Cape Cod nonprofits should develop strong marketing plans for success - Cape Cod Times

Marc L. Goldberg  |  Columnist

Marketing is all about positioning your brand in the mind of the buyer, user or beneficiary so they see no suitable substitute for you, your products and/or services. For nonprofits, it is exactly the same. 

Nonprofits have to create a marketing plan with strategies and tactics to identify beneficiaries of their offerings just as for-profits do. Otherwise, they will remain unknown to those who can benefit from their offerings or can help sustain the organization. Just like a for-profit, nonprofits have to understand the "buying continuum". It is a process by which users and donors become aware of, understand, use and believe in the mission — and, if satisfied, return, recommend and/or donate.

Nonprofits must successfully do more than get eyes on their campaigns or fundraising initiatives. It means grabbing and maintaining attention so they are prepared to take action to support the organization's mission. There are new techniques and approaches being adopted every year, but applying the basics is often the difference between a successful marketing plan and one that is just in the wind of many other messages.

Get to know your donors. Effective marketing starts with identifying and knowing those who will support the organization's sustainability. The trick is first starting the conversation — getting their attention — and secondly continuing the dialogue. Being able to target means knowing key fundamentals: age, location, attitudes, employment status, motivations, lifestyles, personality, communication preferences — how they get their information — and very importantly, their relationship to the nonprofit.  Understanding why they give is fundamental to knowing how to communicate with them.

Make it personal. It is OK to begin the communication with an email, social media post, or even a letter, but a personal follow-up will be needed to consummate the donation. And, a personal follow-up with a handwritten note or phone call is mandatory to cement the relationship for continued support.

Segment your communications. Messages need to be differentiated. The same message cannot be delivered to first-time donors as to sustaining givers or lifetime donors. Segmenting your fundraising lists by type, amount, the channel of communication, and frequency of giving will also guide you as to messaging to each of these segments. Your message to first-time givers will be different from occasional donors where the goal is to get first-time donors to become sustaining givers.

Become a storyteller. The best way to capture and maintain a donor's attention is to tell the organization's story in a compelling way so that it creates an image in the mind of the donor. And, good stories use more than words, for example, photos, images, videos, infographics, shareable content, vlogs and testimonials can send powerful messages.  Most importantly the content has to be of high quality because it will boost engagement and sharing.

Creating a Brand. The brand represents the values of the nonprofit and it matters in nonprofit marketing. The brand is what connects all the communication channels from emails to websites to social media. It is what makes the communications integrated and consistent. Consistency over the platforms helps create sustainable differentiation that yields commitment to donating.

Use social media but create a unique presence on each platform. Because social media platforms continue to evolve, being up-to-date on changes is important to create differentiation. Jess Woloszyn, advises: Instagram has live rooms, TikTok has TikTok Ads Manager, Pinterest has Idea Pins, Twitter has Tweet Take or Topic Tag Bars, Facebook has Facebook Reels, SnapChat has Poll Stickers, and LinkedIn has LinkedIn Live.

Test, adjust, try it, test again. Remember all strategies and every tactic doesn't work all the time. Set objectives. Test and measure the outcome of each initiative. Determine if it worked or not. If not, adjust. If it did, ask what can be done to improve the outcome the next time. The goal is to do it better each time you execute a defined marketing strategy and tactic. 

Contributed by Marc L. Goldberg, Certified Mentor. SCORE Cape Cod & the Islands.  Source: Nonprofit Marketing: 10 Lessons for All Nonprofits, Jess Woloszyn, Classy.  For Free and Confidential mentoring: www.capecod.score.org, capecodscore@verizon.net, 508-775-4884.