One common trend we’re hearing from all organisations is that they need help with their marketing. Many can’t afford a whole marketing team or even a marketing person. They’re unfortunately trying to navigate this whole new world on their own. After having worked for three NFPs in marketing, there are some tips and tricks I’ve learned along the way. Whilst these tips are geared towards NFPs, they could be generalized to for-profit businesses too.
Posting consistently
One of the main tips which you’ve probably seen everywhere, is to post consistently on all your social media platforms. The whole point is to stay relevant in people’s pages and to remain the forefront of your audience’s attention. The common saying these days is ‘if it’s not on Instagram, it didn’t happen’. As much as we want to say social media isn’t everything or we shouldn’t do it just for followers, truth is if you don’t post, your followers will think your organisation isn’t doing anything. If your followers don’t know what you’re doing, they won’t know the call to action.
If you’re having an upcoming event, it’s important to repeatedly post about it. This way even if your followers missed your first post, they will see your second or third and then sign up. After an event, make sure to post pictures from it, boast about the amazing turnout and highlights.
If you receive any testimonies or messages praising your organisation, flaunt it. It’s in our nature to be humble and keep it to ourselves but really it’s important to share your audiences’ opinions on your organisation. By seeing other people benefitting from your organisation, other people from the community will be inspired and become more inclined to sign up.
Collaborate
Our community is so close, which can work in our benefit. By collaborating with other organisations, both parties benefit by gaining exposure, new volunteers and participants. It is a win-win situation. It’s also super easy and the opportunities are endless. By cross-promoting the two or more organisations, there are opportunities to run events you would’ve never dreamed of running before. Also in a marketing sense, it’s great because on the other organisation’s social media, they’re posting about your organisation, causing their followers to learn about you and vice versa.
Cross-promotion
Kind of leading on from the last point, even if you aren’t collaborating with another organisation, it can be useful to cross-promote. I’ve seen organisations make deals with each other where they promote each other’s events even though it may have nothing to do with their own organisation. This can be super beneficial as both organisations gain exposure to a new audience. This is why The Social Blueprint is so important. By posting your events onto our events calendar, our users who may not know anything about your organisation, are suddenly intrigued. Further, if we post about your organisation or event on our socials, our followers see and can learn about you.
Word of mouth
One of the benefits of our community being so close-knit is that word travels fast. Everyone has an influence. In our community, word of mouth is of the utmost importance. Even though it is super uncomfortable doing it, it is important to ask all your colleagues to invite their friends to your events or to like your social media posts or whatever it is. I remember at an organisation I worked for, we all had to get 3 new volunteers to sign up before each new volunteer training session. I’m not going to lie, it was my worst part about the job, putting myself out there in that way. Having said that, because there were 10 employees, when each of us got 3 people to join, it meant we had 30 new faces in the door. It proved to be very effective.
Whilst some of these points sound basic or easy, they are super effective. Don’t underestimate the power of marketing for your NFP. Stay tuned for more tips and tricks.
