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Creating a Strategic Marketing Communications
Plan
Deborah Spector
NPO Connect Marketing Communications Expert
21 May 2013

Creative Solutions & Innovations
| www.creative-si.com | 404.325.7031
Creating a Strategic Marketing
Communications Plan
Goals for today’s session:
 Understand the role of marketing
communications
 Role of Research
 Review the elements of a marketing
communications plan
 Create a strategic marketing
communications plan

What is Strategic Marketing
Communications?
Strategic marketing communications is your
lense to focus on the people you serve, the
individuals you seek to influence and the
donors you cultivate.
Through integrated marketing communications
you can create powerful, focused & targeted
appeals for mission impact, to build your
brand and for fundraising.
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Why Do Nonprofits Communicate?
Nonprofits communicate for three main
reasons:
1. Fundraising
2. Programs
3. Advocacy
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What is a Marketing Communications
Plan?
A well thought-out marketing communications plan
supports your mission and the objectives laid out in
your strategic plan. It allows you to focus your
marketing and communications, making sure that all
activities work together to support the big picture. The
strategy is very important because you are building
the components of your organization brand, identity,
and everything in between.
A strategic marketing communications plan gives you
the focus to know where you’re going, what you need
to say & what channels you need to positively interact
with your audiences.

7 Characteristics of a Good Strategic Marketing
Communications Plan
1. It is participative
2. It is dynamic
3. It is flexible
4. It is audience-driven
5. It combines the best of PR and Marketing
6. It contains a mix of strategy and tactics
7. It is doable
Hollister, Trubow & Associates
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Start with your Vision & Mission
Vision: Our ultimate goal is to rid our community of
hunger
Mission: Our mission is to fight hunger by engaging,
educating and empowering our community

Vision: Our vision is healthy people in a healthy world
Mission: To promote health & quality of life by
preventing disease and disability
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Think of the words “visionary” and “missionary.” A visionary
imagines possible futures, whereas a missionary does the
work to achieve the desired future.

Research Tools
 Brainstorming sessions
 SWOT Analysis
 Audience Discovery Interviews
 Focus groups
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Why Do Research?
– Sets foundation for all communications
– Provides audience insights
– Uncovers opportunities, threats, etc.
– Analyzes direction, position, messages

Message Framework – Foundation Elements
Positioning Connects your nonprofit with those with whom you
want to engage & conveys what your organization does better
than others.
Example: We bridge diverse cultures & generations by creating
opportunities for immigrants to succeed. We partner with other
organizations to leverage resources to positively impact our
community. We have earned recognition for our successful
efforts.
Tagline – Key words or phrase to capture what makes your
organization special. Conveys this with passion & commitment.
Example: Touching lives. Creating opportunities.
Investing in our children’s future
Empowering nonprofits to do good
Elevator Speech – The new elevator speech uses the social
media strategies to listen, prepare and engage. It enables you to
listen & learn from the persons with whom you speak to see if
there is any interest in your issue. Then you can segue into your
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Message Framework –
Elements That Change w/Goals
Audiences – what interests which target audiences relative to your
communications tactic.
Benefits and Attributes – Key messages about what your
organization offers.
Example: Our free job training program provides a pathway to
employment.
Key messages or talking points – succinctly elaborate on your
positioning statement & provide necessary proof required to
validation. Responds to most common questions asked by your
current & prospective network.
Example – The immigration system is broken & needs to be fixed.
Proof Points – The massive backlog in visa applications is a clear
sign that the system is not working .
Example – Legal immigrants are forced to spend years separated
from their families .
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Elements of Marketing Communications
Plan
Goals & Objectives
Identify & Profile Audiences
Develop Messages & Identify Messengers
Messages & Credible Messengers
Develop Strategies
Select Communication Channels
Implement the Plan
Build in Evaluation Points
Measure Success
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Organizational & Communication Goal
Organizational Goal Communication Goal
Improve community health
by reducing exposure to
toxic chemicals in the
environment
•Build awareness about
orgs work
•Increase understanding of
the relationship between
health & environment
•Motivate area residents to
advocate
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Broad Goal – All communication efforts need to be
rooted in a vision for change. What is the big
ambitious goal your organization has for change?

Objectives – Concrete Steps to Reach Your
Goal
Objectives Must be Smart:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Time-bound
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Attributes of Goals vs. Objectives
Differences in Scope - Goals are broader while
objectives are narrow & set for certain task.
Specificity - Goals are general while objectives
are specific.
Tangibility – Goals may be intangible while
objectives ought to be tangible
Differences in time frame – Goals have a longer
time-frame; objectives are precise targets set
for a short time
Measurement – Goals may or may not be
measured; objectives are always measured.
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Target Audience
Advertising specialist Tom Duncan
defines target audience as "a group that
has significant potential to respond
positively to a brand message." The key
here is the word message.; Effective
marketing communications, or
messages, each target a particular kind
of reader or viewer. These individuals
make up the message's target
audience. Creative Solutions & Innovations
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Creative Solutions & Innovations
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Identify Your Target
Audiences
Clients Faith Community
Former Clients Educators
Advocates Health Care Providers
Board members Business Owners
Volunteers Targeted Media
Donors Bloggers
Foundations Twitter Influencers
Local elected officials Partner Organizations
Community leaders Sponsors
Colleagues @ other chapter Former
donors/sponsors

