Who ARE You Trying to Reach? -- Create Personas to Bridge the Gap with Target Audiences

I'm a big fan of developing fully-fleshed-out fictitious characters (aka personas) to understand your base and other groups your org wants to engage. As Wikipedia so aptly puts it, "a user persona is a representation of the goals and behavior of your [target audiences]. Each persona is captured in one to two page descriptions featuring behavior patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, and environment, with a few fictional personal details to bring the persona to life."

Shaping personas is a practice that enables you to "know" your target audiences far better than simple audience segmentation, which is limited to demographic definition in most cases. Most importantly, personas are a great lead-in to audience research, and a useful ingredient in product/program/service development and testing. Use them to hone your approach as precisely as possible before you dive in with pricey and hard-to-find focus group participants or testers.

Learn how in my just-updated guide to developing personas that will increase the impact of your nonprofit marketing.

PS While you're strategizing how to get to know your constituencies better, read Getting Great Audience and Stakeholder Feedback, at Little Cost (Case Study)

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Make Your Communications Planning a Team Effort, From The Very Beginning

This afternoon, in my meeting with a prospective client for a re-brand, I was struck with how vital this maxim really is.

The COO of this well-known, long-lived, positively-perceived nonprofit reviewed for me why the org is pursuing a new brand just a few years after its last rebrand (every brand should last at least five years, if not ten). Branding has to be flexible enough to embrace your org through continual evolution, but specific enough to engage your audiences -- a challenging balance.

Anyway, the story here is that there was trouble with the current brand even during the development process, and the board (not marketing experts) ended up picking and choosing (and changing) some of the brand elements. The result, not surprisingly, was an alienated staff (who remain marketing-avoidant as a result) and a weak brand.

Making marketing planning a team effort -- from the  get go -- is the way to avoid  this  disaster. Here's who to include and what they can contribute:

1. Executive Director/CEO: Senior leader support validates your efforts and influences other key players to get involved. Also, can get rid of some of the institutional red tape out of your way.
2. Functional Support: Make sure your plan is technically feasible via consults with IT, HR, finance and other related functions.
3. Program & Issue Experts:  These folks are the source of accurate, relevant topical content and context.
4. Regional/Site Staff: These on-the-ground colleagues can provide vital input on the customer/donor/volunteer experience, and what's important to them.

When your marketing plan reflects the insights and knowledge of key stakeholders (including your colleagues, too often left out), it's more likely to generate the buy in critical to real success.

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8 Trends to Shape Your 2008 Nonprofit Marketing Success

Tracking trends (Yes, I mean consumer trends. Because nonprofit markets ARE individuals ARE consumers.) is a must for nonprofit marketers striving to engage. But trend tracking is hard to do, on top of everything else.

Let me recommend Trend Briefing, Trendwatching's free and useful resource for tracking trends. Subscribe here for monthly email insights on the trends to shape your marketing agenda around.

Here's what Trend Briefing outlines as the key trends for this year:

Status Spheres -- Look at your markets by what drives them. The drivers are mix and match in 2008, which means it's not as easy to pinpoint what motivates your key customers. Consider these possibilities:

• Transient sphere: Focused on the right here, right now. Catch 'em with succinct, focused communications
• Online sphere: Nothing matters more here than relationships. Find ways to integrate your org into those relationships.
• Eco sphere: Most composters couldn't be prouder of themselves. Even if the environment isn't your issue area, find a way to celebrate your supporters and staff who do green.
• Giving sphere: Now that giving gets news (think ProductRed, Hilton Foundation and more), it's gained some long-deserved status. While your org goes after folks getting a toe in the water, don't forget to nurture your long-time supporters.

Premiumization -- Excuse the English (or lack thereof). We're talking best in class, right down to luxury marshmallows. Extend the concept to your nonprofit's value to the community. Best in class community center, after-school programs or healthy lunches?

Snack Culture -- Going beyond between-meal eats to encompass a way of living via transient, short-term experiences. Instant gratification is the name of the game. Marketing-wise that means shooting straight from the hip, in a timely way, and in as few words as possible. Your challenge is keeping your audiences coming back for more.

