Everyone tells you that you need to be strategic with your marketing efforts…
But what does that really mean?
The way I describe “being strategic” to my clients is like this:
Anyone can post something on social media or send an email.
But investing your time and effort to make sure every post you make and email you send is effectively reaches your organization’s goal? That’s the strategy part.
Ultimately, being strategic with your marketing means deciding where (and how) to promote your nonprofit based on your organization’s wider goals. Here's what that looks like...
Choosing a social media platform
Strategically choosing a social media platform starts by answering two questions:
- What platform can I easily share content on?
- What platform is my audience on so I can engage with them?
As you’re thinking about your answers, make sure to consider the time it takes to show up on social media intentionally. Being on five different platforms doesn’t matter if your team can’t realistically maintain posting content, responding to comments, and engaging on all five platforms (plus, your audience probably only uses one or two of them, anyway!).
It doesn’t matter whether the answer you land on is Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or something else entirely. The key to being strategic with your platform is deciding where you can connect with your audience the easiest and the most meaningfully.
Creating your nonprofit’s content
Once you figure out the best platform for your nonprofit’s content, you can start thinking about what that content actually looks like. Being strategic with the content you put out looks different for different types of content — but here are three of the most common ones.
Social media
While you could just post random, funny things to get likes and shares, that won’t help your nonprofit:
- Build awareness about your “why,”
- Increase attendance at your next event, or
- Educate your community about your programs
(Although the occasional “fun only” post is definitely okay!)
Strategic content creation means supporting at least one of the goals in that list every time you post. It also means creating (and following) brand guidelines and a content plan to keep your messaging clear and your mission moving forward with every post.
Email marketing
You know how the saying goes: when you speak to everyone, you speak to no one.
That’s because sending the right message to the right audience really makes a difference. Strategic email marketing means delivering tailored content to tailored audiences, which starts with organization.
Break up your email list into tags or segments based on characteristics like level of involvement or how familiar they are with your organization. That way, you can ensure every email you send to each segment is 100% relevant (which increases the chances they’ll open it).
→ Check out my blog, “Your Secret to Better Engagement: Email List Segmentation” for more details on doing this effectively!
Promotions and ads
The same targeted messaging strategy you use for emails applies to promotions and ads, too.
You could promote to “everyone,” but not everyone cares about the same things. For example, your newest subscribers aren’t ready to hear your latest fundraising request, and long-time donors don’t need emails explaining what you do.
Strategic promotions mean tailoring your efforts so every ad reaches the right person, and using metrics from previous campaigns to guide these efforts. That kind of intentional, strategic messaging is how you get better results.
Seeing results from strategic marketing takes time
Being more intentional with your marketing efforts isn’t going to show results overnight.
Focusing on strategy (and sticking to a marketing plan) takes time, consistency, and experimentation - especially if your marketing tasks have been spread out between staff and volunteers.
Create a meaningful marketing plan. Stick to it as consistently as you can. And watch as that strategy starts to generate the results you’ve been wanting.
You’ve got this!
See you in 2 weeks,
Catrina
P.S. You don’t have to figure it out on your own. If you’re considering outsourcing but don’t need everything done for you, let’s chat. I help teams with email marketing or event promotion only while their internal team handles the rest, and I can do the same for you!
