You Can be Great If You Really Want To

Taking on the “Battle” of Strategic Marketing: 6 Steps to developing a Strategic Marketing Plan that works!

Marla Cooper is a Senior Associate and Strategic Marketing professional at Bloom Consulting, Inc., specialists in nonprofit fundraising, strategic planning, marketing and leadership development.

Why is it that I’m often met with those glazed stares when I’m brought in as a Strategic Marketing Consultant and I ask to see an organization’s “Communications Plan”. This should be as basic to any organization as an Operating Budget and yet it seldom exists as a comprehensive, integrated and well thought out document. Why is this so often neglected by organizations when it is clearly so key to success in today’s competitive and dynamic marketplace? Possibly because there are many misconceptions about what a Strategic Marketing Plan is and what is should do.

Before exploring the steps to developing a Strategic Marketing Plan, let’s first determine exactly what it means. The term “strategy” is rooted in military tradition. According to Webster’s Dictionary, a “strategy” is defined as “the science and art of military command exercised to meet the enemy in combat under advantageous conditions”. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language defines the same term as “the science or art of combining and employing the means of war in planning and directing large military movements and operations.” “Marketing” is then defined by Webster’s as “the act of selling or purchasing in a market”, while Random House explains marketing as “the act of buying or selling in a market.”

Therefore, if you combine both of these terms to explain “Strategic Marketing” you arrive at “waging war to sell in the market”. It’s no wonder we have come to describe our marketing activities as “Campaigns” and engage in “Guerilla Marketing”!

I like to take a more peaceful approach to Strategic Marketing which can be viewed more as the art of influencing people. In the world of Non-Profit Organizations, this “influence” takes the form of convincing potential donors and members to identify with your organization enough and align themselves with your mission to the extent that they will “buy in” by giving money and/or paying for membership. If you are thinking, “we have a marketing program that does this”, I would encourage you to ask these questions:

1. Is your organization currently raising the funds it needs?

2. If no, are those you solicit capable to providing these funds?

3. If yes, why isn’t your organization reaching its goals?

The answers to these questions can be twofold. If your organization is aware of what potential donors and/or members want but you’re not able to currently offer it, your organization must enhance your offerings to address this need.

If your organization isn’t quite sure what potential donors and/or members want, or you’re just not sure why your message isn’t compelling enough to get results, the solution is to know your audience better.

To both of these points, a Strategic Marketing Study and Plan is the way to address the situation. It may seem ominous if you’re not a Marketing Professional, but by following a series of disciplined of steps, your organization can develop a Strategic Marketing Road Map that can get you where you need to go.

Step #1: Form a Marketing Committee

Your organization most likely has some type of marketing or communications committee. Keep this committee small since the work and direction generated by this group needs to be clear, concise and on target. Marketing by consensus, while necessary at times, can provide for weak and confusing messages in your advertising and marketing activities that speak to internal perceptions instead of real needs in the marketplace.

Step #2: Set the Goals of your Committee

Keep this to a short list with a timeline to expand your goals based on how the marketing is going. Taking on too much at once can derail the entire process. A singular focus and mission to start with can give your committee cohesiveness and some early successes that will provide the momentum to go forward.

Step #3: Do your research

The committee may think they know what current and potential donors and/or members feel about your organization and what motivates them. However, organization boards and leadership can become very insular without even realizing it. It is of the utmost importance to stay current and aware of what those less involved and connected to your organization perceive about your organization and what they value about their mission. The only true way to know this is to ask. This doesn’t need to be a long and involved or expensive process. It can be as simple as 5 committee members contacting 5 to 10 individuals each and asking a series of well thought out questions. It is important that those interviewed represent a cross section of all those that will be targeted by any marketing efforts. This step is very important since all that follows will be based on what is learned during this process. Take it seriously.

In addition, with the internet we have access to an abundance of good information and research done by others. Committee members need to take on the responsibility of researching information and data available regarding your competitors, your market, your industry, your target audience and current trends. Much can be learned from simply borrowing from others who have often spent a great deal of time and money to learn just want you want to know. Become adept at on-line research and you’ll be surprised at what’s out there if you just look!

Step #4: Establish your Mission and Vision

If your organization has a Mission and Vision Statement it needs to be carefully reevaluated based on your learning from the research. If your organization does not currently have an approved Mission or Vision Statement go no further until this step is completed. Everything that your organization does or is should be reflected in these statements. It should guide every activity and every communication and be used in evaluating both professional staff and volunteers be they board members or not.

A Vision Statement inspires by articulating the future of an organization. A Mission Statement controls and clarifies what an organization does right now. It’s important that neither of these be an “Alphabet Soup” of all the elements that all the key players think are important for an organization to be. It needs to be practical and reflect reality. Clear and concise Mission and Vision Statements should contain at most 3 to 5 elements that live within the organization and be the standard by which all initiatives and standards are evaluated. If it is too broad it will be meaningless and if it is too narrow it will not inspire.

