PR Tips For Not For Profits in Tough Times #2

Thanks to all of you who contributed ideas to our call for low budget PR ideas for not for profits facing tough times. We got a great response through Facebook, email, in conversations over coffee and of course through this blog.

We have put together a 19 page PDF report which brings together all these great suggestions.

I'll be sending it out to those contributors for whom I have contact details.

Email bobcraw@webone.com.au if you would like a copy and put the word Report in the subject line of your email.

Again thanks for your thoughts and good luck to the marketing efforts of all community groups in the coming year.

PR Tips For Not For Profits in Tough Times

The financial crisis means the year ahead looks fairly bleak.

So spare a thought for not for profit groups that may struggle financially but still have to communicate with their communities. They will need to market themselves even more to attract volunteers, promote their services and raise funds.

So what are the low cost PR tools and tactics they can use? I'd like to compile at list and circulate it to the groups you and I both know who would welcome practical PR tips for the challenging times ahead.

I'll share a consolidated list with anyone who leaves a comment on this post.

Here's my six ways to stretch a PR budget in tough economic times:

• Freshen up, recycle and reuse communications activities that have worked in the past.
• Skill up your team to do as much of your media and marketing as possible.
• If necessary bring in a mentor to help develop additional skills and build in-house capacity.
• Continually measure your marketing to see where your dollars should be going.
• Build in word of mouth marketing into your communications. It's the oldest, most reliable and least expensive of all the tools and tactics available to you.
  
• People are increasingly online so ealy in 2009 experiment with new digital tools (Facebook, Youtube, blogs etc) to reach them at minimal cost.

Got your own cost saving ideas? Share with others by leaving a comment.

Psst...What Do People Say About You?

What do people say about you?

When your name comes up in conversation do people talk with respect or do they trash your brand?

We all want positive word of mouth about our products, services, issues or causes. Yet the irony is few Australian organizations use word of mouth marketing as part of their marketing mix?

That’s why you should read Andy Sernovitz’s new book Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking.

Word of mouth marketing has been around forever, beginning when people first saw the value in sharing information and warning others about risky situations.

Word of mouth is about genuine conversations where people exchange ideas, criticisms and endorsements. And it is becoming increasingly important given the tsunami of invasive advertising hitting us each day. Sernovitz argues ‘traditional marketing is no longer the safe way to go. It may make you comfortable but it is becoming gradually less and less effective for more and more companies.'

Organic word of mouth is the range of genuine conversations people have among themselves each day. They share information on what to buy, what to wear, where to work and countless other topics with friends, family, classmates, workmates and team mates. Organisations can encourage organic word of mouth by providing quality services, listening to people and responding to their issues and continually freshening conversations by bringing in new programs, products, faster turn around times, etc.

Organisations use amplified word of mouth when they deliberately set out to create positive talk about their products or services. This often involves seeking out people with influence with the specific intent of inviting them to start conversations within their networks. And organizations can accelerate this type of word of mouth by moving it online where, through a keyboard or mobile device they can engage either individuals or specific groups.

Amplified word of mouth marketing can also be encouraged by creating online communities where people swap ideas and experiences, encouraging others to promote what you do and using advertising or media coverage to strategically prime the pump and start conversations.

Andy Sernovitz’s book details the topics, talkers, tools and tracking needed to make word of mouth succeed. It is a must read for those of us on limited budgets looking to communicate with impact.

Online Tools for Not for Profits

Here's some handy ideas for using online technology for awareness-raising and community-building. It's a bit dated but still worthwhile.

From: pbw, 2 years ago

Using online technology for awareness-raising and community-building

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: nptech online social networking)

A presentation for a Hepatitis Australia workshop. It gives some examples and ideas of ways not-for-profits can use the web to raise awareness and attract new supporters.


SlideShare Link

Not for Profit Scores Good PR for Under $100

Recently we had coffee with the ACT Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Society. The Society supports people suffering chronic fatigue syndrome and estimates around 3000 Canberra families may be impacted.

Since January the Society has attended the marketing workshops we run for community groups and has been overhauling its marketing and PR approach.

In the last three to four months it has promoted a Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Awareness Day, a theatre screening to raise funds and a self help course. Along the way it has used community radio, YouTube, Facebook and email campaigns and changed the way it stages events.

Other marketing included:

* Community newspapers

* Notices in local newsletters

* Word of mouth
* Posters on community notice boards

* Online and offline community event calendars - including free notices on ABC, ACTEW AGL Switch, Canberra Times fridge door and wotzon

* Getting pro-bono support from communications professionals.

The President reports so far the Society has spent less than $100 on the new PR arrangements yet the results have been impressive.

”Our enquiries are up 400% since March! As we haven't recorded everything this is a conservative figure. As such our staff member is run off her feet trying to answer it all. I imagine our website is also receiving more hits ... our membership is (also) up approximately 10% since March”.

Canberra's First Word of Mouth Marketing Workshop

On 30 August we're running Canberra's first word of mouth marketing workshop for not for profits.

