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Nonprofit Marketing: Communications with a Purpose!

October 16, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Marketing.  It sounds so commercial, doesn’t it?  But don’t be put off by the term.  Your nonprofit organization can steal marketing secrets and use them for a good cause.

What is nonprofit marketing?

Marketing  is business-speak for “communications with a purpose.”

purpose

Communicate with a purpose!

Your purpose may be to improve public health, enhance democracy, end hunger or homelessness, or enhance people’s lives through the arts.

Whatever it is, if you tailor your communications to a purpose, you’re doing marketing–and you can look for ways to do it better.

What is your nonprofit marketing strategy?

Strategy means keeping your purpose in mind and letting it direct your activities and the way you use your time.  It means knowing how you will approach your goal and not making it all up on the fly.

So what is marketing strategy? For businesses, the term means:

An organization’s strategy that combines all of its marketing goals into one comprehensive plan. A good marketing strategy should be drawn from market research and focus on the right product mix in order to achieve the maximum profit potential and sustain the business.

How do we say that in nonprofit?

  • Market research for nonprofits is whatever you use to get to know and love your audience. Depending on your organization. your research could be hiring an outside professional to conduct surveys and focus groups–or going through your files and asking your staff and Board members what they know.
  • Product mix is the services and benefits you offer.  When you know and love your audience, you figure out what they need.
  • Instead of profit, you aim to maximize good outcomes for the people you serve.  You can only do that if they know about your services and use them.
  • But you still need to sustain the business.  And unlike a for-profit business, you can’t count on the people who use your services to pay for them.  So, “sustaining the business” means raising funds from donors, foundations, corporations, and government, or through events or sales, to pay for what you really are “in business” to do: your mission.

Let’s put it all together.

When you develop a marketing strategy, you are making a commitment.

You are promising that everyone inside your organization will know whom you are trying to serve, what will help them, how you are providing that help, and what difference it makes.

The people who use your services and the people and institutions that pay for them will know that too.  All your communications will help you convey that message, and your programs will help you make it reality.

Make that commitment and keep to it.  That’s how you say “marketing” in nonprofit.

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How Do You Say That in Nonprofit?

March 27, 2017 by Dennis Fischman Leave a Comment

Let’s say you work at a nonprofit organization.  You want to improve the agency’s communications: writing, speaking, publicity, social media…the works.  You go looking online for expert advice.

The experts seem to be talking a foreign language! Handheld translator

So much of what you find is written for business. You want to do what Katya Andresen suggests in Robin Hood Marketing and “steal” some corporate savvy for your cause–when it applies or when you can adapt it for your own purposes.  To use expertise, though, you have to understand it.

Here are 13 business terms translated into nonprofit.

  1. Brand.  Reputation, public awareness, visibility.  Your brand is not your logo: it’s the overall impression people have of your organization before and after they’ve met you.
  2. Customer.  In business, the same person pays for a service and benefits from it.  For nonprofits, it’s different.  Funders and donors pay for a service, while clients benefit from it.  When you read “customer,” ask yourself which group the writer means.
  3. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) = Executive Director (ED).
  4. C suite = senior staff.
  5. Return on Investment (ROI) is like what you call “measurable outcomes,” only with some assessment of how much it cost to produce that outcome.
  6. B2B (Business to Business) = communications with your partner organizations, both those you work with now and those you want to collaborate with soon.
  7. B2C (Business to Consumer) =communications with people who use your services.
  8. Entrepreneurial.  Nonprofits call this “innovative.”  In business, it also implies some self-promotion and some degree of risk-taking.  Make sure you’re comfortable with blowing your own horn and trying things that might fail if you’re going to call your agency “entrepreneurial.”
  9. Marketing.  Really, this is just communications with a purpose.  Businesses’ ultimate purpose is to make money.  Your ultimate purpose may be to improve public health, enhance democracy, end hunger or homelessness, or enhance people’s lives through the arts.  Either way, as long as you tailor your communications (outreach, publicity, call it what you will) to a purpose, you’re doing marketing, and you can look for ways to do it better.
  10. Content Marketing.  You may think of this as just “publication.”  Unless you’re publishing anonymously, though, what you write, or post, or video will shape the perception of your organization.  Content marketing means putting content out strategically in ways that benefit the consumer and build your brand.  One of my favorite examples is the Massachusetts Economic Independence Index put out by EmPath.
  11. Thought leader.  A person or organization that provides valuable insights to others in a particular field, or on a particular topic, so that they become the “go-to” source of ideas in that area.  Becoming a thought leader can reap great benefits for you, but it takes time, patience, and communications skills.
  12. Networking.  Yes, this includes all those meetings where you meet people, talk about what they do and what you do, and try to figure out how you can help each other.  You’re familiar with that.  You may even know how to use LinkedIn for networking online.  But I would say that the nonprofit equivalents of networking are coalition building and community organizing.  When you read about networking, instead of a Chamber of Commerce meeting, picture a community forum.  Instead of passing out business cards, picture knocking on doors and asking neighbors to pursue their interests together.