Online Oxygen -- Continued pumping of online communications. For your organization, that means diving into mobile fundraising and advocacy and maybe an online community (like Facebook) for your supporters, especially if they fall into a niche, ala animal rights advocates.

Eco-Iconic -- Make sure your nonprofit makes operational decisions to support a healthy environment (with choices in paper and printing, cleaning products and more), even if you don't focus on environmental issues.

Brand Butlers -- Rather than push your cause on your markets, provide them with something they need or want. Austrian Airlines includes passes to Vienna attractions in passengers' boarding passes. How can your organization be relevant and useful to your supporters?

Make it Yourself -- Find a way (better yet, wayS) for your supporters to create content for and about your organization (blog comments and posts, videos, music). Trendwatching points to the next step as enabling your supporters to make a product themselves (custom Sierra Club t-shirts, anyone?).

Crowd-Mining -- Crowd-sourcing evolves to having your markets solve your problems for you. Crossroads Community Foundation counts on its corps of 100 teenagers in nine schools to, with guidance, select grantees for $1.5 million/annually. Netflix promises $1 million to the person who can significantly improve its system for predicting what movies its subscribers will like based on their views and preferences. What problem can your supporters solve for your nonprofit?

Sit down with your colleagues today to assess which trends are most relevant to your nonprofit, and how you should respond to them.

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Lots to Learn via Precise, Meaningful Nonprofit Marketing Evaluation, but It's Hard to Do -- Communications Network Developing Toolkit to Make it Easier

Grantmakers, like other nonprofit organizations, have to ensure marketing efforts are on target, in terms of impact and, ultimately, ROI (Return on Investment). Both types of orgs are deep into program evaluation; but communications assessment has remained more elusive.

Most o can't tell whether investments in everything from annual reports to media relations to websites are yielding results or what impact, if any, these efforts are having on intended audiences. Even those who want to assess the effectiveness of their communications activities have few, if any, tools to help them conduct useful evaluations.

To fill that void, The Communications Network is developing a marketing assessment tool encompassing a variety of communication topics, from strategy and brand identity to the effectiveness of annual reports and websites. It will help communication practitioners and senior management at foundations (and other nonprofits) to answer questions such as:

• How do I know whether our communication efforts are helping achieve our
  program goals?
• How do I track effects of our media placements?
• Is anyone reading our annual report? Should we still have a print report?
• Which staff communication skills need to be strengthened?
• What kind of results should I report to senior leadership and to the board?

I'll keep you posted on Toolkit progress; it's due to be released in Spring 2008.

Meanwhile, improve your understanding of your org's marketing impact here:

• Tracking Impact Leads 2008 Nonprofit Marketing Agendas
• Is Your Media Relations Effort Paying Off?
• How to Defend Your Marketing Budget
• Marketing and Communications Audit 101

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Lead off 2008 with these Nonprofit Marketing Priorities -- Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants

As hostess with the mostess for this week's Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, I asked fellow bloggers to share the top 3 "to do's on their 2008 nonprofit marketing agenda.

Here are several recommendations to consider in finalizing your 2008 marketing priorities:

• Sherri Garrity at Make it Count whittles top priorities down to one -- creating a culture of giving: Creating more givers than takers, and giving them fulfilling and rewarding opportunities and experiences.

• See3's Michael Hoffman plans to 1) help nonprofits increase connection with their audiences, via the right tools and the data to prove it works; 2) guide nonprofits to make the best use of video by creating a well-placed message and using video to reach people who respond 3) guide orgs to optimize social media marketing strategies and viral video techniques to create quantifiable action.

•  Kivi Miller at Nonprofit Communications outlines three straightforward but crucial musts for 2008, that are all too frequently overlooked: 1) Use a clean copy of your logo; 2) add easy online giving to your Web site; and 3) ensure all staff and leadership can deliver your elevator pitch.

