I believe both nonprofits as well as for profits often confuse sales, marketing and engagement. Or even more challenging weight engagement last. The fact is, without engagement of donors, clients or customers your sales and marketing have far less impact. Social media absorbs so much of our time these days. One of the great draws of social media is it makes us feel engaged in both our own life and with others. It is easy, immediately gratifying and of little to no expense, monetarily to us. So that is your competition. Sectors, let’s take the food industry, see market share shrinking, even though we’ve never seen more choices on the shelves. Why? Because the donor, client or consumer doesn’t care if you’ve created tens of options. In fact it can be feel oppressive to decide when we are already overwhelmed with a lengthy to do list. It reminds us you are thinking of everybody, and we want to feel special. What we want is immediate gratification and to feel as if you are speaking to us as individuals. The day of mass marketing’s return on investment is coming to a close. If you can’t engage your target audience, making them feel as if you are talking only to them, or providing them with a special benefit, cost and/or return on their investment, quite frankly you are sunk.
Social Media…Marketing or Fundraising?
Social media is here to stay and often I am asked the question of whether it is for marketing or fundraising. My answer is both as marketing and fundraising meld into one. If you are a small, or even medium sized nonprofit you are already understaffed so the trend of fund development melding with marketing should be good news…at least you can do them together. Easy and impactful ways of doing so will be included in upcoming posts. Marketing and fundraising are all about messaging. They are about communicating with and engaging donors, not talking at them or trying to sell them. Social media is here to stay and not embracing it is the same as leaving money on the table. Luckily it can be utilized without a lot of expertise and without a lot of upfront investment. Low cost outreach…what’s not to love?! Network for Good has a great graphic, the one below, showing a ten year trend of online donations, and it only continues to grow.