I spend a heap of time watching how for-profits market their services and wares, looking for nuggets of insight, research or technique that might have applicability in our nonprofit space.

My cherry-picking goals are usually modest — how is the commercial world employing a new platform like mobile, how are they earning a return from customer service, how are they using analytics/modeling to zero in on likely customers, what are their customer retention strategies and outcomes?

In the nonprofit media, you don’t often see explicit references to learning from consumer marketing. At least not much beyond such generalities as “Younger donors think like investors … can your nonprofit demonstrate its ROI?”

Even less do you see corporate/consumer marketers explicitly draw connections or suggest lessons to those of us operating in the nonprofit space.

But here’s an intelligent article, from MarketingProfs, that is an exception: Nonprofits, Start Acting and Thinking Like For-Profits by Edgar Wilson.

He hits some familiar notes …

The customer comes first. Wal-Mart doesn’t court your business by telling you its shareholders need a bump in profits. Similarly, Wilson argues, nonprofits shouldn’t lead with their beneficiaries ahead of everything else; instead, they should focus on the people spending/contributing the money. What do your donors want from contributing?

Get feedback. Noting that getting and using customer feedback is a hallmark of successful businesses, Wilson suggests nonprofits need to put more energy into this area:

“Rather than telling their audience members how they should feel, nonprofits would do better to ask how they do feel—about everything from logos to donor prizes to the best time of year to get donations.

Nonprofits would do well to ask, ‘Why do our donors contribute to our organization? How can we market directly to that impulse?'”

Sounds like … hmmm, Roger Craver here, here and many other posts (check our archives).

Brand identity. No, his advice isn’t to hire a branding consultant and re-do your logo. He talks more conceptually about what’s actually going on when a consumer makes a purchase:

“Everyone is his or her own little marketing team, with everything from clothes, to cars, to musical preferences acting as little advertisements for the individual’s personality.

Brand engagement goes beyond customer loyalty when a brand contributes to an individual’s image. People are voluntarily advertising their favorite brands and products as a matter of self-expression …

So, who are your customers or donors? How are you contributing to their identities through your brand image? Give your brand an identity that donors can proudly claim as part of their own, and they will happily spread your message for you.”

And finally, he urges, study your competition!

Now that sounds like Belford!

Tom

P.S. One of the sources I watch on loyalty and retention in the commercial space is Loyalty360. Warning: this daily newsletter, each compiling a dozen or more articles, really gets into the weeds of consumer loyalty programs, enhancing the customer experience, etc. Only for the retention-addicted, and even then it’s like panning for gold … one occasional nugget at a time.