Four must-do analytics tasks for every nonprofit to start 2010 right

So often I come across nonprofits and trade associations that are interested in analytics but don't know where to begin.  I've listed here a few small must-do things that you  can tackle at the beginning of the year to lay the foundation for becoming an analytics-driven organization in 2010.

Being an analytics-driven organization means you'll be getting better results with the same resources.  Who doesn't want that?

Establish Key Performance Indicators that your management understands

You need at least one identifiable goal that doesn't have to be explained in techspeak to your management and is an undisputed benefit to the organization.  Here are some good ones:

1. Number of donations to the website or number of donations to the website per 1,000 pageviews or visitors.
2. Or if you're an advocacy organization: Number of letters to Congress on an issue in key districts.  Note that if you feel comfortable with the geo-segmentation Google Analytics does, you can actually compute a conversion rate based upon geo-traffic, and make this "number of letters generated from web visitors from key legislative districts".
3. If your organization recruits people for a campaign, like the Business Software Alliance's whistleblowers campaign, you could use the number of incoming web leads or the rate of those per 1,000 pageviews or visitors.  (Disclosure: The Business Software Alliance is a Virilion client)

And here are some bad Key Performance Indicators.  Most of them fail one of my colleague Shayna Englin's SMART tests, because they aren't: strategic, measurable, ambitious, realistic, or time-bound.

1. More email addresses: you can have a 1 million address email list, and still not raise a dime from it.  This is not strategic, nor is "more email addresses" a measurable goal.   How many is "more"?
2. Double our unique visitors in the next year:  Very few organizations have mere traffic as a goal.  The Kaiser Family Foundation may be one example, but even then, there's plenty of traffic that has no benefit to your organization.  You need to segment out your visitors more and give them specific goals.

Configure your web analytics product to measure that goal

Most of the work of 2010 should be about figuring out what contributes to your success of your Key Performance Indicator.  Is my success newscycle driven?  Do endorsing blogs play a key role?  Do my supporters come in droves because of a specific part of my mission?  Do my visitors who look at my "About page" give more than those that don't?

You need to setup your web analytics product to measure that goal, because the rest of the year will be spent learning what works and what doesn't, analyzing the data trails of people who did what you asked.

You'll need to give reports to your management showing what works, and most importantly, what doesn't.  "Wait, Shabbir, you just told me to give my management a report showing that I'm doing something that doesn't work.  Isn't that bad for my career?"

Here's the thing, if you're doing it, and it doesn't contribute to your goal, you probably know it already, and you continue doing it because your bosses haven't seen that fact.  If you make a point of demonstrating what parts of your work are effective and which ones aren't, that's the first step to getting your managers to make your job less frustrating.

(If you work at a place where you nobody cares about effectiveness, then you'll have to look a little harder for a champion.)

Apply for a Google Grant

A Google Nonprofit Adwords grant is the most under-utilized tool for bringing in supporters I've ever seen.  Most nonprofits spend no more than $1k-$2k per month of their $10,000 maximum spend using the default ad campaign the Google Grant team setup for them.  

If you don't have a Google Grant, you need to apply for one right away.  Approval won't happen overnight, and the sooner you apply the sooner you can start generating good traffic with it.

Start measuring your rank on core keywords

Odds are good there are search keywords out there that you want to rank high on organically.  After all, if you do microloans, and Google searches on "microloans" and "microcredit" show your website 7th, six other organizations are enjoying your donors for lunch.

Take a moment and look at your website (and your mission) and come up with some core keywords.  Then use a tool such as KeywordSpy to look at the keywords of competing organizations.  Set your list for the year and then use a free tool such as RankChecker to monitor your organic search rank on these terms.  Over time you will find opportunities to spot trends before your competitors and then build out a set of useful pages that rank well for both existing and new keywords.