Marketing

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 [...]

This post was originally published on our sister site,  Third Sector Today Feel at Home on LinkedIn LinkedIn is the nice aunt of social media–it’s more civil, professional, and informational. Its “house” is visited by influencers who bring advice, expertise, and resources like the flowers, candy, and wine you bring to your auntie’s place–all for the taking. This is a place of generosity, sharing, and (usually) professional demeanor. Job seekers and employers regard LinkedIn as a garden of leads (like your aunt’s “pick your own” kitchen garden)–in both job openings and potential employers. Everyone’s on their better behavior here. Like your [...]

Many people confuse brands for logos, icons, and marks. Your organization's true brand is actually not defined by you. It's the impression or gut reaction people have about your organization. Logos, tag lines, typefaces, imagery standards, and communicated values are all used to help shepherd this perception of your organization. Unfortunately, they can't dictate how people perceive you. No organization would intentionally communicate their brand attributes as "Desperate," "Depressing," "Manipulative," "Uncoordinated," or "Unreliable" but if you're not careful you could be communicating just this via your social media. Here are some of the most common mistakes: Making too many [...]

When I’m working with clients, I frequently get questions about how to make their nonprofit newsletters track better. Low open and engagement rates that aren’t even worth tracking can make your newsletter seem worthless. But I assure you, if it’s done correctly, it’s NOT worthless. A newsletter is your way to stay in touch with your audience. They’ve opted in to receive it, so you should most certainly give them what they want. But, like anything else, you can’t phone it in. Don’t just include information they can pull from other resources. Make your content unique and eye-catching, and I guarantee [...]