How to Execute Successful Nonprofit Marketing Strategies

Nonprofit and charitable organizations used to rely heavily on boldface names and savvy fundraising experts to promote their nonprofit causes. Today, they are experiencing many difficulties when it comes to staying relevant or competing. The digital age is tough, and potential donors get an overload of requests for money through various channels and platforms.

Nonprofit marketers and branding experts are the ones that help nonprofits create marketing strategies that are effective in this day and age. They enable their voice to be heard far away, explain their purpose and help them connect with the public on an emotional level. Here’s what nonprofit marketers need to keep in mind to create successful nonprofit marketing strategies in 2018.

The Challenge of Targeting Millennials

Millennials make up the largest proportion of Internet use, but on the other hand, they’re financially less powerful than their parents at the same age. But with their constant connectivity, winning their attention is difficult. Marketers should focus on improving their millennial targeting for better results. Here’s how:

• Separate age groups. Break them down into different age groups: 18-21, 22-25, 26-35.
• Create customer personas and a custom journey for each one. Highlight their income levels, their concerns and hopes, and how they share and consume media.
• Keep an eye on trends that affect them.
• Engage with millennials via email marketing and social media platforms. Ask them what they want and what they like. Find out their preferred channels of communication and use it to reach them.

Small Marketing Budgets

Marketing budgets often get cut whenever nonprofits encounter budget problems.The only solution for a small marketing budget is to work smarter because nonprofits need marketing so they can differentiate themselves from the competition.

Thanks to digital marketing, there are many online mediums and channels that make marketing cheaper than ever. Use these tools to determine your target audience, plan your marketing strategy, analyze campaign results, and use the data to optimize it better. Leverage your previous donor details, segment them and determine the best ways to re-engage with them.

Tough to Differentiate from the Competition

Most nonprofit marketing is different from other types of marketing because there’s no product or service you need to sell.

One way to stand out from the crowd is to keep up with new tech solutions in marketing to adopt new strategies. For example, keep track of general trends in the nonprofit world, new marketing creations and the latest social media features. Also try partnering up with another organization to cross promote, find sponsorships, or set up your own fundraiser events where you’ll meet volunteers, donors and supporters.

Nonprofit marketing challenges keep popping up, so you’ll have to remain adaptable. Create plans, timelines and keep track of your marketing campaign results. If something changes, don’t be afraid to go back and revise. This is what’s necessary to stay ahead of the competition in 2018.