The Nonprofit Marketing Balancing Act

By Nancy Schwartz

[Editor's note: This article was originally published at Nancy Schwartz's Getting Attention! blog.]

"I have so much to do but don’t know where to start!"

That’s the crucial — but seldom acknowledged or discussed — challenge on which I co-led a vibrant mind meld at the Nonprofit Technology Conference, along with superstars Katya Andresen, Kivi Leroux Miller and Sarah Durham.

We were thrilled at the number and engagement level of the hundreds folks squished in the room. In fact, discussion got so lively we were hushed by the organizer of the session in the next room! That request exemplifies the excitement of the crowd in discussing this stuff and in meeting each other — brainstorming partners in the making!

Katya created these summary slides on the fly as we provided one-minute consulting and participants shared their bright ideas on how to:

Get priorities right

Make a marketing strategy. It's better to have a plan because you'll work smarter. Align audience, objectives and tools.
At the end/beginning of every day, take five minutes to identify the goals for the day.
Put your big goals and high-impact activities on a white board in your office.
Keep to-do lists.
Say no: What you refuse to do is as important as what you take on!
Focus on what the top things you need to accomplish with each of your audiences are. If the item in front of you doesn't do a lot to accomplish your aims, put it aside.
Go to where your supporters are, and feature what your supporters say rather than feeling you have to create and build everything yourself.
Use your networks. Learn from others so you don't reinvent the wheel. Seek pro bono resources.
Ask for help, or ask a manager to choose among priorities when you're overloaded.
Block off time away from e-mail and your computer.
Communicate early and often with staff and external partners. It avoids time-consuming confusion later.
No-meeting Fridays.
Keep social-networking time spent in line with its importance — most attendees put that at less than two hours per day.
Don't take on something you can't do well. It's better to have no Facebook page or blog than an inactive one in which you don't respond to supporters.

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: