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What matters in nonprofit marketing

Thursday, January 19, 2012 — 

 

According to the Fenton/Globescan social good survey, the more nonprofit organizations engage with their constituents, the more likely they are to receive support. Although many of the findings were were commonly accepted best practices known to many nonprofits (engage with constituents on a personal level – connect your cause to how people live, work, and play), we found others to be quite interesting. Here are what I found to be the best takeaways from this comprehensive survey.

Engage through multiple channels. With the advent of social media, many organizations (both for-profit and not-for-profit) have turned to social media as a primary way to communicate. However, as our social media survey found, attracting audiences to social media sites is a HUGE challenge. The social good survey backs this up. Its results showed that the most effective way to break through to new audiences is through mainstream media, but that social media is critical for maintaining relationships.

Engage to build trust. Although less than half (41%) of the social good survey respondents claimed to understand how nonprofits are run and managed, 26 percent of people cite effective use of funds as their primary reason for giving. Another worrisome fact – less than half of the respondents think nonprofits effectively manage their funds. What to do? Educate your constituents! Explain how funds are used. Do it over and over again, not just once a year in your annual report. Talk about use of funds in monthly emails, post results to Facebook, and explain how decisions are made in your blog. People want to know your organization is well-managed.

We know nonprofit marketing presents special challenges not found in for-profit marketing. Check out this recent blog post and slideshare presentation on a talk we recently gave on this very subject. We hope it will give you some great ideas.

Other resources:
Details matter
Getting a fresh perspective

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

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When you give, you get!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011 — 

 

Clear Verve Marketing was recently featured in a Profile in Philanthropy from BizTimes Milwaukee. These profiles, which appeared in the BizTimes Giving Guide, highlight the services of individuals in the Milwaukee area who have made significant contributions to the nonprofit community. Clear Verve, along with Catral Doyle creative and Welke Group, were highlighted for our Tri-Adathon work. You can view our profile, along with profiles of other generous individuals and some deserving nonprofits, online.

If you’re not familiar with Tri-Adathon, it’s a once a year opportunity for Milwaukee-area nonprofits to receive some really great pro-bono marketing work. Each year, we take applications from local organizations, select a number of projects to work on, and then shut down and complete these projects in a 24-hour work marathon. It’s exhausting and fun. It’s also given us the opportunity to meet some really great people and learn a lot about the many organizations that make our community a better place. The 2012 Tri-Adathon will be held in spring. Be sure to watch for our call for entries coming in March or April.

We don’t do Tri-Adathon specifically to get publicity, but it’s nice when that happens. Many thanks to our friend and client, Gary Ross from Community Health Charities of Wisconsin for nominating us. We’re looking forward to another successful creativity marathon this spring.

Here’s a video of our Tri-Adathon experience last year:

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

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Are you afraid of public speaking?

Thursday, October 27, 2011 — 

 

As a marketing company that specializes in working with service providers, we are always advocating that our clients take advantage of or make their own opportunities to speak in front of potential clients or referral sources. Of course, many of them resist. We understand. Lots of people are afraid of public speaking. Here are some things you can do to try to make it easier:

  • Use your slides as notes, not as a script. You wouldn’t get up on stage and read a book, would you? People who read their slides to the audience often think they are bad speakers. They may not actually be bad speakers, but because the audience can read faster than they can speak, they may be BORING. Don’t read your slides!
  • Practice. This sounds obvious, but many people don’t. Practice gives you confidence. Even professional athletes practice.
  • Remember, you are the only one who knows what you were planning to say. If you say it differently, who knows except you? NOBODY!

Public speaking is an excellent way to build your client base and establish your expertise. It is a long-term strategy that may not yield immediate results, but the prospects you get from speaking are often easier to turn into clients because you have already established your expertise. Take advantage of opportunities to speak whenever you can.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

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Business is built one step at a time

Monday, October 24, 2011 — 

 

This week, we kicked off a branding project with a new client that came to us as a referral from someone I met five years ago. Next week, I am meeting with a prospect that came to us as a referral from someone I met three years ago. We are talking with another prospect who heard me speak at a seminar two years ago, and I was just asked to speak at an upcoming event because of a body of work we’ve been building up for the past four years.

Why am I sharing this? Because many businesses are often so worried about the short-term impact of their marketing initiatives that it is easy to forget about or not want to “waste time with” things that don’t pay off immediately. But that’s not how building a business works. Everything you do adds up over time. The most successful and stable businesses are usually not overnight successes (although it may seem like it to an outsider). Remember as you build your marketing plan that it is important to include both short term and long term strategies. Mix different avenues of communication and be consistent. Suddenly, it will feel like you are an “overnight success” too.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

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The Importance of a Good Graphic (and Vice Versa)

Tuesday, September 13, 2011 — 

 

I’m all for a good image or graphic. A good one can draw attention to pertinent data, make information easier to grasp, and/or add some fun and color. But I saw one the other day that reminded me we should all ask this very important question when combining data with an image: does this enhance the information I’m trying to share?

So here’s the image (you can click on it for a bigger version):

Here are the good things: pleasing to the eyes, easy to read, pop out colors to show the highest number in each data set, a simple font.