Nonprofits, What’s Your #13?

I have finished my list at twelve because in the nonprofit world, you are an expert.  What’s the thirteenth term YOU’d like to see translated into nonprofit?  Please share the business term that doesn’t quite fit what you do, and if you have a good way to translate it, please share that too!

P.S.  On Twitter, when I see good advice that’s aimed at businesses, sometimes I translate it so it’s more useful to us.  Find it using the hashtag #ispeaknonprofit.

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How Do You Say That in Nonprofit? 13 Translations

July 12, 2015 by Dennis Fischman 18 Comments

Let’s say you work at a nonprofit organization.  You want to improve the agency’s communications: writing, speaking, publicity, social media…the works.  You go looking online for expert advice.

The experts seem to be talking a foreign language! Handheld translator

So much of what you find is written for business. You want to do what Katya Andresen suggests in Robin Hood Marketing and “steal” some corporate savvy for your cause–when it applies or when you can adapt it for your own purposes.  To use expertise, though, you have to understand it.

Here are thirteen business terms translated into nonprofit.

  1. Brand.  Reputation, public awareness, visibility.  Your brand is not your logo: it’s the overall impression people have of your organization before and after they’ve met you.
  2. Customer.  In business, the same person pays for a service and benefits from it.  For nonprofits, it’s different.  Funders and donors pay for a service, while clients benefit from it.  When you read “customer,” ask yourself which group the writer means.
  3. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) = Executive Director (ED).
  4. C suite = senior staff.
  5. Return on Investment (ROI) is like what you call “measurable outcomes,” only with some assessment of how much it cost to produce that outcome.
  6. B2B (Business to Business) = communications with your partner organizations, both those you work with now and those you want to collaborate with soon.
  7. B2C (Business to Consumer) =communications with people who use your services.
  8. Entrepreneurial.  Nonprofits call this “innovative.”  In business, it also implies some self-promotion and some degree of risk-taking.  Make sure you’re comfortable with blowing your own horn and trying things that might fail if you’re going to call your agency “entrepreneurial.”
  9. Marketing.  Really, this is just communications with a purpose.  Businesses’ ultimate purpose is to make money.  Your ultimate purpose may be to improve public health, enhance democracy, end hunger or homelessness, or enhance people’s lives through the arts.  Either way, as long as you tailor your communications (outreach, publicity, call it what you will) to a purpose, you’re doing marketing, and you can look for ways to do it better.
  10. Content Marketing.  You may think of this as just “publication.”  Unless you’re publishing anonymously, though, what you write, or post, or video will shape the perception of your organization.  Content marketing means putting content out strategically in ways that benefit the consumer and build your brand.  One of my favorite examples is the Economic Independence Calculator put out by the Crittenton Women’s Union.
  11. Thought leader.  A person or organization that provides valuable insights to others in a particular field, or on a particular topic, so that they become the “go-to” source of ideas in that area.  Becoming a thought leader can reap great benefits for you, but it takes time, patience, and communications skills.
  12. Networking.  Yes, this includes all those meetings where you meet people, talk about what they do and what you do, and try to figure out how you can help each other.  You’re familiar with that.  You may even know how to use LinkedIn for networking online.  But I would say that the nonprofit equivalents of networking are coalition building and community organizing.  When you read about networking, instead of a Chamber of Commerce meeting, picture a community forum.  Instead of passing out business cards, picture knocking on doors and asking neighbors to pursue their interests together.

I have finished my list at twelve because in the nonprofit world, you are an expert.  What’s the thirteenth term YOU’d like to see translated into nonprofit?  Please share the business term that doesn’t quite fit what you do, and if you have a good way to translate it, please share that too!

P.S.  On Twitter, when I see good advice that’s aimed at businesses, sometimes I translate it so it’s more useful to us.  Find it using the hashtag #ispeaknonprofit.

Share this:

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