to Do It Right
Nonprofit marketing is hard work. It's also tremendously fun and satisfying, especially when you do it right. Your work will challenge you in ways you have yet to understand, and you'll learn about disciplines that you had never considered before. Because nonprofit marketing is complex, it can quickly overwhelm people new to the field. This is particularly true if it's something thrown on top of your “real” job as an executive director, development director, or program manager. This book should make your job a little easier.
In Chapter 1, I review 10 realities of marketing and communications work that are the foundation for the thinking in the rest of the book. Chapter 2 defines nonprofit marketing and the many choices you have for marketing goals, strategies, objectives, and tactics as a nonprofit communicator. Chapter 3 gives you an overview of what a full-blown marketing strategy looks like, what tactical communications plans include, and how to do a quick-and-dirty version if that is all you can handle.
Chapter 4 outlines the different stages or levels of effectiveness that nonprofits move through as their communications staff become more skilled and their organizations fully embrace marketing best practices. The final chapter in this section, Chapter 5, explains why listening (call it market research if you prefer) is essential to any successful nonprofit marketing strategy and how you can use a variety of tools and methods to learn a great deal about the people you are working with and serving.
chapter ONE 10 Realities of Nonprofit Marketing
I opened the first edition of this book with a chapter called “10 New Realities for Nonprofits” with an emphasis on “New.” Back in 2010, I was still urging nonprofits to be OK with calling this work “marketing” rather than euphemisms like “outreach,” to take social media seriously, and to convince them that people over 50 really were using the Internet. Thankfully, we've moved well beyond those sticking points.
All of the other elements in that original list proved foundational to the work of nonprofit communications. While I have updated this list, what you'll find here are the assumptions on which all of the other chapters in the book are built. Understanding this list will help you get the most out of this book and to understand the choices I suggest you make.
Many forces beyond your control will affect how you market your nonprofit organization. The economy will go up and down. Friendly elected officials will be in charge, and then they will lose an election. Talented volunteers, staff, and board members will come and go. What people can do from their phones no matter where they are in the world will continue to grow.
But I don't expect the following 10 realities to change much.
REALITY 1: MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS DEPENDS ON A CONFIDENT, SKILLED PROFESSIONAL
At Nonprofit Marketing Guide, we've been researching communication effectiveness at nonprofits for more than a decade. I can tell you with absolute confidence that nonprofits that treat marketing and communications like the specialty profession that it is get better results.
Each of us communicates every day, and as a result, many of us think we are good writers, have good taste and a sense of style, and assume that others like the same things we do. Unfortunately, it's just not true! Successfully marketing a nonprofit organization requires an overly broad set of skills to be applied to a relatively narrow set of priorities. As the work becomes more and more dependent on sophisticated technology, it's even more important to employ staff who understand what they are doing and are committed to their own ongoing professional development.
REALITY 2: MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS DEPENDS ON A SUPPORTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
For maximum effectiveness, your confident and skilled marketing staff need to work within an organizational culture that values marketing and communications.
Too often nonprofits just want communications staff to make all the stuff – the social media and website updates, the newsletters, flyers, and event invitations, etc. The least effective organizations treat their communications staff like fast-food drive-through windows, taking orders and churning out content.
In contrast, supportive organizations understand that you need more than just communications tactics for success. You need real strategy. You need planning. You need adequate resources, including time, talent, and treasure. You need to view marketing and communications as an essential, valued function.
REALITY 3: THERE WILL ALWAYS BE TOO MUCH TO DO
Nonprofit marketing work comes with an overabundance of options and decisions to make. You simply cannot do it all. You have to make choices, and that can be incredibly challenging to do.
Communications staff who don't understand this and don't learn to manage expectations for both themselves and their organizations will find themselves burned out within a few years. I never expected to incorporate the concept of setting personal boundaries into my communications coaching practice, but it's become an essential skill.
REALITY 4: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS THE GENERAL PUBLIC
When I teach nonprofit marketing workshops, I often make participants chant this with me in unison, so they remember it: “There is no such thing as the general public! There is no such thing as the general public!”
The general public includes everyone, from newborns to elders, from rich to poor, from incarcerated to the jet set. No matter how much you try, you will not reach everyone. In fact, if that's what you try to do, odds are good that you will reach no one. Instead, you need to focus on specific groups of people and work toward communicating with them in ways that connect with their particular needs and values.
When nonprofit marketing programs fail, organizations too frequently blame the tactics. “We tried an email newsletter, but no one read it.” “We sent out a direct mail fundraising letter, but it didn't raise much money.” Closer examination of those tactics often reveals that the message was too generic and therefore spoke to no one in particular.
All communications should be created with particular groups of people in mind. That's the only way to create content that people will find relevant.
REALITY 5: YOU NEED TO MANAGE YOUR OWN MEDIA EMPIRE
The multitude of ways to communicate directly with the world has never been more accessible, largely built on the evolution of both social media and mobile technology.
I encourage all nonprofits to think of themselves as media moguls. At a minimum, you are likely managing a website, email, and a couple of social media channels. Most nonprofits go far beyond this list to include print mailing, media relations, in-person and online events, and more.
Do not think of all of these different ways to communicate (we call them “channels”) as separate and independent from each other. At a minimum, use a multichannel approach where you think through how to share your content across several different channels. Your community can interact with you in each channel.
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