• Katya Andresen links Trendwatcher's eight top trends for 2008 to nonprofit marketing. Her take on snack culture (quick, cheap, easy to digest bites...of anything) is right on target -- "Short, great, snacky stories about specific people are better.  And be sure you have online giving - [Network for Good's] research shows the #1 reason people like it is it’s easy.  Convenience is king.

• Fundraising Coach Marc Pitman will focus only on what's a must (for him promoting his new book), continue to experiment with pay-per-click advertising like that on Facebook.com and widget type marketing like ChipIn.com, and automate promotion of his speaking and training offerings.

• Yours truly outlines "to dos" that need to be at (or near) the top of every nonprofit's 2008 marketing agenda:

• Review 2007 marketing impact (now), and shape your 2008 plan accordingly
• Reinforce your org leadership's understanding of the value of marketing, and its support for your work.
• Bury Web 1.0 to fully embrace participatory communications.

What topping your 2008 marketing agenda? Let us know by clicking the comments link below.     

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Tracking Impact Leads 2008 Nonprofit Marketing Agenda

As host of next week's Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants, I asked participants to share the top 3 "to dos" on their 2008 nonprofit marketing agendas. You have finalize these now to jump in on January 2nd.

These are the priorities I'll focus on for clients and Getting Attention readers alike:

1. Review 2007 marketing impact, and revise your 2008 plan accordingly
   • All too frequently, nonprofit marketers never dig into the data and feedback they have on their initiatives.
   • 35% of nonprofits surveyed prioritized strengthening relationships with target audiences as top priority for 2007 marketing. But you have to know what's working to do more of it.
   • Cumulate and organize data now, for review asap. It'll ensure you make the most of your 2008 marketing investment.
   • If you're not tracking the impact (only 37% of nonprofits do -- more here) of your marketing work, that is your absolute priority for 2008. Get going or you'll continue to drive blind.
2. Reinforce your org leadership's understanding of the value of marketing, and its support for your work.
   • 55% percent of nonprofit marketers cited lack of resources and leadership support as greatest barriers to 2007 marketing success.
   • Don't fall into this trap again; educate, engage and involve your leaders in your marketing dilemmas, decisions and impact -- 24/7. Really. This isn't a one-off.
   • Show them ROI, the best reason to increase your marketing budget. Workplans don't mean much.
3. Bury Web 1.0  to fully embrace participatory communications
   
   • Your org is no longer the sole authority on your issue area. That's Web 1.0.
   • So, make sure your Web sites are written for conversation, not for dissemination.
   • "Create the sense that there's plenty of space for others to share their views, opinions and experience," advises writing-for-the-Web expert Nick Usborne advises.
   • Integrate community tools into your site and make sure you're where audiences are participating online -- so its easy for supporters to form community around your organization and the work you do.Invite visitors (think of them as members) to enter their profiles and join in online conversations on key issues, and enable them to rate your programs and blog posts.

P.S. Don't forget to check in here on on Monday to read what tops the nonprofit marketing agenda of colleagues in the field.

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Take 90 minutes and $40 to Learn How Your Web Site Contributes to Marketing Successes, or Not

It's pretty much a given that nonprofits count on their Web sites to broadcast information and news to a wide range of target audiences, and to engage at some of these folks targets in online conversation, program registration, giving or another of a host of interactive options.

But, as the findings of my 2007 Getting Attention Marketing survey brought to light, only 37% of nonprofit communicators are tracking marketing initiative impact. And probably even fewer of you put in place, much less use, the tracking necessary to really understand what's working and what's not Web wise.

Don't shy away. Tracking, and interpreting, site usage -- particularly basic but critical data such as where users are coming from, which pages they spend most time on and where they seem to get confused and jump off -- is one of the easiest and most productive ways to evaluate your marketing work. Just set up the software (aka Web analytics) to capture what you need and you're off.

Now Idealware, a trusted guide for nonprofits striving to capitalize on is offering a low-cost Webinar to teach you how to set up your Web stats program to get the data you need, and how to interpret and use results. On September 27th, with an investment of only $40 and 90 minutes, you'll learn how to milk those stats for all they're worth. Go to it.

