The document outlines 10 marketing communications activities that non-profit organizations must do, as presented by Michele Levy in a webinar. It includes conducting audience research, monitoring competitors, creating a communications plan, networking, updating websites and using social media, search engine optimization, collecting contact information, thanking supporters, and measuring results. The webinar provided practical tips on implementing these activities and emphasized measuring effectiveness.

1. Ten Marketing Communications
Activities You Must Do
Michele Levy
www.brand-strat.com
October 27, 2010
Use Twitter Hashtag #npweb
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4. Ten Marketing Communications
Activities You Must Do
Michele Levy
www.brand-strat.com
October 27, 2010
Use Twitter Hashtag #npweb
Special Thanks To Our Sponsors

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6. Today’s Speaker
Michele Levy
brand strategy consultant
Hosting: Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership

7. What will you learn?
•! An overview of 10 cost-effective marketing
communications activities
•! Practical tools that every organization can use to
implement and maintain these efforts
•! Tips on how to measure the effectiveness of your
efforts

8. The caveat
•! These tips are, by nature, fairly generic…I’ve
deliberately compiled a list of activities that will apply
across most organizations
•! In each mission area (education vs. social services
vs. museums, etc), there are an additional layer of
top tactics. For instance:
–! Independent schools are finding postcard mailings
quite effective
–! Organizations with a product set must create a
comprehensive “catalog” of offerings
–! Museums have to find ways to bring the on-site
experience alive online
–! etc.

9. First, a quick poll
Do you have a favorite
marketing communications tactic?
Is there something you budget for every year,
because you know it works?
What kind of an organization do you represent
(school, museum, social service, etc.)?

10. 1. It all starts with your audience
•! Start by asking how they see you, what they need
from you, how they want to communicate with you,
what they see as their other options
–! Informal focus groups
–! Advisory board
–! Online survey
–! Website survey
–! Event/course evaluations
•! Each one of these activities is not just fact-finding, but
relationship building
•! Watch their behavior (not in a creepy way, of course!)
–! Web analytics (you’d be surprised!)
–! Response rates (especially to e-newsletters)
–! Event attendance

11. 2. Keep an eye on the competition
•! Where else can your supporters spend their time
and money? What other outlets do they have for
their individual passions?
•! Set aside time to visit those organizations’ websites
•! Sign up for their newsletters
•! Visit their presentations and booths at conferences
•! Learn from their successes, and their mistakes
•! Keep watching!

12. 3. Make a plan
People can make communications planning sound
complicated, daunting and something only a marcom
person with years of experience can do.
WRONG. Anyone can do this…

13. 3. Make a plan
AUDIENCE Who do you want to reach?
What do you want to say to them?
MESSAGE Be sure to make it about them!
What communication tool(s) will
TOOL most effectively reach them?
TIMING When this will happen?
Who is going to make sure this
ASSIGNMENT communication step happens?
METRICS How will you know it worked?
The key = pick a few things, do them well, measure, adapt

14. 4. Plan to network
•! Make a list of the individuals and organizations most important to
your success (does NOT need to be a long list)
•! Agree on “who owns whom”….which staff and board members will
take responsibility for building a networking relationship with each of
these individuals and organizations. Be realistic about how many
contacts each of you can handle
•! Review your organization’s yearly calendar to identify good potential
points of contact (performances? show openings? Board of Visitors
day? a yearly conference…yours or someone else’s?)
•! Inventory the tools you have to share with these contacts…what do
you have to offer them? What will be most effective in keeping them
up to date on your organization? (your monthly newsletter? a
quarterly report? your annual report? a new video?...just make sure
it’s delivered in a very personal manner)
•! Agree on how often you will reach out to these contacts
•! Evaluate the list on a yearly basis…weed and add as appropriate

15. Put it in writing

16. 5. Plan to update your web site
•! If you do nothing else…have a plan to keep your
website updated
•! Convene all “owners” of the web site…all those on
staff and/or board who will contribute content and
multimedia
•! A two step process
–! Review your organizational calendar, match web
updates to relevant events/activities
–! Identify the down times and brainstorm other, non-
event, updates
–! Don’t forget to plan to update your photos!

17. Sample: Editorial calendar

18. 6. Layer a social media plan on top
•! Take another look at that calendar
•! Where are the opportunities to use social media to
drive your audiences to events on that calendar, to
your web site to learn more, etc?*
•! Make sure that everyone in your org responsible for
social media is working together!
•! For both web and social media planning…strive for
75% planned, 25% opportunistic
*Assuming you’ve already settled on the most appropriate social media channels

19. 7. Be easy to find
ONLINE
•! Search engine optimization…where will you land on
Google?
•! Search engine marketing…what will you pay to
increase/control your presence?
IN THE REAL WORLD
•! Signage (don’t laugh)
–! Are you visible from the street?
–! Can people easily find their way around your property
(campus, museum, offices, etc.)
–! Is it all consistent, user-friendly and brand
appropriate?

20. 8. Build your audience, then
stay connected
•! Always be collecting email addresses (and Twitter
followers, and people who like you on Facebook, and
YouTube viewers)
•! Think about how you can partner with other
organizations to build your exposure and audience
•! Segment and prioritize your audience (a casual
YouTube viewer may not merit the same level of effort
as a significant donor)
•! Stay in touch in whatever way makes sense to your
audience (enewsletter, postcard mailings, print or
online magazine, annual report, etc.)
–! Use your comms plan to monitor cadence…don’t
communicate too much or too little
•! Be perceptive, responsive, relevant and compelling.

21. 9. Remember to say thank you
•! Silly, hunh?
•! It works.
•! Look for every opportunity to recognize your
audience for their contribution to your success
–! Printed notes
–! Invites to events
–! Shout outs
–! Quick emails
•! They will be pleasantly surprised. And they will help
you again. And again.

22. 10. Measure, measure, measure
•! For every tactic you consider, ask yourself “How will we
measure our results? How will we know we’ve
succeeded?”
•! Report, report, report…make sure staff and board are
aware of what you’re doing in terms of marketing
communication, and where you’ve been successful
•! The easy ones:
–! Web traffic and traffic patterns
–! Enewsletter response rates
–! Event registration
–! Inbound phone calls
–! Press mentions
–! Referrals
–! Social media metrics

23. And the bonus tip…
•! REPURPOSE (it’s no longer a dirty word)
•! Every single piece of content, every single piece of
multimedia, every bit of press…they all have more
than one use (maybe not in the same format for
each channel)
•! Think about how to wring every last piece of value
out of everything you do (on mission, on brand,
relevant and compelling, of course!)
•! For example…
–! Video
–! Press mentions
–! Magazine stories

24. Let’s look at the poll results

25. Special thanks
Thanks to the colleagues who responded when I sent
out a late night poll asking for their “must do”
communications tactics:
•! Nicole Palovich: www.childrenshospital.org/
•! Diane Viera: www.historicnewengland.org
•! Priscilla Lund: www.chds.org
•! Jennifer Harrington: http://www.hatch12.com
•! Sue Landay: www.trainerswarehouse.com
•! Jennifer Powell: www.excellentwriters.com

26. Find the listings for our current season of webinars
and register at
NonprofitWebinars.com
Chris Dumas
Chris@NonprofitWebinars.com
707-812-1234
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