Ah the treadmill. You work hard and go absolutely no where. Sound familiar? If your communications program sounds like a treadmill, let's think about changing your approach so you can start moving forward.
Many years ago, our approach to marketing was "spray and pray." Spread lots of messages, and hope someone sees or hears and responds. It was not very efficient or effective. Who was reading that newsletter? What did our supporters need? Unless they told us, it was hard to know because we couldn't gauge their behaviors.
Today we have so many tools to connect with our supporters. We can see what emails they open, what they forward, read, share, etc. Because of this information, we can hone in on our best prospects.
Our approach needs to shift. We don't need to worry about convincing people of our worth. A common complaint I hear is "No one has ever heard of us." Well, who are those people? Does it matter if they haven't? Are they a likely prospects? Convincing absolutely everyone that your organization is worthy and valuable only to have most of them not become supporters is wasting valuable time, energy and money.
The approach now is to find like-minded people and be available to them so they are attracted to your organization. Stop running. Stand still and be available and easy to find. This is called inbound marketing. Instead of going outbound, and spreading your message and hope someone responds, we stand tall in our message and make ourselves easy to find, so when people interested in our cause and go looking, there we are! And because they have self-identified as interested, you already know they think you are worthy and valuable.
We all have our own personal philanthropic wheelhouse. I rescue things. It's what I do. It is as hardwired in me as wearing tall shoes. I am not a flats or flip flops girl, and you can't make me. So stop trying. It's not that I don't like them on other people, they are just not for me. Same with my personal mission. I am a rescuer. My kids are adopted from foster care. My family and I have fostered more than 140 dogs for Stray Rescue of St. Louis. If you don't have a home, come find me. It is not that I don't care about aging, or diabetes or addiction, it is just that those causes aren't in my wheelhouse. No amount of pushing, pulling or tugging is going to change that. I am not going to one day just start wearing ballet flats. It's just not going to happen. Your attempts to convince me otherwise is a waste of time and energy.
So instead of trying to convince people your cause is worthy, instead be who you are, strong in message, and easily findable. That means having solid SEO rankings, updating your site, blogging, posting, tweeting and anything else that connects you to those who think like you.
This means looking at some of the ways you spend your money and seeing how well they work. A local private school spent the largest portion of its marketing budget on advertising (outbound marketing, a spray and pray approach), when only 3 percent of families said that the ads were how they learned about the school. The most effective form of marketing was word of mouth from families, friends and coworkers. This is the best example of inbound marketing. The school is now cutting back on ads and encouraging its current families to share stories of the school.
Your qualified prospects for donations, volunteers and programs now can find you, and so you already know they are interested.
It seems weird not to go chasing after prospects. It seems like you are not doing your job. But when you focus on sharing stories of value and interest, being helpful, available and findable, people will respond. It will get you off the treadmill and get you results.
