI features are already included in your plan.

Let’s dive into a few ways to use HubSpot AI to your advantage.

9 Ways to Use HubSpot AI Without Losing Your Brand Voice

1. Scale Social Posts with Content Remix

Content Remix lets you turn a single blog post or email into multiple social posts across platforms in seconds. It’s perfect when you need to promote the same fundraiser twelve different ways without losing your mind. The tool eliminates the “blank page” problem and helps social media managers maintain a consistent posting cadence without feeling like they’re rewriting the same caption over and over.

Still, human review is essential. AI can generate strong starting points, but your team should refine captions to ensure they match your brand voice. Within the Marketing Hub, you’ll also find AI‑suggested comment replies and video captions, little miracles that keep engagement high without the manual grind.

2. Automate Marketing Emails with Generative AI

Generative AI inside HubSpot can draft marketing emails, subject lines, and even full nurture sequences. It’s a powerful way to accelerate content creation, especially for nonprofits juggling fundraising appeals, event invitations, and donor stewardship emails. It works best when paired with human editing, so review tone, personalization tokens, and the clarity of your CTA to ensure every message feels intentional.

That naturally leads to the question on everyone’s mind: Does human-written content outperform AI-generated content? The truth is nuanced. AI performs comparably when humans refine it. Pure, untouched AI output rarely hits the mark, but AI-assisted content often does (while taking a lot less of your team’s time and energy).

3. Leverage the Smart CRM for Smarter Lead Scoring

The Smart CRM uses AI tools and data enrichment to keep contact records accurate and up to date. Automated lead scoring then helps surface high-priority leads for your sales teams, but only if you set scoring thresholds that reflect your team’s actual definition of a qualified lead.

Human oversight remains crucial (sensing a theme yet?). AI should support your segmentation strategy but not replace it. This is especially valuable for startups that need scalable systems to handle repetitive tasks without adding headcount.

4. Use Breeze to Streamline Prospecting

The AI prospecting agent inside Sales Hub can research leads, surface CRM data, and draft initial outreach messages. For nonprofits, this means faster donor prospecting, quicker identification of potential major‑gift supporters, and less manual digging through records to find the right people to engage.

But even the best AI can’t build a donor relationship for you (if it could, we’d all be out of a job). Let the assistant handle the research and first draft, then shape the outreach so it feels personal, mission‑aligned, and unmistakably human.

5. Automate Repetitive Tasks with AI-Powered Workflows

Workflows within the HubSpot CRM automate repetitive tasks such as follow-up emails, property updates, lead rotation, and internal notifications. Before building, map your workflows visually to identify where human decision points are needed and where full automation makes sense.

Pro tip: Leverage the templates function, which offers a quick way to get started and helps you streamline processes without reinventing the wheel.

6. Optimize Landing Pages with Breeze Assistant and Templates

HubSpot’s AI writing tool, the Breeze Assistant, can generate landing page copy, headlines, and CTAs instantly. Pairing AI suggestions with pre-built templates helps you optimize for both conversion and SEO.

The result: faster launches, more consistent messaging, and landing pages that feel polished without requiring hours of manual drafting.

7. Build a Robust Knowledge Base with AI in Service Hub

Service teams can use AI features to build and maintain a knowledge base more efficiently. HubSpot AI can auto-suggest knowledge base articles based on common support tickets, helping teams respond faster. You can also deploy an AI chatbot trained on your knowledge base to resolve common questions around the clock.

Just remember to regularly audit your knowledge base articles. AI-written content is a time-saver, but it still needs to reflect your brand voice and remain accurate. Without human eyes, your bot can easily slip into that unmistakable “customer service recording” energy, and absolutely no one is asking for that.

8. Use AI for Data Analysis, Forecasting, and Dashboards

AI-powered reporting inside the HubSpot dashboard surfaces trends, forecasts pipeline performance, and flags anomalies in CRM data. Sales Hub’s forecasting tools give teams a clearer picture of what’s ahead. Schedule monthly reviews of these insights. AI can highlight patterns, but human discussion turns those patterns into a strategy.