Step #5: Develop your Strategic Marketing Plan

Based on the above steps, your committee should now have a clear understanding and direction and can develop a Strategic Marketing Plan that details the following:

Ø Who is your target audience: what population or individuals provide the best chance for your organization to reach its goals?

Ø What is your message: based on your Mission/Vision statement what do you want to communicate the target audience? What is it about you that is unique and compelling and allows you to deliver on your mission?

Ø How to communicate your message: based on your target audience what is the best way to reach them?

Step #6: Execute your Strategic Marketing Plan

Here are some helpful hints that will enhance your Marketing Plan and ensure it has the best chance of succeeding.

Ø Give specific responsibilities to committee members, staff and volunteers for specific elements of the Plan. Create ownership of the Plan among individuals so it’s not the “Committee’s Plan” but individuals have a stake in it as well.

Ø Track your results. Every marketing or programming initiative or effort undertaken as a result of this plan should be tracked to know what is working and what is not.

Ø Make sure your organization can deliver on your message. If you are highlighting new programs or features of your organization in your marketing, be absolutely certain all aspects are ready and available before going with the communications. Remember, you never get a second chance to make a first impression! If someone is attracted to your organization because of something they saw or read and come to find out it’s not as they thought, you’ve lost a donor or member and will have an exceedingly difficult time getting them to reconsider.

Ø Build on your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Make sure all marketing activities highlight what your organization does best and excels at.

Be bold and provide leadership. In almost all cases, some form of marketing is better than none. Get your organization out there and make sure it has the exposure it needs. In closing, I’ll pay homage to the military origins of my profession as a Strategic Marketing Professional by urging you to “Get out there and market them before they market you!”

Contact Marla Cooper, Bloom Consulting, Inc. (610) 348-4035 or marlacooper@bloomconsultinginc.com

If you are going to achieve something in your life but you do not know how you can do it, goal setting is the best solution for you. In fact, goal setting is a must-have in everyone’s life because it is so powerful that it helps you to achieve whatever you have decided to achieve.

Years ago, there was a survey carried out in Yale University. This survey was to find out the percentage of students who have their goals written down and did they plan for their future. In the survey, it is found that almost 97 percent of the students did not write down their goals and they did not plan for their future. Only 3 percent of the students wrote down what they want to achieve in their life.

20 years later a follow up survey was carried out to this same group of students again. And an amazing discovery was made. The combine income of the 3 percent of the students who had their goals written down are 3 times higher than the combine income of the 97 percent of the students who did not written down their goals.

This is truly an amazing discovery. Can you imagine now what goal setting can do for you? Most people live a mediocre life because they don’t have a clear goal or a clear direction where they are heading. If you have a goal today, you will move toward that direction because goal keeps you focus.

When you have a goal in your mind, you are directing every decision you make toward that direction and you are moving closer toward your goals everyday. However, if you do not have a goal today, you will be dangling in nowhere, just like a lost sheep.

Therefore, find out what you really want today and set your goals before you sleep. Goal setting is important and it will change your life according to where you put your focus in. So grab a pen and a paper now and write down your goals. The journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step. Take the first step now and all else will follow.

If you have never set goals before, then you may be apt to wonder what all the fuss is about! For goal setter however, goal setting seems to bring a new lease of life. Suddenly life has a direction. In this article, we will look at why goal setting works.

Imagine getting in a plane, and the pilot has no idea of where the destination is. It is unlikely that the airplane will go anywhere! Goal setting works with the same premise, because it is dealing with direction, and more importantly, a choice of direction.

For most people, they don’t have direction. We see this in the world, where many people hate getting up on Monday mornings! We have many choices in life, and all too often, we only see the direction which is here, but not there.

As is said – the world is our oyster, and the only people who must have figured that out, were the goal setters. You see, goal setting focuses us in a direction. Instead of floating like ships, we stop and ask – what do I want?

For many people, this happens as a new year’s resolution. I am sure, like most, you have found how well New Year resolutions work – almost never. The reason is that we fall into a trap of forgetting about it within a few weeks, if not days.

This makes goal setting an important thing for the goal setter. After all, the goals you set will likely be new to you. You have never achieved them in your life. This makes the goal something that you really want.

Now, your passion is ignited, and you set about getting there. As you act, you learn and apply. Through the trials and errors, you find that you have achieved.

You will want to set new goals, bigger, and better goals. You set those, and achieve those. Along the way, you will find ways to make achievement happen quicker. You will have a new lease of life.

This is how goal setting works. People become success junkies, in the thought that – yes it is possible. No person has ever achieved success, without knowing what that success looks like. After all, how will you know you have achieved, unless you consciously desired a certain success?

Think back to your last vacation. I bet a few days before, even weeks before, you was enlivened. You felt inspired, and the last day at work, you worked your best. The reason was simple – you had a goal.

OK, so maybe more people goal set, then we at first imagine. However, it is not consistent. It only applies with the public holidays we get or the holidays we are entitled to from employment.

When you can consciously take action in goal setting, and set about working on them, and achieving them, over time, you find something amazing happens. Now, you find that you are living your dream.