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2007 Nonprofit Marketing Survey Findings Provoke Passionate Responses and Innovative Recommendations

Results from the 2007 Getting Attention Nonprofit Marketing Survey highlighted this striking gap – while more than 55% of nonprofits are frustrated by lack of resources and leadership support for marketing, only 37% do the tracking that generates increased budgets and confidence.

Or, as fundraiser/blogger Jeff Brooks, puts it "63% of nonprofits intend to fail."

My recommendation for your organization is to harvest the low-hanging fruit –- the tracking data that's inexpensive and easy to get and understand. And that's what's called analytics for your Web site, blogs, e-newsletters and mobile phone campaigns.

You probably have these tools already, if you communicate via any of these channels. I'll tell you how to put them to good use in posts to come.

But first, here are just a few of the many compelling responses to this challenge.

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It's Time for Your Annual Web Site Checkup -- How to Make Sure Your Site Gets Used

Web usability (that's simply ensuring that a site is easy for target audiences to use) expert Jakob Nielsen has just released his tips on keeping sites usable.

I gotta say that most nonprofit communicators I know test for usability one time, if at all. And that is during the initial development of the site.  So even though content, interactive tools such as forms to complete and calendars and other funcations are added, the site isn't tested as a whole. Mistake.

Neilsen recommends fast and cheap usability testing before each significant change in design, site architecture (where content is), navigation (how the user moves around) or functionality (what the user can do). Believe it or not, paper prototyping is what Neilsen suggests. You actually mock up paper versions of your planned changes and test out with five users. Quick. Cheap. Doable. So do it before your next site change.

But when it's time for the annual check-up, a more robust approach is called for. The reality is that for most nonprofits are going to make changes throughout the year -- seometimes without any testing -- which cumulate into a hefty mix of this and that, usually far less than the sum of its parts.

Neilsen suggests a three-part check-up, including:

• An independent review of the site, by a consultant or other objective reviewer.
• A competitive analysis comparing your site to three main competitors for donations or volunteers. Neilsen works corporately, and ballparks this study at $40,000, but you can do this internally for far less.
• A benchmark study comparing your current site usage statistics with those for last year/month/week.

Even if you're only able to tackle one component each year, you'll get a good sense of how you need to improve your nonprofit's site. Add this to quick-and-dirty studies coming before you make any significant change, and your site is bound to be much more usable -- which means more donations, more awareness, more action.

Is Your Media Relations Effort Paying Off?

Is your media relations program measuring up? And how can you really tell? I've just discovered a great white paper which outlines a clear, logical measurement approach, Measuring Media Coverage Effectively.

Highlights how tos include:

• Quantitatively correlate publicity activity to organizational outcomes
• Compare your media coverage vis-a-vis your nonprofit colleagues and competitors using proven quantitative methods
• Complete content analysis - slant, prominence, message-point conveyance or other user-defined options
• Demonstrate the value of media relations efforts with reliable data.

Don't be surprised to find some pitching in the paper for the authoring organization's own services in quantifying media relations impact. That's just strategic marketing. Ignore those pitches and focus on the useful tips for evaluating your media relations impact.

This Creative Brief Template Helps Ensure Powerful Copy and Design

Many creative marketing projects get underway without a clear sense of expectations between a nonprofit's marketing and organizational leadership, and the creative folks (whether in-house or freelance) delivering it. The result? An extended and expensive creative development process with many revisions – not to mention chewed-up nails, bruised egos and depleted momentum.

Taking the time and energy up front to craft a thorough creative brief will save your nonprofit time and money, and ensure you get the fundraising brochure, campaign website or annual report you envisioned. And, in going through this process you may realize that another medium or approach will work better than the one you had in mind.

Click here for the nitty-gritty on how to use a creative brief and downloadable template ready for your use.

