At last: a communications genius in the room (just check out www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com for assurance) giving us practical advice about how to succeed using simple but effective approaches.
Kivi emphasized that although most of her strategies are common sense approaches, very few of us are doing them...or are doing them frequently and consistently enough to be effective. Five frugal marketing strategies are:
- Focus In. The first order of business: stop trying to transmit your message to EVERYONE. Would you rather move 100 people 10% of the way toward giving or move 10 people 100% of the way toward giving? We know what the answer should be.
- Go casual. Make personal calls, and write personal thank you's. Casual events and experiences are often MUCH more effective than formal galas--especially in a difficult economy. Have personal conversations where you listen more than you talk and ask your constituents and donors for their advice.
- Shift your marketing online. Totally eliminating your print pieces is not recommended, but you MUST have a funtional website and MUST have an e-mail marketing plan. MUST. Blogging and social media are here to stay. First get your website together, measuring its effectiveness and implementing good SEO, then set up your e-mail marketing. Then concentrate on social media. Women over 55 represent the fastest growing population on Facebook, now the 5th most popular web site in the world.
- Make print more affordable. Consider cutting that newsletter way back, focusing only on the really key stories of interest for your donors. Only 20% of your newsletter recipients (or less) read it! One organization Kivi is involved with cut the newsletter and replaced it with 4 postcards for the same cost. They used a eye catching photo on the cover of the post card and a simple story with a call to action on the back. Very effective.
- Build your social capital, and keep track of it by building your lists at all times. You never know who is connected to whom. So open doors for people, make introductions, facilitate cause marketing and be a good person. You never know where it may lead for your organization...and for you.
Want to see Kivi's handouts? Click here to check them out. Want to bring Kivi back to Sarasota? Let us know. We loved her.
-Susie Bowie, VP of Website Communications
