ANNUAL PLANNING FOR NONPROFITS
Your nonprofit needs a marketing plan. To succeed in your organization’s goals, you need to attract and build relationships with volunteers, donors, and other needed supporters like journalists or legislators. The style of your marketing plan will vary, but it should include the following elements:
Goals and objectives. Develop realistic and measurable goals. Perhaps you want to reach a certain donation amount. Maybe you want to see a market increase in volunteers for certain programs. Once you have a clear vision of what you want and need, you can move forward.
Your target audience. Get into the nitty gritty - describe their characteristics like age, gender, race, income level, industry, personality, and interests. Think about their media viewing habits. Do they use social media or is email better? Do they move more on word-of-mouth recommendations? By taking time to define your audience, your marketing can be more efficient and help you distinguish yourself from the competition.
Market research. See what other organizations are doing, what’s working, and what isn’t. Research the marketing tools available to you. Consider how to best utilize the tools you have and be open to introducing new tools and methods if needed.
Timelines and budget. You’ll want to establish a reasonable budget that allows you some wiggle room and reaches your audience throughout the year. Set benchmark deadlines so you stay on schedule.
Creating a marketing plan for the year will ultimately make your life easier and your efforts more profitable. But it takes time.
In fact, you really should give yourself at least three months to plan effective campaigns prior to the start of the next quarter. That may seem like a long time, but consider this - how long have you been driving around with that bag of clothes you were going to donate just sitting in your trunk? And that is exactly how quickly time can pass 😉
Even with the best processes and an annual plan in place, creating effective campaigns takes time and collaboration. You need time to review your goals, hire the right team, get your copywriting and photography in order, etc. If you’re having anything printed as part of the campaign, especially if it’s oversized or involves unique shapes, finishes, or materials, then you need to allot time for production and installation.
If you haven’t started your marketing plan for 2023, you’re already behind. But that’s where we come in!
We love annual planning. We help our clients clarify their vision for the year and define their mission. From there, we create a strategic marketing and communications plan that they can implement themselves. Depending on their needs, we can help develop specific campaigns for the year, anniversary campaigns, and guides that cover email and social media marketing as well as other outreach they may do.
It’s a bit like cooking. We create a clear marketing and communications recipe for you to follow.
Is this the type of support you need? Reach out at hello@rbcollaborative.com. We’d love to chat with you.