9. Personalize Customer Experiences Across the Full Platform

The real power of HubSpot’s AI tools lies in how seamlessly they connect across HubSpot’s products. From first touch to long-term retention, AI helps you deliver customer experiences that feel consistent, thoughtful, and genuinely personalized.

With shared customer data at their fingertips, marketing teams and service teams can finally collaborate without friction, ensuring every interaction feels intentional rather than automated. It’s personalization at scale that protects you from ballooning staff costs and keeps your existing team from burning out.

Revolutionize Your Workflows with HubSpot AI

HubSpot AI frees your team from repetitive tasks so they can focus on strategy, creativity, and relationship-building. The best results come from treating AI agents and AI assistants as collaborators, not replacements. Review and refine every output, and continue training your AI tech stack to stay aligned with your brand voice and accuracy standards.

If you’re a mission‑driven organization or nonprofit ready to get started, Big Sea is here to help. We partner with HubSpot users to untangle the tough stuff, streamline your systems, and turn your customer platform into a true engine for impact, one that works as hard for your mission as you do.

The post HubSpot AI: 9 Ways to Automate Without Losing the Human Touch appeared first on Big Sea.

But most community-based healthcare providers aren’t sitting on massive marketing teams or big budgets. They’re navigating a complex healthcare industry shaped by strict compliance requirements, patient privacy concerns, rapidly evolving technology, and rising expectations for digital convenience. Patients expect clear information, easy scheduling, and credible answers the moment they search online.

In this guide, we’ll break down what makes digital marketing for community healthcare centers distinct, outline the core components of an effective strategy, and show how to build a system that supports both patient care and long-term growth.

What Is a Digital Marketing Strategy for Healthcare?

For community healthcare centers, a digital marketing strategy is about providing a coordinated, patient-centered system that makes care easier to find, understand, and access.

At its core, a strong healthcare digital marketing strategy aligns your mission, services, and the community’s needs with how people actually search for and evaluate care online. It accounts for privacy regulations, it recognizes that healthcare decisions are emotional as well as practical, and it builds long-term relationships with the people you serve.

Before jumping into tactics, the foundational questions you need to ask are:

• Who are we trying to reach, and what are their primary healthcare concerns?
• What information do they need before booking an appointment?
• Where are the gaps between what we offer and what patients understand?
• How will we measure success in a way that leadership and boards can support?

What Makes Digital Marketing for Community Healthcare Centers Unique?

Digital marketing for community healthcare centers operates under different pressures than large hospital systems or private practices. The mission is broader, the margins are tighter (and the marketing team is often smaller).

Here’s what makes it distinct.

Mission-Driven, Not Profit-Driven

Community healthcare centers exist to expand access, improve outcomes, and serve vulnerable populations. That mission shapes how you communicate. As a result, your marketing should:

• Emphasize access, prevention, and equity
• Provide clear, reassuring information
• Reflect cultural awareness and community context

This isn’t about aggressive growth tactics. It’s about making care easier to understand and easier to access.

Multiple Audiences, One Limited Budget

Most community healthcare centers are speaking to more than just patients. You may also need to reach:

• Caregivers and families
• Board members
• Grant funders and donors
• Community partners

Each audience needs something different. Patients want convenience and clarity. Funders want measurable impact. Boards want responsible growth. A strong digital marketing strategy ensures your messaging is aligned and your channels work together so that limited resources can stretch further.

Compliance and Trust Are Non-Negotiable

In healthcare, trust is everything, and privacy is protected by law. Your strategy must build trust and compliance into the foundation, not layer them on later.

HIPAA compliance influences:

• Email and SMS communications
• Testimonials and storytelling
• Data tracking and analytics

Patients are evaluating you online before they ever schedule an appointment. That’s why clear service descriptions, ethical use of reviews, and useful educational content are all necessary to reinforce your credibility.

Lean Internal Marketing Teams

Many community healthcare centers operate with small, overextended teams. One person may be managing the website, social media, email campaigns, and reporting—all while supporting leadership and board requests.

That reality makes strategy essential. Without prioritization and clear measurement, marketing becomes reactive instead of intentional.

An effective healthcare digital marketing strategy simplifies your decisions, aligns your efforts across channels, and produces reporting that leadership can understand and support.

