Making Your Mark – Nonprofit Marketing Best Practices for 2024

Messaging is a major component of the nonprofit world, but how can nonprofits compete in this noisy attention economy? In this NXUnite panel discussion, Eric joins with other members of the mission-driven community for a conversation about empowering nonprofits to optimize their performance through thoughtful storytelling, exceptional marketing, effective messaging, and authentic connection. Together with his colleagues, Eric highlights the emerging trends and strategies that nonprofits need to consider to maximize their impact, the value of education marketing, as well as a look at the future of nonprofit marketing and what companies can do now to get ahead today.

“There are foundational pillars that need to be in place for effective messaging to be possible in the first place.”

Episode Highlights:

• Foundational pillars for more effectively crafted and communicated unique brand messaging that will stand out in today's crowded digital landscape. [5:48]

• Leveraging your organization’s unique history, understanding your audience, and listening to the feedback you are given. [8:18]

• Emerging trends and strategies that nonprofits consider to maximize their impact this year. [12:20]

• The value of education marketing and sharing your knowledge with your supporters from your expert standpoint. [16:01]

• Harnessing the art of storytelling to connect with your audience and drive engagement. [20:47]

• Utilizing the “so what?” test when identifying the benefit of your story for your audience and the importance of telling a story of hope. [26:20]

• Cost-effective and innovative channels that effectively engage with supporters. [29:40]

• Creating content that stands out in a noisy environment through video and staff empowerment to post on social media. [33:50]

• Staying on top of constantly changing marketing practices without getting overwhelmed starts with cleaning up your core foundation. [37:55]

• Navigating the balance between marketing their costs effectively and maintaining ethical practices in partnerships and campaigns. [45:17]

• The importance of high-quality visual design including logo website, reports, marketing, and fundraising resources in increasing impact. [51:23]

• The future of nonprofit marketing and how nonprofits can get ahead today. [54:25]

Quotes:

“There are some foundational pillars that need to be in place for effective messaging to be possible in the first place.” [6:20]

“When you're talking about social impacts, you have more partners or adjacent organizations who are doing similar work in the same cause area that you're focused on. But that doesn't mean that you get away from the burden of having to clearly articulate your differentiation and positioning. You have to figure out what are your unique strengths as an organization.” [6:32]

“Developing a really distinct perspective or a point of view on your work as an organization is really key.” [7:01]

“Testing some initial messaging as you're in that exploratory phase and just really kind of seeing what sticks and coming in with a sense of experimentation and curiosity will lead to the best results.” [8:02]

“We're all really striving for authenticity today, especially with the introduction of AI and just like an oversaturation of content in all of our feeds in this attention economy that we're in, we're so overwhelmed with so much content all the time, and who really stands out and breaks through with a really strong signal within all that noise are brands that take the time to actually build longer-term relationships with supporters.” [14:55]

“Cultivating community has been a trend that's been growing, and I only think is going to continue to strengthen.” [15:24]

“We have to keep in mind with all this that is getting really good at telling a story of hope and showing that it is possible to actually make progress, especially if you think about some of these really difficult issues such as climate change, for example, that can feel very hopeless at times.” [27:37]

“Creating content and distributing content is easier than ever before. At the same time, it means the channels are noisier than ever before, too.” [34:30]

“You really need to get some of that core structure cleaned up and effective before it makes sense to worry about the latest trend.” [38:44]

“It’s not okay anymore to be a nonprofit that is scrappy and doing work behind the scenes and being proud of that and using that as an excuse to not do well when it comes to putting out professional products from a design and marketing standpoint.” [52:03]
 

Resources:

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