We’re thrilled to share a two-part post by Jen Barth, Starfish Impact team member and Principal of Big Small Brands, a boutique brand and business development firm. Jen is our go-to marketing guru and she has taken some time to put together a mid-year marketing round up for your nonprofit.
As we head towards the mid-year mark for 2018, May and June are great months to a step back and pause to consider your organization’s marketing efforts. Are you on track to achieve your goals? What dynamics have evolved since they were developed, and do you have the right tools and systems in place to support your outreach and engagement efforts ahead? If your nonprofit brand could use a boost, here are some resources and perspectives to help get you going:
Back to the Basics: Brand Planning Essentials, Tools, & Time-Savers
Whether your organization is currently operating from a formal marketing strategy or simply looking to fine-tune existing tactics, add these reads to your early summer reading list:
Marketing & Communications Planning
Nonprofit Hub’s 7 Essentials Every Nonprofit Plan Should Follow and Marketing Tools And When They’re Effective are a good starting point, in addition to Causevox’s Nonprofit Marketing: How to Craft A Plan That Engages Your Community and Reaches More Donors.
On the communications front, Prichard Communications Six Questions To Get Started on a Communications Strategy offers an effective framework to guide messaging considerations, and Wired Impact’s How to Create a Nonprofit Editorial Calendar are great resources to incorporate into any stage of your planning process.
Refreshing Brand Assets
Summer can be a great time of year to assess creative assets, and identify any updates you may want to make well in advance of the busy end-of-year giving season. Some helpful reads sharing free and low-cost resources include:
- 10 Inexpensive Marketing Tools That Create Stunning Visuals
- Does Your Nonprofit Need a New Logo (and Maybe Even a New Name)?
- 5 Steps To Find Your Brand Voice
- 10 Tips to Improve Your Donor Newsletter
Understanding Audiences
Research is a powerful tool to ground the marketing planning process in real-world perspectives from key audiences and stakeholders served, and identify new impact opportunities ahead. 6 Simple Steps To Understand Your Audience Through Research offers a simple starting point for nonprofit teams and shares several free/low-cost tools and approaches to consider. Others to explore include:
- Why Donor Segmentation Matters
- Make Your Message Count With Segmentation
- Creating Audience Personas for Your Nonprofit
Want more? Click here for additional resources in the second part of this article.
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