7 Questions For Your 2014 Marketing Plan

November 13, 2013      Admin

With November almost half gone, there’s not much we can timely advise regarding your year-end marketing/fundraising program. For the next 90 days or so, it’s all about execution. Much of your execution will be online, so I do hope you noted Roger’s advice yesterday about breaking through the Gmail barrier.

So now let’s turn to planning for 2014. That too is a process that should be well underway by now. Hopefully you’ve been thinking strategically, and not just mapping 2013’s program onto 2014 (unless, perhaps, your 2013 results have broken all previous performance records!).

Here’s a planning checklist from the commercial space, much of which can apply to your fundraising planning.

1. Does Your Plan Reflect The Way Your Target Audience Engages With Media?

His point: more and more buying decisions are prompted and influenced by digital media. What assumptions are you making about how your donors, current and prospective, are engaging?

2. Have You Done Your Strategic Homework?

Here the issue is understanding how your prospect makes a purchase (or, for us, giving) decision. Commercial marketers spend a lot of time mapping the consumer’s decision-making process … obviously different for shampoo than an automobile or vacation destination. Most fundraisers don’t think of their prospects as making a ‘considered’ decision, instead viewing giving as an impulse act. Either the new prospect responds to today’s direct mail appeal or donate page, or they don’t … end of story. Is there more to that story? We’ll return to this question.

3. Do You Have A Content Plan?

Obviously you need different messaging for different purposes — a ‘thank you’ isn’t a special appeal — but have you thought through the range/types of messages you’re likely to send over the year and the extent to which they should be consistent? Have you contemplated both solicitation and relationship-building?

4. Does Your Plan Prioritize Owned, Earned, And Paid Media Properly?

In a well-structured nonprofit, fundraising fits within the overall marketing of the organization (from PR to customer service), not all of which is directly focused on solicitation. Not much fundraising will occur via earned media, but to the degree you have resources and opportunities to shape the broader visibility and perceptions about your cause, mission, and organization, you should plan proactively … and certainly fundraisers should sit (and speak!) at the broader marketing table within the organization.

5. Do You Have An Integrated Measurement Plan?

Need I elaborate?! Here’s what the article says: “…you need to plan with clear goals and KPIs, an integrated view of data from all media (both digital and traditional), and a really good analyst to tell you what it all means.”

6. Is Your Digital Infrastructure In Place?

Including: a website that’s mobile-friendly (as other e-communications must be), state-of the-art conversion technique on your website, search engine optimization, appropriate social media presence.

7. Is Content A Priority?

Just reminder … it’s not all about technique. Will your content win hearts and minds? How can it be better, more compelling, in 2014 than it was in 2013?

Not a bad set of questions. Tomorrow, we’ll tease out #2 a bit more.

Tom

2 responses to “7 Questions For Your 2014 Marketing Plan”

  1. Denisa Casement says:
    November 13, 2013 at 4:42 am

    I am just finishing an excellent digital marketing course from Google. Based on the research they have shared with us over the last 5 months this vastly overstates the importance of digital for fundraising.

    One thing you correctly state is that your communication and marketing should be driven by the channels your donors use.

    For young donors (under 55) doing sponsored events, digital is the dominate channel. For older donors it is much more mixed and digital is not dominate. Most online giving in that age range is driven by direct mail or TV and radio ads. The older your donors are the more the mix leans toward print and traditional media.

    One subject I never see discussed is the way a local charity would use digital as opposed to how a big national charity uses digital. Local charities are most successful when they use digital to drive more personal engagement such as phone and face to face contact through tours and donor cultivation events. Large charities rely on digital as a primary source of ongoing engagement sometimes bolstered by phone contact.

    In this respect local charities always have an advantage but they should be careful not to waste their budget on digital when that same money spent on other channels will yield much higher levels of donor engagement.

    Here’s non-fundraising example. I arrived home one evening to find a menu on my doormat for a local sushi bar delivering to my area. I had no idea it existed. I was sooo excited! I rang immediately to order. They were too busy to get to me in less than 2 hours. Disappointed I decided to ring the following night. They were still so busy the wait was over 1 1/2 hours. It was four days before I could get a delivery. There isn’t a digital channel around that could beat that response rate. Right message, right medium (menu stays by phone), right local audience.

    A charity here in Dublin recently sent out this email: “Harry Styles, a member of the biggest boy band in the world with 17 million twitter followers tweeted that he released a butterfly for our Awareness Day. Within a few hours it was re-tweeted to 56,000 people, there were 34,000 visits to our website, 4000 new followers on twitter, We are trending No 1 in Ireland and 420 new Facebook fans.” Any guesses how many donations came from this massive digital blast? ZERO.

    Digital just isn’t as disruptive as we’re being told. Some of he biggest retailers in the US released their online sales a few months ago and their online business is a tiny percentage of their sales. And this is after investing multi-millions in their websites and digital marketing and running high end websites for years.

    So as you plan your digital marketing make sure you don’t buy into the hype. Assess your donors habits and spend your money accordingly. Measure, measure, measure and compare returns from the various channels. Small charities cannot afford to waste money on channels that are still years away from a productive ROI.

  2. Dana Heter says:
    November 13, 2013 at 1:41 pm

    Tom–

    Regarding point #2, I highly recommend that your readers view Simon Sinek’s “How great leaders inspire action”, aka “Golden Circle” presentation on TED or Youtube.

    It will certainly inform, if not change, your understanding on how donors make decisions about giving to your organization.

    It’s a must view…but only for those who are ready, willing, and able to embrace change.

    Dana

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