Tactics To Improve Nonprofit Advertising and marketing
With revenues at nonprofit organizations growing by solely 0.9 percent, to $298 billion in 2011, in accordance with Giving USA, it is no secret how difficult fundraising has turn into in right now’s environment. Add to that the possibilities of an upcoming fiscal cliff and the loss of tax deductions for charitable contributions and you wind up with a very daunting picture.
Your advisory board, committee members and workers all want to assist, and look to organization leadership for direction. Now, more than ever, is the time to focus on the event of a significant advertising communications plan to profitably improve your fundraising efforts.
As you develop your plan, and evaluate numerous directions and opportunities, I suggest you consider two ways that have confirmed profitable for enhancing advertising ROI.
Market Your Anniversary
Your anniversary affords a unique alternative to rekindle enthusiasm and provoke your entire constituents to the relevance, importance and needs of the organization. It provides you the possibility to inform your story, not just about your past, however more importantly, about your plans and goals for the future. And don’t think that an anniversary needs to be solely in multiples of 25 years. Your thirty third, correctly marketed, may be as meaningful as your 50th.
Some communications ways to consider in marketing your anniversary include creating:
An event or events to provide the maximum amount of interplay amongst current and potential donors, volunteers, workers, foundations and the local community. However ensure your occasion would not isolate your varied constituencies. They need to discuss to 1 one other, not be lectured. Interaction leads to engagement.
A particular theme and logo. But additionally consider a historical book and CD, or a one in every of a kind commemorative piece of artwork (that can also be used in your website). And employ a significant mix of each traditional and new media to create excitement.
A corporate – Nonprofit marketing partnership. Your anniversary can provide the trigger point for new collaborations with enterprise companions, bringing in real rewards for each organizations. And these new relationships can last for a lot of years.
These examples are just a start. But we encourage you to start out thinking of your anniversary as a 12 to 18 month marketing communications program and branding instrument to improve your ROI.
Conduct A Advertising Communications Audit
As was recently identified by Tom Buday, head of promoting and communications at Nestle, the perfect source of promoting communications leverage within the for revenue world is the quality of the messaging. It’s not the media vehicle that does or does not deliver, fairly it’s the standard of the messaging.
Making use of this to nonprofits implies that it’s crucial so that you can consider your program and its elements. Invariably, nonprofits employ a media mix of direct mail, occasions, newsletters, public relations, social media, emailing and advertising in some combination. A advertising and marketing communications audit may also help you establish how your program is working as a complete, while also evaluating how each message is performing in opposition to your established objectives.
This type of audit will enable you to decide whether the elements of your inventive approach – graphics, tone and manner, and subject manner – are working together with one clear and significant message. Ultimately, the results of an audit won’t solely enhance the quality and integration of your messaging but also enable you to decide how your media combine and budgets must be tailored.
Whether or not you are taking advantage of selling your anniversary, a advertising communications audit can make a significant distinction to your programs and ROI. Does not it make a whole lot of sense to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your programs earlier than your commit significant dollars and time behind them?