Benefits of Implementing the Ideal Advocate Journey
In over 13 years of marketing and communications for nonprofits, Fervor CEO Mike Farag notes the number one request he’s heard from nonprofit leaders: “We are the best kept secret, and if people just knew about us they would give to our cause, engage with our work, and volunteer to help. We just need people to be more aware of what we’re doing.”
While marketing for awareness is an understandable request, getting people to support your organization is much more complicated than simply getting them to see you exist. (We’ll be talking more about this topic!) Targeted marketing efforts with intentional content and interactive campaigns aimed at specific audiences will always give you better results than mere awareness. And a key part of that is making sure you get the right message to the right people wherever they’re at in their customer journey.
To help attract, engage and nurture audiences at every stage, Fervor created the Ideal Advocate Journey. Mapping milestones for any given audience comes with several benefits. In this blog post, we’ve outlined three we feel can help organizations most.
1. Nurture Your Audiences at Every Phase
Planning content for the different stages of the journey lets you speak to them where they’re at right now. Is one of your ideal advocates assessing your organization, trying to understand what you do, and whether or not you fit with how they want to impact their world? Or are they marginally engaged but could be open to deeper involvement and regular giving? That one person needs different types of content at different stages of their journey. Making full use of the Ideal Advocate Journey lets you be ready to nurture them through each phase.
2. Create Seamless User (and Internal Team) Experiences
Every destination is reached by taking steps. Using the Ideal Advocate Journey to think about and anticipate the next steps you’re inviting donors, members, users, and volunteers to take creates a seamless experience for them and supports your internal teams, too.
For example, as nonprofits are adapting to new normals through hybrid fundraising events, consider asking the following questions in order to decide what supporting content, collateral or tactics could get the most results within each stage of the Ideal Advocate Journey:
- How can you implement consistent messaging across all channels, targeting new and recurring donors who prefer in-person attendance vs. those who will want to attend online?
- What channels can best spread the word about your hybrid event — for those who don’t know much about your cause/organization, those who gave one time, or those who repeatedly give and tell others about you?
- What do small- and mid-level donors need to know about you or understand about your work or your funding needs in order to increase their support? What is the best way to deliver that information to them in a meaningful way?
- What questions will those new to your organization have vs. those who attended last year or the year before?
- What information can you collect during the registration process that attendees (both new and recurring) will want to share and that will support your internal teams during and after the event?
3. Discover Opportunities in Content Marketing Plans
Marketing is an ever-living, breathing thing. It’s never really finished. No matter how much anyone assesses their plans, there is always room for improvement or small tweaks to fill the gaps. The more you learn about your ideal advocates, the more untapped opportunities you can uncover to engage them. Here are a few ideas to consider:
- For those new to your organization, maybe you’re running a small retargeting campaign, but have you considered a Live Q&A session on their most used social platform or perhaps an FAQ page on your website to answer their most pressing questions?
- You may have collected several stories of how your organization has helped a specific individual or family. Maybe you’ve shared them on your blog, but have you included them in your annual report or an email drip to referral advocates who may want to tell others?
- Your website has loads of great content in all kinds of formats. Could you repurpose those pieces in different ways to attract new users through paid ads or level up email communications to show donors how your content is helping others?
- You’ve created lots of helpful blog content around a particular service or topic, but your sales team needs one place to send perspectives looking for everything they want to know. Have you considered a pillar page or downloadable guide that answers all their questions?
There are countless other gaps using an Ideal Advocate Journey will help you discover. As you prioritize the right holes to fill at the right times, you’ll drive more meaningful action at all levels of an advocate’s journey.
A Marketing Partner Who Understands Your Audiences
Fervor has compiled audience profiles and Ideal Advocate Journeys for a lot of nonprofits, businesses and faith-based organizations. Want to learn more about what that process looks like? Check out our flagship Brand Impact Assessment. In this comprehensive review, we craft an overall message that accurately reflects your brand, speaks to your top ideal advocates, and outlines a recommended Ideal Advocate Journey. Reach out to start a conversation.