Here are the things I’m confused by:

  • What do the numbers mean (it doesn’t look like percentage or numbers of people)?
  • Why are most of the numbers so close to 100?
  • Why is the one image a female for something called “Unique U.S. Audience Composition Index to Social Networks and Blogs,” especially when females only “win” 103 to the males’ 96 … somethings.
  • Why is each piece of information pointing to a spot on the woman? (As a pal on Twitter so eloquently put it “The only thing I learned was that gender is all in your head and education comes from your pants.”)

Now, to be fair, I discovered a more “complete” graph in Nielson’s full report on page four:

So the image of a female makes a little more sense with this title. And sentences were added under each category like “She likely lives in New England” (I personally like this touch). But overall the graphic is still not doing much to enhance the information. And pointing to the woman’s random body parts is still nonsensical to me.

What do you think? Do you think the image adds to the information in any way simply because it’s not just text? What kinds of images do you do with your work?

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. Follow Erica on Twitter:  @erica_g.

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Keeping Up with Marketing Online

Monday, August 8, 2011 — 

 

Let’s face it, we have a lot of options for information on marketing and as technology advances, we have even more options for being connected.  (Yes, stating the obvious :) ).

As marketing professionals, we must be aware of the tools and strategies available to reach our audiences and which are the most effective.  We have compiled our favorite online resources for marketing information that are a must to add to your Google Reader or RSS:

Did we miss any of your top online marketing resources?  Please add yours in the comment section below.

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Timing is everything

Friday, April 29, 2011 — 

 

I hope you did not have any major news break about your business today. Because unless you are in the wedding business or somehow know the royal family, your chances of getting your story covered are so slim, you might as well just give up and wait for another day.

That’s the thing with public relations, you can have (what you think) is the most interesting story in the world, but if it snows in Milwaukee or Brett Favre says something (anything really), you can’t get noticed.

How do you avoid this? First of all, consider what else is going on in the world when you decide on your timing for contacting the media. Think about how what you have to say relates to what is going on in the rest of the world. Remember that it is the media’s job to report news, not profile every business in the city (as much as we’d like that sometimes). If you can relate your story to a trend or new event, you have a much better chance of getting attention.

We often tell clients, a great story has the following elements:

A problem or trend
+
A solution (that’s you)
+
An example (a client who benefited from your solution)
=
A good story

Take the time to think about what’s going on in the world and when needed, be patient! Because tomorrow, even the royal wedding will literally be yesterday’s news.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

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Keeping up with the times

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 — 

 

The other day I was working on a document and trying to save something when this box popped up:

Did you catch the word floppy? Because I laughed so hard when I saw this that I didn’t even care that Word lost data.

But it also got me thinking. Looking like you are up-to-date with technology and marketing trends means you need to have all the little things covered. I tend to think that Microsoft is keeping up with what they need to in order to stay competitive. So it was surprising to me that “floppy” was left in the mix, although I have to confess that this box did appear from 2003 Microsoft Word and not the most recent edition.

I only laughed at this blooper because, in my experience, Microsoft has been trustworthy and the mention of floppy did not seem to impact anything I was working on. There was at no point when the only option was to insert a floppy. So Microsoft will survive. But what if this was a detail that was overlooked by a company that had changed all its branding and missed a word on an important part of communication? Or if it was a company that switched to Twitter for most customer service continues to direct customers to an email that somebody doesn’t check often?

I hope this post serves as a friendly reminder to stay on top of communications and to remember the details!

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University. Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

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Gum Package Highlight: Orbit

Thursday, April 7, 2011 — 

 

Gum packaging design is usually simple: a minimal number of colors representing the flavor and all the information. I’m going to skip past the package changes this past decade or so.

Remember these?

I don’t usually notice gum packaging. Does anyone really? Grabbing a piece of gum is not usually a slow process. It’s usually done without much, if any, of a glance at the packaging. I know if it’s in my purse that I don’t even take the package out. It’s easy to get a piece out without looking.

Gum is simply about flavor and meeting a need of fresh breath or something to chew. It’s not about admiring the package.

And that’s why I think it took me so long to notice what Orbit is doing with their packaging. Underneath the flap on the package (which happened to be sitting open on my desk at work while I was looking around for inspiration) is a code. If you go to Orbit’s special website and enter the code on your pack of gum, Orbit will donate 50¢ to Keep America Beautiful.

Here’s a sample of the flash intro from the page:

Kind of cool, right? I thought so. Let’s just hope that more people notice the code! Over $40,000 has been raised, but it’s still a long way from the goal of $300,000.

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University. Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

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What can you do with a hotel room?

Friday, March 25, 2011 — 

 

First of all, notice I said, “What can you do with a hotel room?” not what can you do in a hotel room. Big difference! (And not the subject of this post.)

Recently, a client approached us with an opportunity to do something really fun and challenging. They wanted to create a movie theatre-like experience to accompany a trade show at which they were launching a new product. Important customers were invited to the “theatre” for educational presentations on the new product. We’re really proud of the results, which you can see below. We transformed an ordinary hotel conference room into something that really looked like a theatre with a red carpet and a candy counter. We even popped fresh popcorn throughout the day, making it smell like a theatre too! We’re especially proud of the movie posters lining the sides of the room in which the new product took a starring role in some well-known movies from the past 50 years.

Take a look – we hope you find these photos inspirational!

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns.  Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

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