5 Reasons Your Not-for-Profit Marketing May Be Failing
Marketing of not-for-profit causes and organisations is the challenge of a lifetime. Many people expect that, because they’re promoting something incredibly worthwhile and rewarding, they simply need to get the message out and tens of thousands of supporters will materialise overnight. But as anybody who’s actually tried it can attest, that’s very rarely the case. Why?
In an increasingly socially conscious generation, many organisations are competing for the attention of your target audience. Numerous causes are asking donors to contribute funds out of the generosity of their heart, but with no direct economic benefit being offered in exchange, and the public is becoming increasingly discerning in their selection of organisations to support.
Here are five of the most common areas, in my experience, that marketing of NFP’s fall short:
1. Lack of Knowledge
Effective marketing strategies require market knowledge, product knowledge, company knowledge, and a strong working knowledge of the marketing mediums in which you’re going to promote.
I frequently see enthusiastic marketers throwing themselves directly into marketing campaigns based on a host of assumptions, many of which are inaccurate or unclear.
People often don’t know what they don’t know. Often, some basic market research would improve their focus, saving a lot of wasted energy on unproductive activities, and uncovering key motivators for their audience.
Likewise, when it comes to social media and online marketing opportunities, many marketers are struggling to keep up with a rapidly evolving landscape which changes the dynamics of marketing significantly. Where historically marketers ‘advertised’ their wares and controlled what was said, now consumers have the power and it is up to marketers to win their loyalty, support, and recommendations.
It is critical that marketers dedicate a suitable portion of their time to meeting with their peers, attending seminars, listening to the counsel of experts in their field, and generally ensuring that they are exposed to the successes of leaders in these new fields. (Our Marketing Essentials Seminar in September 2011 is one such venue to enhance their practical knowledge and skills in areas of Market Research, Internet Marketing, and Social Media).
2. Lack of Resources
I’ve seen a lot of campaigns launch and flop that were reasonably well devised, but failed predominantly because the organisation underestimated the resources necessary to achieve the stated goals.
A well researched and targeted message, with a compelling proposition, still needs to be heard by enough people. And the results are not linear. As you reach a certain level of public awareness, the message can take on a life of its own and this has a multiplying effect.
Therefore, radio advertising on a community radio station for a short period (e.g. a couple of weeks) may have little or no impact, and yet it’s inaccurate to assume that multiplying the radio budget by a factor of 10 would yield similarly poor results.
Using the same message, but increasing the repetition over a longer period of time and to a larger audience, may well generate great results, particularly when conducted as part of an integrated strategy with email marketing, social media, blogs, and so on.
Not-for-profit organisations need to understand that the old adage ‘you need to spend money to make money’ is (unfortunately) still essentially true.
Whilst you may be able to find clever ways to get free exposure, it’s very rare that an organisation can effectively promote themselves without dedicating the necessary human resources and budget to their marketing.
3. Lack of Differentiation
If you’ve researched the market, devoted sufficient resources, and got the message out to the right audience, the question still remains – “so what?”, “Why should I get involved with your organisation?”
Most of us are overwhelmed by a never-ending stream of requests from thousands of organisations all asking us to pitch in and help their ostensibly worthy cause. How does an individual decide who he’s going to commit his limited time or money to?
It’s a sad reality that the majority of the world lives in poverty, and there are tens of thousands of organisations trying to feed and educate starving and malnourished children, provide sanitary drinking water supplies, eradicate malaria and AIDS, and so on. Whilst your goals are noble, so are the goals of the last 10 requests the consumer was confronted with.
The key is differentiation. How you ‘position’ and differentiate yourself is a critical element of your marketing strategy.
4. Lack of Relationship
As more and more organisations go online to find and connect with their ‘audience’ and stakeholders, some are still thinking in the mindset of traditional advertising – that is, present a carefully crafted message for the masses, and trust that a sufficient percentage will respond favourably.
Social media marketing requires an adjustment of mindset. Whilst there are still opportunities to present advertisements and offers, the real power of social media lies in engaging the public (in particular your target audience) so that they participate in discussions, share your ideas with their own social networks, and give you suggestions, feedback, and even criticism.
Social media marketing is about relationship.
5. Lack of Sustainability
Perhaps the greatest challenge for many not-for-profit organisations, particularly those involved in international development and poverty alleviation, is leveraging the donations of financial supporters so that current marketing activities reap longer term rewards.
This is potentially the single most important question not-for-profit organisations can ask themselves. It’s a much bigger question than just “how do we advertise what we do”, it actually requires that you continually review your core operations and be prepared to enhance and adapt them to maximise the impact of the funding your receive.