8 Core Digital Marketing Strategies for Community Healthcare Centers

For community healthcare organizations and healthcare providers, your goal is more than just visibility (though that’s an important first step): it’s meaningful patient engagement across every stage of the patient journey—from first search to follow-up care.

Below are eight core initiatives that form the backbone of sustainable healthcare marketing campaigns.

1. SEO for Healthcare Visibility

When someone searches for “pediatric clinic near me” or “low-cost primary care,” your organization should appear. But that visibility doesn’t happen by accident.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is foundational. Visibility on Google brings organic traffic, and strategic optimization turns that traffic into new patient acquisition. A thoughtful SEO approach for community healthcare centers includes:

• Optimizing service pages and landing pages around patient needs and real search behavior
• Improving site speed and usability on mobile devices
• Creating educational content tied to common symptoms and preventive care
• Ensuring your phone number and contact information are consistent across digital channels
• Strengthening local SEO through accurate Google Business Profiles

Local search engine optimization ensures healthcare services appear when someone searches for care nearby. When paired with paid search and Google Ads campaigns, your visibility expands even further.

2. Video Marketing to Build Trust and Human Connection

Healthcare decisions are personal. Video accelerates trust in a way static text rarely can.

Short, high-quality videos can:

• Introduce physicians and care teams
• Explain procedures or preventive screenings
• Walk patients through what to expect during an appointment
• Share impact stories that resonate with funders and community members

For healthcare organizations serving diverse communities, video also improves accessibility. Subtitles, multilingual content, and culturally relevant messaging go a long way in building connection.

You don’t need a studio production budget. You need clarity, authenticity, and consistency.

3. Social Media for Community Engagement and Education

For healthcare organizations, social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram can support outreach, education, and referrals when used intentionally.

Strategic social media initiatives may include:

• Sharing relevant content that addresses common patient needs
• Posting infographics about preventive care and wellness
• Promoting community events and health screenings
• Highlighting patient testimonials and staff expertise
• Driving traffic to landing pages or service updates

Social media supports brand awareness and ongoing patient engagement. It also creates real-time communication channels for important information.

4. Personalized Campaigns and Email Marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most effective digital marketing tactics in the healthcare industry. The key is to keep them thoughtfully segmented and HIPAA-compliant.

Strategic email campaigns can support:

• Appointment reminders and follow-up communications
• Preventive care prompts
• Targeted outreach based on demographics
• Educational sequences aligned with patient journey stages

Automation reduces strain on lean marketing teams while maintaining consistent communication. A well-designed workflow ensures the right message reaches the right target audience at the right time. When executed properly, these efforts can strengthen retention and enhance patient experience without overwhelming internal teams.

5. Informing and Educating Users Through Content Marketing

Community healthcare centers play an important educational role. Many patients arrive with questions, confusion, or misinformation gathered online.

Content marketing allows you to provide reliable, accessible answers through:

• Blog posts addressing common symptoms and conditions
• Preventive care guides
• FAQs about eligibility and insurance
• Downloadable checklists
• Resource hubs for chronic disease management

Patients search for health information long before contacting a provider. Educational content improves your search visibility, strengthens your credibility, and reduces friction in the patient decision process. It positions your organization as both a service provider and a trusted source of guidance.

6. Patient Reviews and Testimonials

Online reviews significantly influence patient choice, and testimonials humanize your organization and reinforce your credibility across digital channels. For many people, reviews are as persuasive as personal recommendations.

A strong healthcare digital marketing strategy should:

• Encourage satisfied patients to leave reviews
• Respond professionally and promptly
• Highlight testimonials across landing pages and service descriptions
• Ensure all patient information shared is HIPAA-compliant

7. Creating a Community Around Your Healthcare Center

Community healthcare centers are anchors in their neighborhoods. Your digital marketing strategy should reflect that role.

Ways to foster community include:

• Promoting local partnerships and school collaborations
• Publishing a wellness- and prevention-focused newsletter
• Hosting webinars or virtual Q&A sessions
• Sharing stories that highlight impact and referrals
• Hosting patient education workshops
• Showcasing staff volunteerism and outreach efforts

When digital channels mirror your real-world community presence, engagement deepens. Patients become advocates, and partners become amplifiers.

