By Kalli Kauffman (BA 27)
Managing a nonprofit involves a wide-range of skillsets. From fundraising, directing, and communicating with others, success depends on understanding the ins and outs of your profession. If you desire to make a long-term impact, using nonprofit marketing is important for helping people understand your mission, recognize your brand, and see the value of what you do.
Read on to hear Matt Metzger, chief marketing officer, share the key content and concepts important for understanding nonprofit marketing.
Why is marketing important for nonprofits?
When you run a nonprofit, you want to make others aware of your brand and how your services benefit them.
“Nonprofits can have the best product or best services in the world, but if nobody knows about them, why does it even matter?” Metzger said. “Marketing helps people understand the excellent products or services offered.”
As an experienced instructor and the chief marketing officer at Grace College, Metzger offers years of marketing expertise. With his knowledge, you’ll learn how to market your nonprofit and reach your target audience effectively.
“It’s a multi-faceted approach where you need to ask yourself, ‘How do I create messaging that will reach the people I am trying to help with their nonprofit?’” he said. “You also have to ask, ‘How do I talk to the donors that fund my nonprofit and how do I get volunteers?’”
What is the difference between nonprofit marketing and for-profit marketing?
According to Metzger, marketing a nonprofit organization is not much different than marketing a for-profit company.
For instance, for-profit marketing uses digital and traditional marketing to make others aware of their brand. Traditional marketing includes marketing through newspapers, print media, billboards, and on the radio. Meanwhile, digital marketing focuses on engaging consumers through social media, websites, email, and other channels.
“For-profit is generally more innovative. I recommend using them for inspiration,” Metzger said.
To effectively market your nonprofit, study the strategies for-profits use to build brand awareness. Nonprofit marketing involves following similar standards to those used in business marketing, using the best practices to create a clear, coherent message that is understandable to your audience.
How do I use branding and storytelling as a nonprofit marketing strategy?
Storytelling is a key aspect of leading someone to your brand. One important nonprofit marketing strategy is to position your audience as the hero and present a problem they can relate to. Through this interaction, you provide information about your organization and what you do.
Next, you introduce your brand as a guide to lead them to an ultimate solution. In this process, you develop an effective nonprofit marketing strategy by meeting their needs with your product or service.
In Metzger’s job as a chief marketing officer, this means establishing relationships with parents and students as they explore Grace College. Through his on-campus and off-campus interactions, he places his audience first, guiding them through the process of getting to know our Grace community.
What marketing skills are needed for nonprofit careers, and what are nonprofit marketing strategies?
As a nonprofit employee, adaptability and multitasking are key. Nonprofit employees often work in multiple roles, including marketing, because they need qualified individuals to fulfill these tasks.
While you might work as a fundraiser, you also may work as an executive director or a content marketer. In a smaller nonprofit, you may oversee finances, implement new programs, and interact with potential donors.
Through these positions, you market your product on different platforms and create simple solutions for the audience who needs your services.
“Our brains gravitate towards simple,” Metzger said. “We always need to provide people with the easiest possible solution.”
What is nonprofit digital marketing?
Nonprofit digital marketing uses technology to make others aware of your brand. This means effectively designing your brand to have a positive impact on your constituents. As you discover more about nonprofit digital marketing, you learn about the importance of graphic design, websites, photography, social media, and email marketing.
First, you develop an understanding of website design. It’s important to update and tailor your nonprofit website for the individuals you help.
“Who is this website designed for?” Metzger asked. “Is this more for the donor, or is this more for the client they are serving?”
Whether communicating with a donor or client, you want to make a mobile website that is easy to use. This includes “strong calls to action,” where you encourage your audience to take action towards your service or product, and “social proof” that demonstrates this organization is working.
Furthermore, you want to understand how to market effectively across paid and organic social media. This means creating clean content and using best practices to reach an identified audience across various platforms.
You will also develop an understanding of email marketing. This provides an inexpensive strategy to market your nonprofit and bring attention to what you have to offer through a more personal interaction.
No matter which digital marketing tool you use, meeting clients where they are is vital to making them aware of your products or services.
How can marketing increase nonprofit donations?
To increase donations, you must provide compelling visuals or human testimonials that illustrate the need you’re addressing. Showing the need to your audience provides a realistic understanding and connection to the serious problem you’re trying to improve.
“Shared experiences are really powerful. Hearing, seeing, and demonstrating the problem is important,” Metzger said.
This demonstration helps donors understand your needs and become part of the solution.
What now?
Managing a nonprofit is a difficult task. However, developing traditional and nonprofit digital marketing skills and strategies creates opportunities to strengthen your brand and encourage others to donate to your organization.
Are you interested in nonprofit work, or do you desire to improve your professional qualifications for a job in nonprofit marketing? Learn more about our Master’s of Nonprofit Management and how to effectively market your nonprofit.
