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Communication Plans for 2013


Read Nancy Schwartz's Getting Attention blog post on nonprofit marketing trends you should be paying attention to. This post is about three of those trends and my thoughts on them. I hope you get some good ideas...

1. Social Media Marketing

All content and activity needs to be shared using sites like Facebook and Twitter. If you don't have a social media strategy, 2013 is the time to start using social media for marketing. Are you as an organization, on the same social media platforms your audience uses? Are individual staff, especially in develop and communication, using the appropriate social media channels to connect with people? If not, consider adding that activity to your 2013 communication plan.

2. Email Marketing

Email is not dead.  Use it regularly to share news, get people involved in your events, and to ask for money. Focus on providing information. Only throw out the occasional fundraising appeal. You can, of course, put a brief appeal for donations at the bottom of each email letter or newsletter.

3.. Content Marketing

This is not just a strategy for businesses. Provide lots of good information related to your cause or community and people will look to your organization as a credible place to invest their money or time. Don't bother with cheap, generic SEO articles designed mainly to generate traffic.

Instead, make a list of articles and reports that would interest your visitors. A conservation charity concerned with the Anacostia River might post information on the history of development of the river, cleanup efforts,policies that could protect the river, policies and rules that currently affect the river, and environmental problems that affect the river.

You can probably come up with a similar list for your organization in just a few minutes. From that list, you can make specific content creation plans. Don't forget to leave room in the schedule for content related to holidays (in some cases) and new challenges and opportunities (all organizations). Be flexible and creative. Focus on what your audience might want to read about rather than what you want people to read about.

In addition to being informative and interesting, you will want to provide content that's interactive and readable on different platforms. By "platform" I really mean mobile devices. Verify that all existing and new content looks good on smart phones and tablets.
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