8. Analytics

Without metrics, marketing efforts lack direction. Healthcare organizations should track meaningful indicators tied to patient care and growth, not just surface-level engagement.

Useful metrics include:

• Appointment requests and calls
• Patient acquisition cost
• Engagement across social media and email campaigns
• Conversion rates from pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
• Performance of Google Ads and paid search campaigns
• Behavior across landing pages and digital touchpoints

Real-time analytics clarify what’s working. They guide optimization, strengthen board reporting, and ensure your digital marketing tactics align with your mission-driven goals.

Case Study: Premier Community HealthCare

A strong digital marketing strategy guides your campaigns, your content, and your website. A well-planned, well-thought-out homepage works around the clock, steering patients, answering questions, and connecting people with care.

To see how we embody that strategy in web design, take a look at Premier Community HealthCare.

Premier is a nonprofit healthcare system serving Pasco and Hernando counties in central Florida, providing accessible, wraparound healthcare services to more than 46,000 patients each year. With 315+ clinicians and a long-standing mission to remove barriers to care, Premier needed a digital presence that matched the quality, compassion, and accessibility of its in-person patient experience.

Their former website was difficult to update, confusing for patients to navigate, and disconnected from key systems like Epic MyChart. Big Sea partnered with their team to design and develop a new, fully accessible WordPress site that:

• Guides patients clearly toward scheduling care
• Connects providers, specialties, and locations through an intuitive search experience
• Meets WCAG accessibility standards
• Empowers internal teams to manage content easily
• Reflects Premier’s refreshed brand in a calming, patient-centered design

The result is a modern, strategic digital home that improves the patient journey while supporting internal efficiency.

Want to learn more about our discovery process and technical approach?

Build Your Digital Marketing Strategy with Big Sea

Digital marketing for community healthcare centers requires focus, discipline, and a deep understanding of how mission, trust, and tight capacity intersect. The goal is to build a clear, sustainable system that supports patient care, strengthens brand awareness, and makes it easier for potential patients to find and choose your organization.

At Big Sea, we partner with mission-oriented healthcare organizations on both marketing strategy and execution. We work alongside your team to:

• Clarify your strategy before investing in new marketing efforts
• Improve patient experience across digital touchpoints
• Strengthen search visibility and content marketing
• Design accessible, user-centered websites
• Connect analytics and metrics to leadership decision-making

Ready to build a healthcare digital marketing strategy that drives measurable growth and supports your mission? Reach out to see how we can help.

FAQs About Digital Marketing Strategies in Healthcare

What Is the 70/20/10 Rule in Digital Marketing?

The 70/20/10 rule is a budgeting framework that helps organizations allocate marketing resources:

• 70% toward proven, effective digital marketing strategies that consistently drive results (like SEO, email, and social media marketing)
• 20% toward emerging marketing trends that show promise
• 10% toward experimental initiatives

For healthcare practices, this approach reduces risk while allowing innovation. The majority of investment should support tactics that improve rankings, generate new patient inquiries, and strengthen the healthcare brand. The smaller experimental portion can test new content formats or platforms without compromising stability.

What Are the 4 P’s of Healthcare Marketing?

The 4 P’s of healthcare marketing is a mnemonic that stands for “Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.”

• Product refers to healthcare services and the overall patient experience
• Price includes transparency, insurance clarity, and perceived value for healthcare consumers
• Place encompasses both physical locations and digital access points, like websites and patient portals
• Promotion includes outreach, social media marketing, paid campaigns, and referral initiatives

For healthcare professionals and administrators, aligning these four elements ensures that the healthcare brand remains consistent across touchpoints and responsive to patient needs.

How Would You Build a Digital Marketing Strategy in 2026 with a Small Budget?

Small budgets demand a focus on efficiency and alignment. Start by clearly defining your target audience and highest-impact services. Prioritize search visibility by improving rankings with foundational SEO and relevant content. Use a CRM to organize patient data and support segmented email outreach. Invest in social media marketing strategically rather than broadly. Track metrics carefully to double down on what works and pause what doesn’t.

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