Creating a Simple Marketing Plan

A poster at a bus shelter advertising your services for homeless youth. A Facebook post celebrating a client’s high school graduation. A tweet thanking volunteers for helping out. A YouTube video of your board members and clients singing karaoke at your last fundraising event.

No matter what you are communicating, or how, anything that goes into print, the airwaves, or the Internet about your organization is marketing. When done effectively, marketing enables potential clients, donors, volunteers, and the community to immediately recognize, value, and trust your organization and the work you do.

But what goes into effective marketing? You may design a beautiful website, diligently update your organization’s Twitter feed daily, and talk up the cause nearest and dearest to you at community events. While you’re busy getting your message out, is it really being taken in by the people you want to reach? Do you know who you really want to reach?

Taking the time to create a simple marketing plan will help you think through these questions. It will also help you clarify your marketing goals, direct your every day efforts, and maximize your resources so you’ll make the biggest impact.

To formulate a basic marketing plan, or for smaller, more discrete projects, Kivi Leroux Miller, President of Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com, says nonprofit organizations need to consider a few key questions.

1. What’s our goal?
   
   Think about your organization’s mission and your marketing goals. Are you promoting the organization itself or a specific program? How will achieving your marketing goals contribute to the organization’s goals?
    
2. Who are we trying to reach, and what do we want them to do?
   
   Be precise about who you’re targeting. That means, don’t even think of the general public as a potential audience. That leads to “spraying and praying,” Leroux Miller says, an ill-defined, inefficient, and expensive approach to marketing. ‘The general public doesn’t really exist,” she says. Think about specific categories of people you want to reach, like teen parents or families with kids in middle school, for example.
   
   Then, be very specific about what you want folks to do. Some organizations say they want to raise awareness about their cause, but raising awareness is not really a specific enough goal, says Leroux Miller. Neither is name recognition for your organization. Think about what you want people to do after they’re aware of your cause and your program. Do you want them to volunteer, register for an event, or talk to their kids about a particular issue?
    
3. How do we define our message?
   
   There are a lot of ways to get a message across. Once you’ve defined your target audience, Leroux Miller says, put yourself in their shoes and think, “If I were them, why would I care?” In other words, why would this group of people want to do this thing we’re asking them to do? How would they benefit? Figuring out “what’s in it for them” will help you craft your message. People are bombarded with so much information every day. You can set yourself apart by looking through the eyes of your target audience and helping them to see the advantage of being connected to or involved with your organization.
   
   A local chamber of commerce, for example, might pay closer attention if you emphasize how your program prepares youth to be better employees. A community member might be more interested in getting involved if you focus on how your program reduces neighborhood crime.
    
4. How do we deliver the message?
   
   One of the biggest mistakes many nonprofit organizations make is jumping to this question first. Folks debate whether an organization should do a newsletter or start Facebook page or host an event. But answers to the question about how to deliver a message, Leroux Miller says, should really come from who you’re trying to reach and what you want them to do.
   
   Having a presence on Facebook or some other online social networking site, for example, might work well if you’re trying to get young people to your website but perhaps not so much if you want to attract private donors to a fundraising event. Focusing on the first two questions above should inform your decisions about how to deliver your message—whether it’s direct mail, online, or even in person at fundraising or community events.

A more comprehensive, two-year marketing plan template can be downloaded from Getting Attention, a nonprofit marketing blog by Nancy Schwartz. Schwartz says drafting an effective plan takes about 5 to 10 hours.