From, “Pay attention, I want you to buy what I made.”
to…
“I’ve been paying attention, and I think I can offer you what you want.”
Sometimes it can feel like marketing is nothing more than standing on a street corner waving your arms in the air. “Hey, look over here,” you shout. “I’ve got the greatest program ever invented and it is perfect for you!”
It can especially feel like this when you are working in the nonprofit sector and you’ve been asked to find those new program participants or donors without being part of the strategic conversations regarding organizational development and needs.
Marketing and communications staff can plan all kinds of activities to promote a nonprofit’s programs or events, but without a clear and informed understanding of our target audience and the problem we are solving for them, there is a significantly reduced chance that the right people will get the right message at the right time. In an age where people are getting thousands of messages a day and algorithms are serving them preselected content, the likelihood that they will magically see that Instagram reel are minuscule.
Get Those Youngins' In Here
Often in the desire for new audiences to meet revenue shortfalls, nonprofit leaders direct their marketing staff to “just get some of those millennials in here” or “let’s get some teens involved”. There are two basic problems with this kind of request.
First, people give to or participate in organizations because they have some affinity to the cause. You give or volunteer at a pet shelter because you love animals and you want them to have healthy and happy homes. Whether you are 25, 55 or 75, your personal connection to the organization and its impact is what makes you part of the target audience, not your age. So if the desire is to get younger people involved in the organization, defining them by more than their age group is going to be necessary. Additionally, once you’ve attracted a younger age group, how are you going to nurture those relationships? If it’s all transactional, just stop right there.
Second, when organizations face troubling times due to competition, loss of donors, or programmatic shortcomings, the solution of attracting more supporters doesn’t address the root issue at hand. Strategic leaders look ahead and make plans and adjustments to those plans based on a guiding direction that articulates what problem an organization is working to solve. Leadership also encourages staff to help guide the messaging to various audiences to inspire, inform, and engage them in the organization’s mission.
The more time we spend thinking about and talking with our current and prospective audiences, the more we will be able to discover and share how our organization solves their problems and provides them with value.