If you have ever worked for or with nonprofits, you know that resources are tight! They have some of the best people working for them and they wear many hats. With that in mind, marketing is often something that is a nice to have, but not always at the forefront of activities. Resources, while talented may not also have the necessary training or knowledge in marketing. No need to worry however, here are 4easy marketing tips for nonprofits:

Image courtesy of eventespresso.com

1.  Consistency in Branding

This might seem an obvious one for marketers.  For people staffing a nonprofit this might not be top of mind.

Why it is important:

Having a consistent message, imagery and overall brand is important to position your nonprofit in the minds of not only employees, but also sponsors, donors, and members. If you don’t have a consistent message or brand offering you will confuse your stakeholders. Have you ever gone looking for a website or social media site for a particular organization and wonder when you get there if you somehow selected the wrong one? If you have experienced this and you were on the right page, this is an example of brand confusion. You believe the brand is one thing, but their marketing channels don’t portray that same thought.

2.  Know Your Audience

While the big brands might have lots of different tools at their disposal, nonprofits should really focus on a few tools and doing them well.

Why is it important:

Knowing your audience will guide you in determining which tools to leverage. For example, Facebook is still a good tool for nonprofits. Unlike for profit business, Facebook can still reach vast audiences. However, if your stakeholders aren’t using Facebook, using this tool is wasted effort. Asking your stakeholders what they use for communications tool and/or what influences them is a very simple and effective way to understand exactly what where to focus your efforts.

3. Focus on Quality Versus Quantity

Your organization has taken the plunge and want to do a blog for example. You have read that frequency is important for your blog to be successful. While that is true, you also need to be realistic. What can you realistically achieve with your blog. Is it 5 posts a week or 15? Producing 15 great blog posts is doable, but even brands with many resources don’t tend to put out that much content. If you can successfully produce 5 great blog posts in one week that help your achieve your overall objectives, then that is what counts.

Why it is important:

Too many organizations look at blogs and content as a box that they need to check off.  If you really dissect what you want a blog to accomplish, it is about results.  Things like increased brand recognition, more members and more donations.  These are the things that are important.  So, remember to develop your content and content calendar with the end-results in mind. Pushing out content that is not quality will have the opposite effect.

4.  Partner

One of the areas that I see most underused is the prospect of partnering. Looking for and finding partners, either other nonprofits or for profits, can be a great way to position your organization as forward thinking and resourceful.

Why it is important:

Often times, particularly in recessionary times, getting funds or monies from people and other organizations can be difficult. By partnering you might get funding that you would not otherwise have gotten. You might have to split it, but again remember it is monies that you might not have gotten.  Also through partnering you might be able to support each other and provide services to each other that can reduce your costs.  The sky is really the limit.
These are just four easy tips. What would you add?

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