Regardless of what type of business a nonprofit organization does, it requires a marketing campaign. Like-minded people need to know about your organization, and the right marketing concept will help you achieve this. But at the stage of creating a marketing plan, there can be many difficulties since ordinary people united by a “let’s save the world” idea have to work on this issue. In practice, everything is not as frightening as it might seem at first glance. Below you will find a short but informative template that contains everything about creating a nonprofit marketing plan.
What Do You Need to Write in Your Marketing Plan?
Although marketing plans do not require extensive resources, this does not mean that this plan can be ignored. The more carefully you create a plan, the more likely it will help to achieve your goals. Below you will find our recommendations for forming a marketing plan skeleton.
Set Objectives and Deadlines
Despite being a nonprofit organization, timelines and goals should be clearly defined. This will allow you to get an idea of the direction you should choose. For this point, you can use the missions of the organization to set goals. Also, you can use a SMART methodology. This technique is ideal for those faced with such a task for the first time and not knowing where to start and how to set goals.
As for the deadlines, you can return to that point at the very end when you write down all the points and can realistically forecast the time you may need to achieve each goal. You may set an approximate deadline per each objective and then revise them to make more realistic forecasts.
Define Communication Platforms
The next step is the choice of a platform, taking into account your marketing goals. Most likely, you have an understanding of which social media are suitable for finding like-minded people. For example, if you are looking for volunteers or young assistants, then you can use Instagram. If you want to attract people with more experience and expertise, then you should focus on Facebook. If you expect some organizations to share your mission and help you achieve your goals, get in touch with them on LinkedIn.
Finding the right social media platform will allow you to create content that hits the mark. In any plan, each point is closely interconnected with the others; thus, what you define in the first point will set the route for the following one, and so on. It sounds a little confusing, doesn’t it? But soon you will understand what it is about. Simply put, you will create a logical chain of action.
Start Working on Content Plan
After you have identified a platform for communication with like-minded people, you need to create a content plan based on the platform’s characteristics. For example, Instagram requires a visual trigger, while Twitter implies short but informative text messages. Make a content plan based on the specifics of each platform.
Come up with a Content Publishing Schedule
To create the right schedule for publishing content, you need to proceed from your goals. For example, if your goal is to find 20 volunteers in three months, divide that number by three months.
This will be the reference point to create the right content posting schedule. You can use automatic posting or just follow the schedule. But remember that you should not publish content randomly. Each post should have a particular goal, and you should measure the result. We will explain this point in one of the following paragraphs.
Simplify the Conversion Process
For your audience to engage with your organization willingly, the conversion process should be simplified. Time-consuming forms and applications can reject potentially willing users. All your questionnaires and forms should be simple and not time-consuming for the user. Otherwise, you will not receive the desired conversion.
Analyze Your Marketing Plan and the Corresponding Efforts
Regardless of the type of plan, it is crucial to decide how to analyze the effectiveness of all actions as soon as possible. If you don’t stick to clear and measurable metrics, it will be difficult to create an effective marketing strategy in the future. You should consider the following points:
- What posts led to the conversion?
- What posts generated the desired audience action?
- How many clicks and likes did your posts get?
- What publications did not lead to success?
- Which social platform did not bring conversions?
- How can this marketing plan be improved?
Make your marketing plan analysis your weekly habit. Thus, you will be able to find out which of your ideas work best for your target audience and focus on highly-converting actions.
The Final Verdict
Creating a nonprofit organization’s marketing plan is specific since you need to focus on free and/or low-cost promotion tools. However, social media channels meet both criteria and are perfect for reaching out to your target audience. Use the above recommendations, and then you will be able to easily come up with your marketing plan and achieve your goals. And of course, do not forget that the main thing is to analyze every action in time to correct all mistakes and improve your marketing strategy.
For more on marketing strategy, check out this blog on 5 Ways to Incorporate Data and Automation into Your Marketing Strategy.
Author Bio:
Nancy P. Howard has been working as an editor at a guest posting service Adsy for a year. She is also a professional writer in such topics as blogging, IT, and marketing.