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New Insight--How to Measure Your Blog's Success

I recently trained over twenty nonprofit communicators on blogging, and the question most asked was, "How do I know if the blog is working?"  As you probably know, there's no cut and dried answer to that  but strategies include:

• Number of visitors who come to your website or call your organization via a link on your blog (of course you need to set up a specially coded homepage or phone extension to track this count)
• Number of visitors
• Links to your blog from other blogs and websites
• Anecdotal feedback.

Now, Copyblogger Brian Clark attests that its return visitors (trackable only by logging subscribers to your blog's email or RSS feed) that really count. Here's what Brian has to say:

"Due to the principles of commitment and consistency, the most important blog metric to track is not raw traffic, page views, or unique monthly visitors. The most important thing to build and track is your subscriber base.

A subscriber has made a commitment to you that a mere site visitor hasn’t. Something magical happens when someone raises their hand and says “please communicate with me on a regular basis.” A subscription not only increases the frequency and regularity of contacts with your target audiences, it also changes the frame through which those audiences view your organization and its programs and services. The audience's world view may now be such that active engagement is more likely thanks to the subscription relationship."

Thanks Brian for this fresh way at looking at blog readers. So nonprofit bloggers, get out there and add subscribe buttons for email (via Feedblitz) and RSS feeds to your blog.

Getting Attention Survey Finds Nonprofit Communicators Face 3 Main Challenges

The over 200 nonprofit communicators who responded to the recent Getting Attention e-news survey consistently pointed to these "greatest challenges" faced in their everyday work:

• Getting buy in (strategically, and in terms of resource allocation) from colleagues and leadership.
• Creating brand or name recognition to build and reinforce awareness.
• Lack of time and budget to do all that has to be done.

In addition, over 80% of survey respondents identified these topics as "important" or "critical" areas in which they need to strengthen their skills:

• Strategy (tied for top pick, identified as an "important or "critical" skill gap by 89% of readers).
• Message development and branding (the other top pick.)
• Website development and promotion.
• Evaluating success.

Lots of challenges and "need to know" topics but have faith, each and every one of the elements readers mentioned can be tackled with success. It's just a matter of learning how...from peers, from training and from the Getting Attention blog and e-newsletter.

Click here to review the complete survey results.

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Annenberg and Irvine Foundations, Plus Others, Sponsor Free Communications Toolkit for Nonprofits

Nonprofit organizations are invited to order a free copy of this helpful resource filled with advice on strategic marketing, advertising, branding, media relations, event planning and more. Communications Toolkit: A Guide to Navigating Communications for the Nonprofit World was created by Cause Communications with support from The Annenberg Foundation, The California Endowment, The James Irvine Foundation and the Marguerite Casey Foundation.

To order a free copy of the kit or to download a PDF version, click here.

SPIN Offers Free Online Communications Planning Tool for Nonprofits

I'm a big fan of The SPIN Project, a San Francisco-based organization providing top-level training and tools on nonprofit media relations. SPIN has always emphasized training, rather than doing for, its clients as the only way for nonprofit organizations to sustain effective media relations in the long run. I like this unique approach, and what they've done with it.

In addition to working with individual client organization, SPIN's develops online tutorials and tools available to all nonprofits. A recent addition is their Strategic Communications Plan Generator. Through keying in brief answers to 17 questions, your nonprofit will generate a very basic, but very useful, media-focused communications plan. It's a great place to start your communications planning process. Give it a try.

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Planning and Evaluation Crucial to Your Nonprofit Marketing Program

It goes without saying that effective marketing and communications programs at nonprofit are tied closely to good planning and evaluation.  Of course, a lot of important issues fall under this heading. To get you started, here are our key articles in this area so far:

• Balancing Quality and Cost-Efficiency in Your Nonprofit Marketing Materials
• Getting the Approval and Budget You Need to Do Marketing Right
• Communications Audit 101 
• Guarantee Board and Colleague Support for Your Nonprofit's Marketing Plan 
• How to Defend Your Marketing Budget 
• How to Design an Effective Marketing and Communications Budget
• Web Site Evaluation 
• Building Internal Support for Communications 
• How to Get the Most from Your Marketing Firm or Consultant