Audience Segmentation
Audience: ________________________
1. Describe what you know about this audience’s
knowledge, attitudes & behaviors related to your
issues.
2. What are the barriers to this audience fully
supporting or participating in reaching your goal?
3. What are the characteristics of this audience? How
do they spend their time? What is gender, ethnicity,
income level. What or who could motivate change or
action?
4. How does this audience participate in the social
media platforms that you use?Creative Solutions & Innovations
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Messages
Messages that resonate with passion and commitment
are key for your nonprofit to raise above the noise.
Messages:
 Show importance, urgency or magnitude of the issue.
 Put a “face” on an issue.
 Show the relevance of the issue.
 Must be tied to specific audience values, beliefs or
interests.
 Reflect an understanding of what would motivate
your target audience.
 Be memorable.
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Message Worksheet
Audience________________________
1. What are the barriers & benefits to your audience
thinking, feeling, or acting on your issue?
2. What change in attitude do you want to motivate in
your audience to meet your goal?
3. What change in behavior are you trying to achieve?
4. Based on what you know above, what are the three
most compelling sentences you could use to
motivate this audience? *These are your messages!
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Strategy
Strategy is an idea, a conceptualization of how a goal
can be achieved.
Examples of communications strategies:
 Develop Key Messages
 Prioritize Key Audiences
 Identify Ways to Reach Audiences
 Conduct Ongoing Blogger Outreach
 Develop Best Practices for Social Media
 Define & convey our brand & brand value to target
audience
 Expand marketing reach to engage more people in
each target audience
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Strategy & Action
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Communications Awareness Comprehension Conviction Commitment
Mass 40% 10% 5% 5%
Direct 40% 50% 20% 10%
Small
Group
10% 20% 35% 15%
Person to
Person
10% 20% 40% 70%
•Awareness brings your nonprofit to the attention of an audience
•Comprehension develops an understanding of an organization
•Conviction matches individual interests to institutional offerings
•Commitment assists in the decision process
Adapted from Barton-Gillet Company

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Channels
Communication
Channels carry the
message to the target
audiences.

Integrate The Mix

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Comm
Channel
Provide Info
& dialog
Fundraising
News & Link
Promote
Research
Provide
Resources
Promote
Events
Website     
Blog   
On-line
Newsletter
    
Email
Facebook
YouTube
Podcast
Twitter
Webinars
Conference
Face to Face
Meetings
SEO Press
Releases
PSA
Conference
Call

POST Method – Blending New & Traditional
Media
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Post Method is simple yet profound in that it provides a user-friendly system for
using traditional and emerging communications channels. Although developed as a
for-profit system, it is easily adaptable to nonprofits. The acronym refers to the four-
step approach:
P is for People. Don’t start a strategy until you know the capabilities of your
target audience and know their social behavior.
O is objectives. What are you trying to accomplish? Decide on your
objectives before you decide on a technology. State your objectives in
SMART terms.
S is Strategy. How do you want the relationship to change with your target
audience? How do new and traditional media support your objectives with
your audience?
T is Technology. What are the appropriate tools and tactics to address your
target audience? What do you have the capacity to implement?

Creative Solutions & Innovations
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People: Evaluate social media activities of your community.
Objectives: Identify the goals & accomplishments you want to achieve
Strategy: Plan how your organization’s relationships with community will change
Technology: Decide which traditional & social media tools are most applicable based on P,O, & S.

Roles & Responsibility
 Everyone is a communicator.
 Who does what?
 How do you involve volunteers?
 How do you train?
 Who has final sign-off on initiatives?
 Is there a protocol for sign-off?
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Work Plan
 How do you roll out the implementation?
 Create and manage a steady stream of
activities.
 Ensure coordination in timing and
impact.
 Build in evaluations before the end of
the year.
 Be clear on who does what & by when.
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Budget
 Staff costs
 Materials development
 Website implementation and
maintenance
 Software & hardware
 Consulting
 Technology systems
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Creative Solutions & Innovations
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Reality Check
 Do you have enough resources?
 Are you finding ways to include key
staff, volunteers, and leadership?
 Do you have buy-in from your chapter?
What about national?
 Can you measure your success?

Measure Success
 Measure Impact
 Use anecdotal as well as quantifiable
measurements
 Benchmark prior to starting
 Identify mix of outputs & outcomes.
Outputs are a measure of your efforts.
Outcomes are the changes that occur.
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When Your Plan is Complete
When your plan is complete you will have:
 Seamless communications
 Accountability to the bottom line
 A strategic process that meets identified
objectives
 An awareness plan focused on
increasing revenue streams, programs
&/or advocacy
Creative Solutions & Innovations
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Thank You!
Interested in a recording of today’s
session?
Please contact –
NPO Connect
 Email: info@npoconnect.org
 Twitter: @npo_connect
Creative Solutions & Innovations
| www.creative-si.com | 404.325.7031

Creative Solutions & Innovations
| www.creative-si.com | 404.325.7031