Getting Your Message Heard

With the amount of businesses and charities recruiting for funding and support so numerous, many worthy organizations requests can get lost in the shuffle. So, how do you get your message through the shuffle and in front of the people you need to see it? At the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation event, a panel of experts in nonprofit marketing and public relations put together a list of 11 tips to get your message out in a multi-channel market.

The first tip on their list is personalization. Create a direct message from your spokesperson to a specific group of donors and make it personalized to up the chances of catching potential donors attention. The other tips are as follows:

- Use online tools like Google analytics to decipher who is visiting your website and gain feedback from online visitors to assist your organization in making informed decisions.

- Build alliances not just with other organization, but also with suppliers. The panelists used the United States Postal Service as an example.

- Make sure your alliances will pass the message of your organization on.

- Keep donors engaged. Send newsletters or e-cards. Panelists suggest freebies, like screensavers.

- Keep an eye on the competition and make your organization better based on what you learn from them.

- Identify non-responders in your campaigns and remove them to save time and money.

- Giver your donors some recognition, after all they deserve it, a simple donor wall on your website should do the trick.

- Viral video marketing. Can you say, YouTube? Videos created by volunteers, donors or your spokesperson can deliver powerful messages effectively and cost efficiently.

- Analyze your donor file. It always helps to understand your target market and your main support.

- Keep your constituents engaged and get their feedback on new web site content before publishing it.

Depending on your organization, you may want to add or take away from this list of tips. However, these 11 suggestions from an expert nonprofit panel at least provide an outline on where to begin when looking to get the word out about your organization.