I believe that it’s time for a lot of organisations to ask some tough questions about their whole operational model and consider new opportunities such as ‘creative capitalism‘, micro-lending, capacity building, and other commercial endeavours that, with the assistance of seed capital to launch, will over time become self-sustaining. (The book ‘Out of Poverty‘ by Paul Polak illustrates this brilliantly and may provide some inspiration. Also check out kiva.org)
If you could market your not-for-profit organisation with the promise of multiplying rewards, and potentially even some small returns to ‘investors’ (as opposed to donors) you would open the door to a vast new audience who, under current models, may be completely unreachable.
Are your ideas ‘good’ or ‘bad’?
I was recently re-reading another great book from Edward de Bono, “New Thinking for the New Millennium”, which was published in 1999 and is clearly as just as applicable today as it was 12 years ago. Human nature being what it is, we have a tendency to get lazy in our thinking and, for expediency, process many of our decisions on auto-pilot.
If we want to really make progress in our businesses, and in society generally, we need to take time to think constructively and with genuine creativity. This involves challenging other people’s thinking, and allowing them to challenge ours.
Money is a token of exchange. In the past a fisherman might exchange fish for grain from a farmer. A brothel lady in Nevada could be paid with a chicken. Money was more convenient. You were paid in money and you could then busy something with the money. In the same way there are certain ‘value words’, which act as tokens of value. Instead of having to explain why something will not work or having to show that something might indeed work, you use simple words like ‘good’ and ‘bad’: ‘That is a bad idea’; ‘That is a good idea.’ ‘Good’ and ‘bad’ are token words which are accepted as indicating value. Just as a person with too much money can become a spendthrift, so the very existence of these value words means they can be applied rather too easily. They can be applied without any need for justification. It is only if the labels are challenged that justification may be demanded. The immense ease of this sort of judgement makes thinking unnecessary and the outcomes very poor. The applied judgements are just as easily based on emotions as on logic.”
- Edward de Bono (New Thinking for the New Millennium)
Often, the dynamics of corporate life discourage team members from challenging the accepted wisdom or requesting justification. If the boss dismisses something as a ‘bad’ idea, that’s normally as far as it goes. Companies need to be able to get on with the day-to-day job of delivering value to their customers, and repeatedly doing what they know works well (this is known as process, procedure, “best practice”) – so it’s untenable to have staff challenging every decision that’s made.
But could this mean we fall into the trap of stifling real progress? What could we be doing to nurture and reward thinking processes which will challenge the status quo and trigger genuine innovation and creativity?
Too Much of a Good Thing?
Have you been inadvertently seduced into the ‘we need more of this good thing’ mindset? Whether in marketing, business more broadly, family life, friendships, or business, corporate, and national finances, it’s common place (and entirely natural) for us to think that if something is ‘good’ and it’s been beneficial for us thus far, then we want more of this good thing.
If something is good, then surely more of it is better? Once we have applied the judgement value of ‘good’, then that thing is good – and we want good things. Once something is placed in the ‘good-to-have’ box then we want more and more. Yet there are so many instances where this is simply not true. Food without any salt tastes bad. Some salt is good. Too much salt is again bad.
I sometimes call this the salt curve. No communication is bad. More communication is good. Surely, more and more communication can only be better? The average American manager gets 178 e-mail messages every day. Because email is so easy, you automatically send the same message to everyone on your list. It is possible to be overwhelmed and burdened by too much communication. Free movement of money and goods is the opposite of protectionism and is good for trade. But the unrestricted adoration of ‘globalism’ may not be an unmixed blessing. Money surges around the world in search of immediate gain and at the expense of sustained productivity. Water in a basin flops about. Put a grid in the basin and the giant flops are reduced to tiny flops in each square of the grid. Freedom is good and more and more freedom is better. But at a certain point freedom becomes licence and your freedom interferes with the freedom of others. This is another of the major faults of the crude judgement system. It is easy to acknowledge this fault intellectually, but much more difficult to deal with it in practice. At what precise point does the striving towards ‘more of a good thing’ turn into a ‘bad thing’? Each next step must surely be good – even if the overall picture suggests that the ultimate effect is not good?
- Edward de Bono (New Thinking for a New Millennium)
I can think of quite a few situations in which we’re chasing after “too much of a good thing”. I’d love to hear your comments on this topic!
Should we have a Facebook page for our business?
The owner of a groovy café near our office asked me this week whether it’s possible to delete posts on a Facebook page. I explained that it is, and then he went on to explain that this was a significant consideration for him in deciding whether or not to set up a Facebook page for his café.
His real concern was that, if he created a Facebook page, anybody with a grudge could slander his café directly on their own Facebook page. I pointed out that they already can.
Just by ‘checking in’ with Facebook Places, people already ‘create’ (or more accurately, trigger) a page that represents your business. A Places check-in with a comment attached will be visible for any visitors to read. The only question really is whether you want to get involved and play a positive role, or whether you’re content to turn a blind eye while the world talks about you!
