I will be speaking at the #CU12 Conference where I will be presenting the session Marketing Your Strengths from 1:30pm at North Wharf 1 on Wednesday.
Connecting Up is a not-for-profit organisation that encourages the use and adoption of IT within community organisations, with the conference covering marketing, social media and information technology.
ConnectingUp encouraged presenters to provide a guest blog post and the following article provides an introduction to our Power Session – Marketing Your Strengths:
Need a good example of a successful marketing campaign? Alex Makin from Syneka Marketing shares a case study from Eastern Volunteers
Marketing, like most other activities, works best when you identify your goals. Know what it is you want to achieve and why. This will influence who you will target with your marketing messages, as well as the best methods to reach them.
Know Your Goals
A marketing campaign will not deliver positive results if you have not clearly defined these goals. Once you have identified your goals, you can then determine your target audience. Some campaigns, such as fundraising targets, may have multiple audiences and while there may be differences in the message, there should be a consistent theme.
As a case study, let’s consider a marketing campaign we initiated for Eastern Volunteers, a regional not-for-profit organisation, based in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Eastern Volunteers has established a fundraising target to assist in relocating to the ground floor of a building they have purchased.
Currently, the organisation is located on the first floor, creating accessibility issues for its members and clients. As an organisation that provides community assisted transport and volunteer recruitment, there is a need for an accessible and inclusive environment.
The key marketing message was framed around creating an accessible and inclusive community service, reinforced by the permanency that will be created by moving into this building.
Know Your Audience
Now that we have identified a key message, we need to consider who we will be targeting. Know the best method to reach this target audience and the tools you can use to reinforce this message.
A fundraising campaign like Eastern Volunteers requires a multi-faceted approach. There are several target audiences, such as clients, members of other community organisations, business partners, government and the wider community.
For Eastern Volunteers, clients and members can be reached through the quarterly Eastern Volunteers newsletter. While the newsletter has traditionally included a donation slip, the response rate has been low since there hadn’t been a key message framed around seeking donations. The building fund edition of the newsletter prominently featured the campaign and the call for donations. This resulted in an extremely positive response to the campaign and a significant number of donations.
Other organisations and business partners have been targeted through an official launch of the campaign. Official launches can also assist in reaching local Councillors and Members of Parliament, however sufficient lead-time must be provided for these invitations.
Launches can also assist in encouraging media coverage. It is imperative that media releases are considered as part of your campaign. Media coverage helps raise the profile of your campaign and extend its reach. When planning a marketing campaign, consider how it could be supported through a series media releases. Media outlets will not repeat the same content on an ongoing basis so different hooks are required to encourage ongoing interest.
<h2?Be Consistent
Consistency is the key to undertaking successful marketing campaigns. Your message needs to be consistent across all forms of marketing communication with a clear call to action. The call to action is the desired result you are seeking from someone that sees your marketing message.
In the example of Eastern Volunteers, the call to action is clearly the request for a donation and this is clearly stated across all communication tools.
Generally someone needs to see a marketing message several times before they are prompted to respond to the call to action. It is worthwhile considering a variety of appropriate communication tools that can reach this target audience.
Visit www.connectingup.org/blog/foundations-marketing-campaign to view this guest post at ConnectingUp.
Natalia Perera, our Creative Director will be leading our team in Melbourne during my time in Sydney. I will be in Sydney until Thursday and have some remaining time available for meetings and in-depth discussions.