Keeping Your Eye on the Big Picture: Why Nonprofits Need a Holistic Marketing Economy
If you are a nonprofit leader or marketer, you know the challenges of raising awareness, engaging donors and increasing revenue in a competitive and crowded landscape. We’ve seen many leaders identify a marketing issue, recognize that a marketing tactic is probably the solution and then come to us asking us to implement the tactic. The ask is usually for an amped-up social media campaign, a new email series, perhaps a refresh on their end-of-year campaign, or new print collateral. We get it: Breaking down issues and assigning them solutions that come with specific deliverables is not only tempting, it seems to make sense.
And yet, in the 15+ years we’ve specialized in nonprofit marketing and strategy, we’ve found that a segmented approach is least suited to nonprofits that are trying to expand their impact and do more good. Marketing action disjointed from a holistic strategy results in inconsistency, wasted resources and missed opportunities. No matter how fancy the graphics, or timely the trend, when marketing efforts are not aligned towards a unified goal, sustainable growth and engagement will elude your nonprofit.
What every nonprofit needs is a holistic marketing economy—a system of interconnected and interdependent elements that work together to create value for your organization and your stakeholders. When you aim for a holistic marketing economy, instead of a collection of tactics or deliverables—you surround your nonprofit with a dynamic and adaptive process that responds to the needs and preferences of your Ideal Advocates™ and moves your organization toward growth goals.
Why is a Holistic Marketing Economy Important for Nonprofits?
Nonprofit marketing is distinct from product or service marketing in that your Ideal Advocates are crucial to every step of the marketing process. They are not just your target consumer; they are your message bearers in the market. Seen through this lens, nonprofits can wrap their entire marketing strategy around what we call the Three Crucial Questions™:
- Who’s it for?™
- Where do we find them?
- How do we get more of the right ones?
These three questions have to be addressed constantly, consistently and always in tandem for nonprofit marketing strategy and implementation to be effective. You can’t address one and leave behind the other two or toggle between them. When you implement this central marketing strategy, keeping your organization’s answers to all three questions firmly in your sights at all times, a holistic marketing approach is the inevitable, beautiful, necessary outcome.
Embracing a holistic approach to marketing does require a shift in mindset. Over the years, we’ve guided our clients away from common pitfalls stemming from a lack of understanding of holistic marketing. Some of the most frequent issues we encounter are:
- Thinking that marketing is easy, fast or a one-time event. Marketing is a complex and ongoing process that requires research, analysis, creativity and testing. It also requires patience, perseverance and flexibility, as you may not see immediate or linear results, and you may need to adjust your plan based on feedback and data. “For example,” offers Fervor CEO and Founder Mike Farag, “many clients are enamored with social media, seeing it as a magic pill. They think they just need to use it better, and it should solve their problems. Often, this line of thinking boils down to believing that one thing will solve a large problem. That’s never the case with nonprofit marketing.”
- Thinking that the Ideal Advocates™ that got you this far are the same ones that will get you to your future revenue goals. While it is important to appreciate and nurture your existing supporters, you also need to constantly look for new and diverse ways to reach and attract new audiences. You also need to understand that your audience may change over time, and you need to adapt your marketing accordingly.
- Measuring success by one aspect of your marketing. Marketing is not just about how many likes, shares or donations you get from one campaign or channel. It is about how well you communicate your value and impact, how well you connect and engage with your audience and how well you achieve your overall objectives and goals. You need to use a balanced and holistic set of metrics that capture the quality and quantity of your marketing performance. VP of Client Services Sara Hopkins says, “It’s easy to get fixated on the performance of a single newsletter or the number of likes on a social post. In almost every status meeting, I find myself encouraging our client partners to return to the big-picture marketing strategy and showing them how every part contributes to the organizational goals we’re working toward.”
- Chasing the latest trends or fads without a clear strategy. While it is good to be aware of and experiment with new and emerging marketing opportunities, you also need to have a clear and coherent strategy that guides your marketing decisions and actions. You need to know your audience, your message, your goals, and your resources, and choose the best marketing mix that suits your situation and needs.
Creating a Holistic Marketing Economy for Your Nonprofit
So, how do you go about creating a holistic marketing economy for your nonprofit? “It requires a systematic and collaborative approach,” insists Mike. “And then you have to follow strategy with high-level execution of that strategy in the market.” When working with our nonprofit clients who have engaged us to create and implement holistic marketing strategies for them, we work with key stakeholders at the organization to:
- Define your marketing goals and objectives and align them with your organizational mission, vision and values. We do this through our flagship Brand Impact Assessment™.
- Segment your audience, and create personas and profiles for your Ideal Advocates.
- Match brand identity and messaging to your Ideal Advocates in a way that communicates your value proposition and impact story.
- Create a content strategy and produce relevant, engaging and diverse content for your audience.
- Select the best channels and platforms for your content and optimize them for your audience and goals.
- Design and implement campaigns and programs that align with your objectives.
- Monitor and measure your marketing performance and collect feedback and data from your audience and stakeholders.
- Adjust and refine your marketing plan, and repeat the cycle.
Having a holistic marketing economy is a powerful and effective way to ensure consistent messaging to your Ideal Advocates and promote growth. It can help you create a cohesive and comprehensive marketing plan that covers all the aspects of marketing, from strategy and planning to execution and evaluation to adaptation and improvement. It can also help you connect and communicate with your audience in meaningful and authentic ways.
If you want to learn more about how to create a holistic marketing economy for your nonprofit, contact us for a free consultation. Don’t miss this opportunity to take your nonprofit’s marketing to the next level and achieve your revenue and impact goals.