Marketing

We find that most organizations do not fully understand the notion of marketing and tend to confuse it with a whole host of sales and public relations activities. Marketing is actually the determination of the needs and wants of target constituencies and the development of a plan to satisfy them through the design, communication, pricing, and delivery of services so that the organization may fulfill its organizational purpose. 

Components

Developing a marketing plan.  This involves a discussion of where the marketing plan will live in the organization. It’s important that volunteer leadership and staff buy in to the plan and regard it as an integral part of organizational strategies. From there, it’s helpful to address the questions the marketing plan should answer, and its typical elements.

Community Relations Programs   The brand element critical to most area organizations is their location. In other words, there are other groups around the country that may do what you do and whose missions appear similar, but in all likelihood it’s your relationship to your community that distinguishes you. We can help in examining your contacts with the media, special events, collateral, distribution methods, spokesperson activities, etc., all of which have an impact on institutional image. 

Website Strategies   The organization’s website is an increasingly powerful communications vehicle. As such, it needs to consistently reflect the group’s image, deliver information important to your constituents, and make it virtually effortless for them to take whatever action you desire. We can assess the site map, appearance, links, call-to-action mechanisms, and reporting tools to enhance effectiveness. 

Measuring and Evaluating Marketing Effectiveness    The omission of evaluation methods in planning marketing programs is surprisingly common. Whether an organization is attempting to build awareness, pass a ballot issue, lay groundwork for a fundraising campaign, or increase business for membership, a vehicle for measuring success must be designed at the outset of the program. We can suggest typical avenues for this and help the organization determine what resources are available. 

Marketing’s Relationship to Fundraising    We know that the bottom line is … well, the bottom line. Any marketing activities that enhance the organization’s image or build community awareness of it will ideally result in greater tangible support for its mission. We can assess the relationship within the organization’s structure of marketing and development activities and suggest models for greatest effectiveness. 

Deliverables

Depending on the scope of the engagement, we can help the client with: 

• Development of an organizational marketing plan
• Assessment of current communication vehicles
• Modeling of community-relations initiatives
• Website analysis and development of website strategies
• Evaluation of development and marketing programs, and their relationship to each other within the organization’s operations