Many organizations have a hard time attracting financial supporters. Oftentimes it is due to the challenge of reaching the right audience, communicating value, and leveraging online marketing. Once nonprofit leaders are able to conquer these feats, they will see results from their marketing efforts.
Let's tackle these challenges together.
Reaching The Right Audience
Before you do any type of marketing or outreach you have to know WHO you want to attract. Who is your sweet spot supporter? When you spend your time with the right people your messages are received much better and you will see a higher return on your investment of time and resources.
A simple way to identify your sweet spot supporter is to:
- Make a list of 10 supporters you had that were the perfect donors
- Find their commonalities. Consider their demographics such as gender, age, location, income, education, etc. It is most important to document why they support. Your organization.
- Pick 3 to 5 characteristics that directly relate to your cause
This list is your sweet spot supporter or ideal donor profile. This is the type of person or business you should desire to attract. (Check out this worksheet to help you identify your sweet spot supporter)
Communicating Value
Nonprofits have a similar challenge as service-based businesses, they are both selling the invisible. There is no tangible product received in exchange for money. To identify value you must be clear on what you offer and what are the features of your cause or programs. Then define the benefits for each. Look at your sweet spot supporter profile and create a simple sentence as to why they should care about the benefits of your cause. Use this sentence in your communications.
Leveraging Online Marketing
All too often nonprofit professionals are spreading themselves thin, attempting to be on every platform. However, the presence on the platforms are inconsistent. If this is your challenge, show up in the spaces where your sweet spot supporters hang out. Start off by picking 1-2 platforms and invest your time and resources there. You will see a bigger return on your investment and your consistency will improve.
Maximize Your Marketing Efforts With Marketing Campaigns
A marketing campaign is a planned, organized, sequence of activities designed to bring in revenue, oftentimes leveraging several different channels. By focusing on launching campaigns as a way to simplify sporadic marketing efforts, you improve the promotion of your service, programs, or products. Marketing campaigns position you to reach a new audience and acquire new supporters. With the right strategy you can leverage campaigns to monetize your marketing efforts which will impact the revenue for your organization.
There are 8 foundational steps to launching a successful campaign
- Identify your message
- What is the one thing you want your audience to remember from what you are sharing.
- Set S.M.A.R.T. goals
- To set your campaign up for greater success, be sure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-based.
- Define your target audience
- Who are you talking to? (sweet spot supporter)
- Choose a platform
- Decide which platform(s) you will use for your campaign launch.
- Create content
- Develop content that resonates with your target audience.
- Schedule Content
- Plan and schedule out your content to free up your time.
- Promote & Network
- This is an essential part of any campaign. Promote your campaign to your audience and network with your business partners, ambassadors, or advocates to gain their support.
- Analyze the results
- Use the analytics feature from your chosen platform to gauge how well your campaign is performing.
When you verbalize your value through all your marketing communication and show up on the platforms where your sweet spot supports you will see your engagement increase. When you couple this effort with planning out campaigns, marketing online will be less tasks that tugs on your time and disrupts your day.
