Nonprofit Expressions

By Jennifer

Nonprofits today have a flood of choices when determining the best way to communicate with their donors and publics.Email advertising… Press Releases… Direct Mail Postcards… Radio ads?

Choosing the right option at the right time can be confusing and overwhelming. But worst of all - it can be ineffective. Combined correctly, however, they can become the ultimate communications campaign to increase donations, sell a product - or even get publicity (free media coverage!)

Integrated Marketing Campaigns are when an organization strategically unites all of the forms of communication so that messages and campaigns are consistent and more effective.

The Trend

Large companies often have two or three different communications branches: Marketing, Advertising and/or Public Relations. Let’s look at the differences:

Marketing:

Planning and implementing a mix of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the organization to the client. Examples: advertising, shipping, packaging, selling.

Advertising: A paid, public, non-personal, persuasive message by an organization to existing and potential clients. Examples: radio, television and pop-up ads.

Public Relations: The methods and activities used to establish and promote relationships with all of an organization’s publics. Publics include all the people who share a common interest with an organization, like customers, donors, employees, community leaders, the media, competitors, etc. Examples: donor development, media relations, crisis management.While the goal of Advertising and Marketing branches is to sell a product or service, Public Relations focuses mainly on relationships between the organization and those key publics and stakeholders. All of these branches play an important role in the growth of an organization.

The importance of integration (IMC)

With three branches going in all different directions, you can imagine how it would become difficult to have one goal. And with the branches not working together properly, a company’s relationship with its audience could be permanently damaged.

The solution? Integrated Marketing Campaigns.

Looking Out for Your Publics

Imagine your audience sitting in front of the television or surfing online—if they see your TV commercial or pass their mouse over a banner ad, no one stops to recognize the particular work of either the marketing, advertising or pubic relations department. What consumers recognize is limited to the company name, logo and basic idea. The best way to make the consumer’s connection with your company stronger is to keep everything consistent.

IMC and Your Nonprofit

You don’t have to hire an expensive company to conduct your IMC campaign. In fact, you don’t even have to major in communications to use this method! You can start with a few simple tools and a team dedicated to success.

Tool 1:

Media Planning Guide>The market strategy and planning worksheet available to our newsletter subscribers will take you through a six step method to outline your situation, strategy, identify your tactics and how to evaluate its effectiveness. Go to www.nonprofit-expressions.com/media-guide.html for your free copy.

Tool 2:

Putting It Together and Making It Work from Amazon.com>There are endless books on IMC and the method. Go to this Amazon.com book link for one example.

Tool 3

: Integrated Marketing White Paper>Integrated Online Marketing with Direct Mail Fundraising (Adding a New Communication and Donation Channel Increases Donations). Read the White Paper here.

Tool 4

: The Nonprofit Expressions Method of IMC>Nonprofit Expressions is not an advertising company. We are not a web design company. We are not a market research company. Nonprofit Expressions is in the business of communication. We want to make sure you know your audience and that your audience knows you, whether your target public is a businessman looking to support your ministry, or an internal support staff member. Nothing will happen without relationships and relationships are impossible without communication.For a free communications assessment or a complete list of resources, please contact the author at jennifer@nonprofit-expressions.com.

I recently entered a debate with a friend about how to drive traffic to websites.

My friend, who offers a free service where people can sign-up online, is running many high priced ads via radio, TV and billboards to drive traffic to the site.

Although expensive, at first this seemed like a great way to get some attention. But then I started thinking…Imagine your consumer driving in their car and seeing a billboard or hearing a radio spot. The ads are attractive, eye-catching and motivate your target audience to get online. But even with the right motivation, your imaginary consumer doesn’t exactly pull out their web browser fixated on the dashboard, do they?

As a professional web developer, I know that the average web surfer doesn’t usually remember web addresses for extended periods of time. If the person has to travel even five minutes further down the road they have significantly cut down their chances of remembering to write it down, let alone remembering the site address in the first place.… Now suppose they DO remember it and they DO write it down when they reach their destination. There is another abyss of time between the writing the name down, and actually typing it into a web browser. Not only do they have to remember to look up the website after what could be minutes or even hours, they have to still want to.

People who regularly get online are called web “surfers” for a reason. They don’t generally go to a specific site unless the link is glowing bright blue before their eyes.

What was appealing to the person in the ad at that moment is no longer in front of their face. That is unless they snapped a picture of the billboard with their zoom lens while they were driving. Thus it is obvious why a billboard will never drive people to a website. They are not only unlikely to be on a computer when they see it; they are guaranteed not to be!To explore radio even further: how many people actually listen to the radio while surfing the net? I will fill you in - it is not that many. In fact not that many people even listen to radio. It is a dying media (just ask the people who sell radio ads!).

Television actually has the same problem. Most people do not watch TV while surfing, but if they do have their laptop open, they are probably not paying attention to the commercial.

So how did I enlighten my friend that they had wasted thousands of dollars of their client’s money?

I simply told them Google rakes in almost 4 billion dollars each year from internet ads, with most of that money coming from big companies like Pepsi, Disney, and eBay. The internet advertising age has arrived. We know this because today over 9 billion dollars are spent on Internet advertising. That is more than radio, magazines, and billboards; it is more than just about anything.

When a company like Disney spends multiple millions of dollars paying people to “Search Engine Optimize” their network of websites, it really says something.

When you advertise your website on other websites, you give someone an opportunity to see your site at that exact moment. If they came from a search engine it is at the exact time they wanted your information.

So tell me what form of advertising can accomplish all of that?