In Part 1 of this two-article series I walked you through some steps to create a rough draft of a marketing communications plan that will serve you in the current digitally-revolutionized and highly networked world. Not what you’ve been doing every year for the past decade, but something that will really serve you in today’s…
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If you’ve been a part of the Clairification community for any time at all, you’ll know my motto is: “If I know it, I want you to know it.” Life is just too short to keep the good stuff to oneself! Recently I sat in on Mapping Out Your Nonprofit Calendar for 2018 by Julia…
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As year-end approaches, you want to consider leveraging your message across channels. You also want to tailor your message to meet the needs of different target constituencies.
One-size-fits-all messaging seldom works as well as segmented messaging. The former is all about you, your convenience and your needs. The latter is about your constituent’s needs.
Successful fundraising and marketing is customer- and donor-centered.
Is your year-end strategy setting you up for success? Are you truly putting your best foot forward?
If you’re not inside your constituents’ heads, you need to get in there! To be constituent-centered requires you to (1) talk to the right people, (2) with the right message, (3) at the right time and place. Recently, I enjoyed a post on precisely this subject. I share it with you here, and if you’re not yet hip to the Marketoonist, allow me to introduce you.
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Today we’re going to think outside the box.
I’m going to suggest your nonprofit consider creating an app.
Yes, one of those things people buy at the app store.
Lest you think I’m crazy, this is an idea I’ve been noodling around for some time now.
And I think its time may finally have come!
Okay, maybe not 100%.
But there’s something to be said for the mobile, app-based experience.
Not just for retail giants, but for social benefit causes too.
The idea began to glimmer for me
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Is your nonprofit using Instagram yet? Pinterest?
I’m going to suggest you give it some serious consideration.
Why?
We live in the age of information overload. A wealth of information creates a scarcity of attention and thus a need to efficiently allocate attention.
Visual to the rescue!
Visual is a huge trend in marketing, using the power of digital to communicate your message and stay within the diminishing attention span of today’s online readers –8 seconds (one second less than the attention span of a goldfish).
Glub, glub.
If human minds are adapting to information overload this way (to multitask, prioritize, and consume quickly and efficiently), it makes sense for your nonprofit to adapt as well.
Otherwise, you’ll work really hard to put messages out there – that no one will read.
Want to stop working just hard and start working smart?
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Does your nonprofit have an email newsletter?
I’d rather see you rock a blog, but let’s talk a bit about your newsletter. Since you already have one, you may as well make it better.
Otherwise, what’s the point?
[BTW: If you don’t have an e-newsletter, go read the article above about creating and rocking a blog. Also read this. A blog can serve the purpose of an e-newsletter, and do so in a more donor-centric, user-friendly fashion. IMHO]
Okay. Back to improving your newsletter.
The real point of a newsletter is to stay top of mind with your supporters.
Why?
Because you want to keep them, of course!
Just like with any relationship, if the only time someone hears from you is when you want something from them, they’re not likely to stick around.
Too often ‘Fundraising’ is made to sit in the corner while her step-sisters, ‘Content Marketing’ and ‘Online Communications’, get busy dressing up for the ball.
Poor ‘Fundraising.’
Her step-mother and step-sisters think raising awareness is more important than raising money.
They think all they have to do is look pretty, and they’ll naturally get chosen. Nobody wants to be bothered to include Cinderella (aka Fundraising) in the planning. After all, she’s “dirty.”
I’m a big believer in nonprofits borrowing from for-profit marketing research (they have more money to spend!). So I was excited to take a peek into the recently released 2017 Social Media Marketing Industry Report commissioned by Social Media Examiner.
If you think for-profit marketing insights don’t apply to you, think again. You compete in the same space for audience attention!
Stop being satisfied with lagging behind your for-profit brethren. Get a head start on your social sector competition by reading the full 49-page report.
Don’t have time now? I’ve got you covered with this quick look at what’s happening in the world around you.
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In Part 1 of this two-part article I described the importance of:
Part 1 also included links to a lot of articles I’ve written previously about mastering online social fundraising. Some of them are on Clairification. Others are guest posts I’ve done for other blogs.
I truly, passionately, want you to master the integration of a robust online communications and fundraising strategy with an equally robust offline strategy. In our digitally revolutionized world, they are two halves of a whole.
You need to rock them both.
Today we’re going to layer on with some other important essentials if you want to succeed with your online fundraising.
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I’ve written a lot over the past several years about why mastering online social fundraising is critical to nonprofit success (e.g., here and here, just as starters).
A bit later in this article I’ll give you a link to a mini-guide for nonprofit online social fundraising. It really boils down to taking charge of the “customer experience” — which is a huge meme du jour in the for-profit world today.
If you need to persuade someone about why this is important, you can read up about how the digital revolution has changed the way people are influenced to give in Penelope Burk’s Cygnus Research studies from the past several years. Here are some of the indisputable truths:
I could go on and on about the why, but I’m going to assume if you’re reading this article you’re already sold. You know you need to do this better than you’re doing it now. You’re just not sure how.
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