Monday Mixtape 019: Nonprofit Marketing Tips & Best Practices

Monday Mixtape 019: How Will the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) Impact Charitable Giving?

What does the word “marketing” make you think of?

Mad Men? Commercials? Selling stuff?

At its simplest, marketing is communicating messages to inspire people to take an action. That’s it. No ad presentations or focus-groups necessary.

Of course, it’s never actually all that simple when we try to market our causes in this very noisy, message-filled world. There are so many tools and avenues for reaching people! Which ones should we use? Is content really king? If so, what should it do? And does marketing really result in more than goodwill?

This week, I’m looking at how nonprofit marketing, with an eye towards keeping it simple. We’ll look at developing excellent strategies and plans, using tools effectively, and what the experts say we should be doing to rally our supporters and inspire action. And of course, we’ll get some tips for bringing fundraising and marketing together for maximum impact.

Here’s this week’s mix:

“Good marketing makes the company look smart. Great marketing makes the customer feel smart.”
—Joe Chernov

Track #1: A 30-Minute Hack for Nonprofits to Improve Their Content Marketing by Ann Gynn at Content Marketing Institute

This post breaks down the basics of developing a content marketing strategy for your nonprofit. If you’ve been creating content haphazardly, or haven’t seen it helping you reach any of your goals, Ann’s suggestions for powering up your strategy may be very helpful.

The 30-Minute hack is (spoiler alert!) taking some time to think about the why and how of your organization, and then applying it to your content. Your mission is why you exist, but how you implement your mission is just as important. Once you’ve thought that through, you’ll be able to connect it to content with a “content or editorial mission statement” that includes your organization’s mission, purpose, top audience, and how you’ll use content to reach and engage that audience.

Content marketing is ideally an area in which marketing and development work together. If these are different roles within your organization, check out Ann’s suggested series of meetings to get on the same page, collaborate, and develop a new strategy that meets marketing and fundraising goals.

Track #2: [Interview] Taylor Corrado On Nonprofit Content Marketing by Noah Barnett at Rally & Engage by CauseVox

How does content marketing translate into more donations and more people rallying for your cause? Let’s ask an expert!

Taylor Corrado is a nonprofit marketing expert, formerly the Head of Nonprofit and Education Marketing at HubSpot. She’s the co-author of Transform Your Nonprofit With Inbound Marketing, and is currently on the digital marketing team at American Express.

Settle in to listen to her enlightening conversation with Noah, in which they talk about content marketing, marketing lessons we nonprofit folks can learn from business, and the changing fundraising landscape.

Track #3: Marketing Tools for Your Nonprofit and When They’re Effective by Angela Cuadros at Nonprofit Hub

There are a lot of ways to market your organization. Direct mail, advertising, online, word of mouth, relationships…which tools should you use? When do they work best?

It’s easy to get bogged down in tools, and confused over what you should be doing.

Angela’s post dissects the common communication tools of integrated marketing, and explains and analyzes each one. It is refreshingly devoid of “marketing-speak,” and offers a very common-sense approach.

She takes a look at direct mail, advertising, online marketing, special promotions, public relations, and personal selling. Each communication tool has its own strengths, and a different use within your overall marketing strategy. If “integrated” or “multi-channel” marketing has seemed intimidating, this piece will simplify things.

Track #4: How To Craft A Nonprofit Marketing Plan That Engages Your Community And Reaches More Donors, by Me 🙂 at CauseVox

Did you come into nonprofits with a formal marketing background? I sure didn’t. For those of you who need to learn marketing stuff on the job like I did, I put together a post to get you started on your marketing plan.

A marketing plan is like a roadmap–it makes sure your messaging gets you where you need to go. Crafting a plan isn’t impossibly difficult, but you do need to cover some bases. In this post, we look at six essential elements for your plan: audience, message, points of distinction, strategies and channels, budget, and goals and results. A plan that includes these six elements will get you pretty far.

Bonus Tracks

Marketing + Physics?

By The Way…

Social media is the nonprofit marketer’s best friend. It allows us to connect with supporters, share inspiring stories, and encourage dialogue. However, as platforms change and prioritize different content, staying in front of your supporters can get tricky.

Facebook and Instagram ads are one way to move to the front of the line. If you’re considering boosting your posts with advertising, but aren’t sure how to the make the most of it, take a look at our guide to nonprofit Facebook and Instagram ads. It takes you through the nuts and bolts of creating an ad, and provides tips, best practices, and good examples.

Thanks for reading!

– Megan

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P.S. Questions about this week’s mix? Suggestions for next week? Don’t leave me in the dark. Let me know by emailing me at blog@causevox.com.