Sean Newman, M.A.

Now for what didn't go so well in 2023... 🙈 ◾️ Didn't own my confidence in marketing, wanting someone else to save me that was more "qualified/knowledgeable". Learned key lessons on Marketing Director hire. ◾️ Significant loss of SEO ranking (turned that around in 2024!) and feeling lost on what to do. ◾️ Completed a business coaching program that was the most expensive one we've ever invested in and didn't like it 😕 ◾️ Attempted multiple strategic partnerships to bring other expert voices into the Collective's Universe and none worked out or felt right (besides building Ai software!) ◾️ THREE failed Ai/grant writing related attempts before serendipitously meeting the Beda team. ◾️ Always taught 6-week group cohorts - a few per year, all by word of mouth. Actually tried to market those and that failed epically, so shut it down. ◾️ Big changes on the team that was a lot for everyone emotionally (even when it was totally a happy ending like Alexis becoming a stay-at-home mom!) ◾️ Invested in team growth like we would keep growing at the rate we had been and that assumption was wrong. Was basically break-even at beginning of 2023, which also led to the realization that we would not have a viable community if not increasing our prices. Oh, and was throw up sick for 4 of those months and barely functioning! What I want you to see in reading this is that it's not like we don't fail. We do. But, we're comfortable with failure. Expect it. Our mantra is that we succeed or learn. And, we did a lot of both in 2023! What most surprised you? 🖤 #grantwriter #learngrantwriting

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Here's a nugget of gold for nonprofits:

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Inspired by Ryan R. Sullivan 's post this morning on Podcast ROI, negotiating budget for a pod is tough, so I’m sharing how I’d go about it. Podcasts are a great way to build an audience and loyal fanbase, but they're a hard sell, and there are a few drawbacks that make it tough to get buy-in: 🔧 Podcasts are labor intensive: You need someone technical to get the audio right, set up equipment, shoot video, and edit clips. 🕒 It’s not a one and done: You’ll be in it for the long game if you’re serious about building an audience. Some people can launch fast if they’re already influencers, but it’ll still be a long-term investment. 📉 Tracking technologies do not allow for sound attribution: You won’t know how much website traffic or call volume your podcast is generating. Only a tiny fraction of listeners/viewers will click directly from the site hosting your pods off to your own website. Most of the listeners you influence with your podcast are going to see it and then later research on a search engine. Your tracking is going to say Google Organic was the referral source. What are some ways you can get numbers to report on your podcast? (Secure that funding for great pod guests and VFX) 🔗 Use UTM parameters where you do link directly off of the podcast hosting platforms to capture referral traffic there. 📋 Use isolated landing pages: Send them to a landing page that you will only find if you get a tip from the podcast and have a dedicated intake form on that page. Anybody who comes in there was influenced by the podcast. 📲 Funnel listeners to specific tasks you ask them to do on your podcast. Ask them to engage with your social media in a specific way and track that engagement, then update those contacts in your database OR provide a discount code that they could only learn about through your podcast. 📞 Promote a dedicated phone line: Set up a phone number to take calls that you only promote on your podcast, and that is separate from your primary business lines and mobile number. Any calls that come in there you know got the digits through the podcast. ❓ At the point of intake ask leads “Where did you hear about us?” and make the Podcast one of the picklist options. Doing all or some of these things can help you catch some podcast business for reporting. But there will still be a gap. Another route you can take that I’ve seen work is to build a model specific for your business for attribution: Work with the exec team to agree on a % of traffic attribution from the organic pool you’ve tagged in your CRM and inside Google Analytics. Base it on the podcast viewership by month against the total pool of search engine traffic and direct traffic. 👇 Reporting is hard, but doing some of these extra things might be what keeps your budget from getting cut. If you’re doing something different and creative to track the success of a podcast or social media program – I’d be interested to hear about it in the comments! 💬

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Jetpack has a really cool daily prompt feature. It’s helping me get into the groove writing like this again. I am writing these on my phone, so they are quick and fairly short. I am not doing all the prompts, but this question about the farthest I’ve ever been from home will always be answered with two words: Middle Earth. https://lnkd.in/dfkHWfT4

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There are no freebies in the execution of fundraising. It takes money to make money. If you’re trying to balance a budget and you say something like, “just stick that $200,000 we need in major donors or web,” you’re making a huge mistake. Balancing your budget with "hope" often results in disappointment for your board, leadership team, and fundraisers. If you're going to ask a team to raise more than planned, take into account the expense required to achieve your new goal - and whether or not it's even possible to raise those extra funds.

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The fastest way to raise more unrestricted revenue? Ask folks who already give to give their best gift. Bonus if it’s a multi-year gift. That’s why this is the first place I start with all my clients. There is no magic bullet or secret sauce. Ask for more. Be bold. Be clear and direct. If you don’t know how to do that and want the right approach that works for your donors, hit me up. If you have individual donors who you sense could be giving more, I may be able to help you. If you’re sick of leaving money on the table and want to level up your fundraising, DM me and let’s chat.

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