The Nonprofit Marketing Balancing Act

By Nancy Schwartz

Balance is crucial between marketing and fundraising efforts, not just within marketing

Have several people who handle social media, and assign comments to them.
Use "share this" and other tools to let your supporters spread the word for you.
Test: Do A/B campaign e-mails so you can work smarter.
Block off time when you'll do e-mail rather than answering it every time it comes in.
Encourage staff to send fewer e-mails to each other!
Read "Getting Things Done" by David Allen.

Manage up and build leadership buy-in on priorities you set

Frame your priorities according to your boss's goals.
Bring competitive examples to your boss — of other nonprofits doing well. Spark, don't lead, the conversation. That makes it your boss's idea.
Know who influences your boss. Look to other messengers and gatekeepers.
Show results and changes made in pilot.
Employ early intervention — before there's a plan.

Balance incoming requests (agency model) when you’re acting more strategically (i.e., you have your own job to do)

Create an editorial calendar.
Have a formal, shared marketing plan that you train people on and make decisions on — make them show how it drives goals.

Do the internal marketing necessary to build support, investment and a team of messengers among your colleagues

Once you have a common, shared plan, report on progress of goals.
Write up a dashboard tool depicting the status of goals, who's responsible for what, etc.
Post progress.
Have a daily stand-up meeting (10 minutes) — a face-to-face briefing.

Cut down your program (hint — don’t cut a channel if it’s working, just scale back your effort)

Look at the marketing strategy you used to select channels that are most critical.
Check your channels next to your metrics. Find out which tools have the most impact. Look at your metrics and data. Use the most effective channels.
Talk to people you want to reach, and get feedback from them.
Reduce the scope of channels rather than the number of channels. Retain multichannel, but scale back.

Break up with social media if the ROI isn’t there

Try shifting voice/management to address poor performance. Ask how you can be doing better.
Make it campaign-based on social media with a clear goal and end point so you have an exit strategy if you need it.
Don't do a channel if you can't do it well.
Setting goals is important.
It's about quality, not quantity, and the appropriate frequency.

Here are a few other outtakes on the session: