Ten Great Ways to Re-Invigorate Your Non-Profit’s Marketing Efforts in the New Year
By now everyone in the non-profit world knows the importance of marketing. The following list of tips is not meant to be a comprehensive guide. Think of it more of a menu of possible things to either add to your existing marketing efforts or replace some tired things you’re still spending time on.
1) Create a Marketing Mission Statement
You already have an organizational mission statement. That’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about taking that mission statement and considering how it informs your marketing efforts across the organization and getting it down in agreed upon language.
2) Document Your Content Marketing Strategy
If your team doesn’t know exactly what the plan is, they will have a much more difficult time executing it. Documentation of a marketing strategy can be a great way to keep all stakeholders who participate in your marketing strategy on task.
3) Schedule Regular Marketing Meetings
Marketing can be easily pushed to the back burner and forgotten there. This is especially the case in small to medium-sized non-profits that may not have dedicated marketing personnel. Scheduling regular meeting to discuss strategy, ongoing campaigns, and upcoming marketing pushes can be a great help.
4) Build Strategic Partnerships
There may be opportunities for your non-profit to form a strategic partnership with an area business or larger non-profit. Typically these strategic partners get something out aligning themselves with your non-profit brand that they will be more than eager to broadcast to their developed networks.
5) Think Beyond the Newsletter
It is far too easy for a non-profit to rely on the power of its accumulated mailing list and monthly newsletter as its only regular form of communication with stakeholders. This is a huge mistake. Find new ways to engage with your supporters champions.
6) Schedule Social Media Updates
Everyone knows that they need to be engaging with stakeholders and supporters via a multitude of social media platforms on a regular basis. Unfortunately, given the myriad of pressures impacting your ability to effectively live up to your non-profit’s mission and values, it can be all to easy to put off social media engagement. Schedule the time so you’ll follow through on your strategic plan.
7) Cross-Pollinate
You don’t have to recreate the wheel every time you need to post to your blog, put an item in the newsletter, or update a social media account. Trimmed, augmented versions of the same content can be repurposed and rebroadcast to great effect across multiple platforms.
8) Build a Marketing Bank
This may seem overly simple, but many non-profits do a poor job of maintaining a bank of all their marketing collateral. Set aside a digital cache and a physical cache of all your marketing logos, etc. so they’re ready when you need them.
9) Refresh Your Brand
You may love the logo that you had your brother-in-law design when he was an undergrad in 1989. But chances are its not doing the job it once did. People have a tendency to miss that which they’ve seen multiple times before. Refreshing your brand from time to time can be a great lift to all your marketing efforts.
10) Shout It From the Rooftops
Don’t miss the opportunity to proclaim your wins, your events, your programming successes. Your stakeholders and brand evangelists want to know that you’re doing well. They want to tell their friends.
Adding a Few New Tricks to Your Marketing Toolkit Can Be Easy
In the end, depending on the size, mission, and depth of your organization, you may not be able to implement all of these ten tips. But one or two is better than none. With a little planning and a little extra effort your non-profit marketing can reach and convert more stakeholders in the year to come.
[Photos via: FatGuyMedia, Itexact, Ridethefortune, Bookingboss]