We have been steadily watching the rise and rise of word of mouth marketing in recent times and we tip it will become even more important in future. The reasons are simple:

• After 50 plus years of day in day out marketing, people are weary and leery of advertising. For example when was the last time you saw, read or heard an ad that you can recall with any kind of accuracy? And more importantly when was the last time an ad motivated you to go out and buy something?

• Word of mouth marketing is genuine communications. It is about people sharing information, experiences and feelings. We all have an innate desire to share good news with family, friends and workmates and warn them away from negative issues or bad products. Word of mouth is our information passed within our circle at our pace. And it removes the the middle men from our communications.
  

• Digital media has made it possible to carry word of mouth endorsements and opinions to mass audiences and to individuals fast and cheap.

Our workshop is geared for not for profit organisations and it's already over-subscribed with representatives from 10 organisations attending.

It will be a good way to share experiences and explore how community groups can use this increasingly important marketing medium to advance their causes.

Marketing Challenges for Not For Profits

From time to time we do work for social services and community groups. So a recently released US report on not for profit marketing caught our eye.

The State of Nonprofit Marketing: A Report On Priorities, Spending, Measurement and The Challenges Ahead, produced by Lipman Hearne and the American Marketing Association (AMA), contains fascinating insights. Australian not for profits will recognise many similarities in the American findings.

• Building awareness, generating revenue, branding and acquiring and keeping members were key marketing objectives for US not for profits.
• Public relations, community relations and customer and member relations are considered the most effective strategies to build awareness and visibility.
• “Being mentioned in the media is priceless, because it gains nonprofit organizations attention as well as third-party endorsement of their work."
• Word of mouth marketing is important for donors, government agencies and other key audiences. The Report notes these groups need specific evidence from not for profits on how they are making an impact.

It seems that US not for profits find measuring their marketing efforts a tough ask:

• The most measured marketing activity is events followed by revenue raising.
  
• But evaluating the effectiveness of websites, media coverage and print advertising is not particularly well handled.

42% of organisations surveyed had only one person doing their marketing and even then the marketing area often shares responsibilities with other parts of the organisation.

And the biggest future challenges for US not for profits?

• Building awareness/visibility.
• Revenue generation.
• Positioning/branding.

Sound familiar? And not just for community sector. We think many businesses would recognise these challenges.

Communicating in Different Spaces

Here's some articles worth a quick read:

A recent study on using social media to keep up with not for profits.

The art and craft of choosing the right words for your media release - or how toxic is your shower curtain?

And a Pentagon General says “… when you get the call in the middle of the night and everything is going the wrong way, blogging could in fact inform decision makers in real time with real information to make decisions much quicker than a phone conference.”

What Makes a Great Brand

This past week we ran a workshop for one of the most successful community sector organisations in Canberra. The CEO and 35 of her staff spent the day actively exploring ways to move their already dynamic organisation to the next level of performance.

As part of strategizing the future, we asked people to identify organisations they most admired. What made them stand out? And how could they embed the qualities that made others successful, into their own organisation?

The team turned up a list of around 15 organisations they most admired. It was truly an eclectic mix, ranging from the Salvation Army to McDonalds to a popular home decorations magazine.

The group's dicussion identified four factors that make a brand succeed over the long term. An organisation must:

• Have a consistent purpose and recognisable benefits.
• Deliver those benefits day in, day out.
• Continually reinvent itself as customer and community circumstances change.
• Constantly communicate - to staff, customers and all the other organisations that shape its environment.

Each week thousands of words are written about branding. Yet we think this team of 35 passionate community workers provided one of clearest explanations we have seen about what a brand must do, to move from good to great.

Planning an Event

Recently we came across the NSW Government Event Starter Guide.

It might be a good reference tool for planning your next event.

Social Media Updates

We recently came across three good articles on who’s using social media and how:

• Stats on the growing power of social media
• How non-profits are using social networking to raise money and awareness
• Being strategic with social media

Sponsorship and Not for Profits

Since 2003 we have run marketing workshops for 107 not for profit organisations.

A common question is "how can we get sponsorship for our event, issue or cause?" This question was certainly top of mind when we recently shared marketing tips with community groups in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.

Before you seek sponsorships people must have a basic understanding of your cause and know about your organisation.

That comes down to marketing and PR. Before people will support you they need to know who you are and what you stand for.

Once that's achieved you can begin a dialogue with companies, government agencies and others who can provide support.

Some resources to get your sponsorship efforts off to a good start are:

• The Tasmanian Government's sponsorship guidelines
• Landcare NSW sponsorship guidelines
• Our Community's sponsorship page
• Power Sponsorship's free stuff

Social media and not for profits

Trevor Cook and Lee Hopkins are two Australian pioneers in the emerging world of social media. I have previously shared a speaking platform with Trevor and he really knows his stuff. Lee is a prominent podcaster.

Trevor and Lee have just released the third edition of their Social Media Report, which provides an excellent overview of the new Web2.0 tools and how to use them.

It is a good document for not for profit organisations to learn more about social media.

Click here to download their 53 page report.