My advice, naturally enough, was to play a proactive role – take ownership of his café’s page, add professional touches to it such as their masthead, logo, colours, menu, correct address, business hours, telephone number, and any other information about the café that he deemed was appropriate, and allow the comments on the page to serve as valuable feedback. I also suggested that, unless a comment was totally unwarranted and defamatory, it’s probably worth keeping the less than flattering ones as well, because in the social media space readers appreciate authenticity and balance. Given that his café really is a great place, I assured him that the positive comments would substantially outweigh the occasional negative, and if he really couldn’t bear to see a comment stay on the page he had the discretion to delete it.
The key issue to understand when deciding whether or not to create a Facebook page for your business is to realise that you can’t prevent negative online comments about your business simply by ‘opting out’ and not having an online presence – it’s going to proceed with or without you, therefore you’re better being informed and involved.
Computer glitch leads to supermarket free-for-all
Supermarket owner Glenn Miller is feeling a bit foolish at the moment. His Pak ‘N Save supermarket in Hamilton, NZ, unlocked itself at 8am on Good Friday with not a staff member in sight!
I found this news report to be a fascinating case study in human nature. But whilst chuckling from a safe distance about such a whacky scenario (after all, it wasn’t MY stock at risk!) I couldn’t help but wonder how anybody originally designed the security of a supermarket to unlock itself without any confirmation of staff being present. Clearly an adequate risk assessment was not conducted.
Technology presents wonderful opportunities for us, and (usually) makes life so much easier. But sometimes we forget our own value in the equation.
Unlocking a building is one example. Another is in our interactions with customers. And a chef would no doubt tell you that the personal TLC that goes into cooking could never be entirely replaced by a machine. In business, as in personal life, it’s important to balance the benefits of technological innovation, with the emotional benefits, relational opportunities, and practicalities of maintaining a human touch.
This is never more true than in marketing, where we seem to think that the internet, email, web sites, and technology can progressively eliminate the need for us to personally interact with our target audience. If we’re really going to address our customers wants and needs, we need to leverage our technical tools to maximum effect, but keep it in check with a healthy dose of human interaction.
Designing a Way Forward
The human brain and our society are programmed to build upon our pre-established building blocks. This is very helpful, because we don’t have time to reinvent the wheel for every action or task we’re required to undertake. But it also means we tend not to think creatively and look at the bigger picture.
We map out where we want to go, plan the execution, and progress according to our plan. But when we encounter unforeseen circumstances, how flexible is our thinking in response to this ‘problem’?
In the Philippines they had built a huge hall to house an international film festival. Two days before the event there was a typhoon and the hall was flooded to a depth of about three feet. The engineers said it would take several days to pump the water out. So they got hundreds of workmen to build a platform over the water. The meeting took place with the water underneath the delegates. This sort of approach may too easily be condemned as ‘papering over the cracks’. In some instances this would indeed be the case and is not to be recommended; find the cause of the cracks or the house may fall down. In other instances, designing a way forward is not only valuable, it is the only way forward.
- Edward de Bono (New Thinking for the New Millennium)
In business and society today, we need to learn how to ‘design a way forward’ – accept the obstacles and faults around us and assess whether we need to ‘fix the faults’, ‘design a way forward’, or perhaps do both in parallel. Only with such progressive, constructive thinking will we maximise possibilities, productivity, and quality of life.
How to avoid a public relations disaster on Twitter
Anybody been following the recent tirade by a Marc Jacobs intern who somehow was given the keys to drive Daddy’s Twitter account? I can’t imagine CEO Robert Duffy would have been too impressed! Any exposure is not necessarily good exposure, and if Marc Jacobs have a “social media policy”, I suspect this fell well outside the policy guidelines.
So how does a company give their team members enough autonomy to interact authentically in the social media realm, yet avoid accidental (or intentional) ‘slips’ which could have a very damaging effect on their brand?
More often than not, the embarrassing mistakes of the likes of @ChryslerAutos and @RedCross are honest mistakes made by users who forget which profile they’re logged in to and they accidentally send a personal message via the corporate identity. Whatever the cause, organisations participating on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on need to take suitable precautions.
One tool which has just been released to assist in this regard is Hootsuite’s Secure Social Profiles. Available exclusively as an element of their Enterprise plan, and building on their existing multi-tiered account provisioning, it allows account owners to designate certain accounts as “secure” and these accounts are then provided additional protection, with prompts to confirm that you really want to submit your tweet.
For any corporation, organisation, or agency involved in social media marketing, a system such as this is a great tool both in terms of productivity and risk management.
Are you already using something similar? Have you had an online PR disaster? I’d love to hear your comments, feedback, and experiences!
Related Articles
- Marc Jacobs Intern Calls CEO a “Tyrant” in Twitter Meltdown (mashable.com)
- HootSuite Adds Features To Help Prevent Twitter Meltdowns (mashable.com)
