Marketing

Belonging is an important human attribute human attribute. The corner deli, the pub, the coffee shop--those “third places” where people gather have significance. Online, social plays that role virtually. Professionally, LinkedIn is a leader for connecting with relevant career contacts. It’s also a place to find others with similar interests.   Joining Linkedin groups is a great way to get your organization’s events, projects, mission, and people before new audiences--particularly those targeted to niches where your cause or aligned activities may have traction. There’s a group on LinkedIn for virtually every academic, cause-related, professional, and hobby-related interest. It’s worth your while to [...]

Whether you’re trying to spice up a blog post, or need some graphic elements to add to an upcoming presentation to your board, digital assets are a great addition. Unfortunately, those things have a cost – and because they’re realistically considered art, the price tag can be a bit steep.   Lucky for us, the internet exists, and there are tons of free websites that offer simple graphic design elements and editing programs for free or for basically free. Images and graphics can enhance print and digital elements, so it’s a really great idea to investigate how you can use these [...]

It isn’t easy naming or renaming an organization, but it goes a long way towards setting the stage for a strong and memorable brand. The right name captures the imagination and connects with the people you want to reach - Danny Altman So where do you start? If you're like most people, it is easy to find a cause/issue you are passionate about, but turning this passion into a legal nonprofit entity with a strong brand platform isn't easy. One of the first things you'll need in the process is a good name. Although it is possible to change a legal [...]

The following is part of a six-part series based on content from Social Media Week Los Angeles, held at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, June 12-14, 2018. For more tidbits and conference coverage, follow #SMWLA on Twitter.   Blame the algorithms. Blame the bots. Blame the 24-hour news cycle. The internet is OVERLOADED with content. And no matter how much blood, sweat, tears, time, and dollars you throw at your brand strategy, there’s a good chance you’re not going to get noticed…especially if your brand is lame.   It doesn’t matter how impactful your cause and mission are, if you [...]

DoSomething.org is currently ranked #5 on the Top 100 Nonprofits list. This is especially remarkable since the list is based on a mix of stats spanning web, social, fiscal responsibility, and transparency metrics and DoSomething is one of the youngest and smallest (in terms of full-time staff) on the list. In short, Marissa and the rest of the DoSomething team punch well above their weight class, and orgs of all sizes can all learn something from how they think and operate. Marissa Ranalli is the Marketing Manager at DoSomething.org where she focuses on integrated partnerships, analytics, and team cohesion. She is also an [...]

 This is part one of a six-part series based on content from Social Media Week Los Angeles, held at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, June 12-14, 2018. For more tidbits and conference coverage, follow #SMWLA on Twitter.   If you pay any attention to digital marketing trends, one of the most popular buzz words right now is “influencer” marketing.   In fact, I had a fellow freelance digital marketing consultant shoot me an email asking who some of my favorite Instagram influencers were because he was working on a pitch for a client. Because I’ve been researching influencer marketing (and [...]

The mission statement; It is easily one of the most important piece of any nonprofit’s outward messaging. Yet what I have discovered through my experience working with several nonprofits is that it is often the most confusing and convoluted piece of messaging as well. A large portion of mission statements I have come across seem unnecessarily bloated to the point where they often confuse the reader. Avoid Elaborate Language One of the most common problems with mission statements, and company messaging in general, is that the writer wants to convey their entire organizations work into a single and effective message that [...]

Guy Kawasaki, recently wrote a great post about a book titled The Apple Experience. There is much that nonprofits can learn from one of the best retail environments out there. Here is a quick summary of his points. Stop selling stuff - "Selling stuff" isn't very inspiring, instead focus on how you can... Enrich lives - Focus on this and magical things happen Hire for smiles - People skills over technical skills Celebrate diversity - Hire people that reflect the diversity of your audience Unleash inner genius - Take the time to teach people something they never knew they could do and you'll [...]

The very first step in any communications or marketing strategy is defining your target audience so that you can tailor your message or pitch accordingly. For businesses, this is usually your typical potential buyers of a product or service. For a nonprofit, it could be potential clients for a program, volunteers for an initiative, advocates to spread a message, or donors to support a cause. Try to keep it to one target audience per product or service whenever possible. Different products may often have different target audiences. For example, Gillette created multiple lines of razors to target different audiences based on [...]

Originally posted on the Gurus NYC Blog. Reposted with permission. Nonprofits have an extremely tough time keeping up with technology. How do we know?  Let’s take a look at some data. Last year Content Marketing Institute did a study where they surveyed over 400 nonprofit marketers: Only 26% of respondents think their organization effectively utilizes content marketing (to make things worse, a measly 1% thought their efforts were ‘very effective’). Less than half of everyone surveyed say meetings are valuable and actually improve their organization’s content marketing efforts. Respondents were also asked to rate the effectiveness of each tactic separately: These are the [...]