Ten Marketing Communications Activities You Must Do

Michele Levy www.brand-strat.com

October 27, 2010

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Ten Marketing Communications Activities You Must Do

Michele Levy www.brand-strat.com

October 27, 2010

Use Twitter Hashtag #npweb

Special Thanks To Our Sponsors

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Today’s Speaker

Hosting: Sam Frank, Synthesis Partnership

Michele Levy brand strategy consultant

What will you learn?

•! An overview of 10 cost-effective marketing

communications activities

•! Practical tools that every organization can use to

implement and maintain these efforts

•! Tips on how to measure the effectiveness of your

efforts

The caveat

•! These tips are, by nature, fairly generic…I’ve

deliberately compiled a list of activities that will apply

across most organizations

•! In each mission area (education vs. social services

vs. museums, etc), there are an additional layer of

top tactics. For instance:

–! Independent schools are finding postcard mailings

quite effective

–! Organizations with a product set must create a

comprehensive “catalog” of offerings

–! Museums have to find ways to bring the on-site

experience alive online

–! etc.

First, a quick poll

Do you have a favorite

marketing communications tactic?

Is there something you budget for every year,

because you know it works?

What kind of an organization do you represent

(school, museum, social service, etc.)?

1. It all starts with your audience

•! Start by asking how they see you, what they need

from you, how they want to communicate with you,

what they see as their other options

–! Informal focus groups

–! Advisory board

–! Online survey

–! Website survey

–! Event/course evaluations

•! Each one of these activities is not just fact-finding, but relationship building

•! Watch their behavior (not in a creepy way, of course!)

–! Web analytics (you’d be surprised!)

–! Response rates (especially to e-newsletters)

–! Event attendance

2. Keep an eye on the competition

•! Where else can your supporters spend their time

and money? What other outlets do they have for

their individual passions?

•! Set aside time to visit those organizations’ websites

•! Sign up for their newsletters

•! Visit their presentations and booths at conferences

•! Learn from their successes, and their mistakes

•! Keep watching!

3. Make a plan

People can make communications planning sound

complicated, daunting and something only a marcom

person with years of experience can do.

WRONG. Anyone can do this…

3. Make a plan

AUDIENCE

MESSAGE

TOOL

TIMING

ASSIGNMENT

METRICS

Who do you want to reach?

What do you want to say to them?

Be sure to make it about them!

What communication tool(s) will

most effectively reach them?

When this will happen?

Who is going to make sure this

communication step happens?

How will you know it worked?

The key = pick a few things, do them well, measure, adapt

4. Plan to network

•! Make a list of the individuals and organizations most important to

your success (does NOT need to be a long list)

•! Agree on “who owns whom”….which staff and board members will

take responsibility for building a networking relationship with each of

these individuals and organizations. Be realistic about how many

contacts each of you can handle

•! Review your organization’s yearly calendar to identify good potential

points of contact (performances? show openings? Board of Visitors

day? a yearly conference…yours or someone else’s?)

•! Inventory the tools you have to share with these contacts…what do

you have to offer them? What will be most effective in keeping them

up to date on your organization? (your monthly newsletter? a

quarterly report? your annual report? a new video?...just make sure

it’s delivered in a very personal manner)

•! Agree on how often you will reach out to these contacts

•! Evaluate the list on a yearly basis…weed and add as appropriate

Put it in writing

5. Plan to update your web site

•! If you do nothing else…have a plan to keep your

website updated

•! Convene all “owners” of the web site…all those on

staff and/or board who will contribute content and

multimedia

•! A two step process

–! Review your organizational calendar, match web

updates to relevant events/activities

–! Identify the down times and brainstorm other, non-

event, updates

–! Don’t forget to plan to update your photos!

Sample: Editorial calendar

6. Layer a social media plan on top

•! Take another look at that calendar

•! Where are the opportunities to use social media to

drive your audiences to events on that calendar, to

your web site to learn more, etc?*

•! Make sure that everyone in your org responsible for

social media is working together!

•! For both web and social media planning…strive for 75% planned, 25% opportunistic

*Assuming you’ve already settled on the most appropriate social media channels

7. Be easy to find

ONLINE

•! Search engine optimization…where will you land on

Google?

•! Search engine marketing…what will you pay to

increase/control your presence?

IN THE REAL WORLD

•! Signage (don’t laugh)

–! Are you visible from the street?

–! Can people easily find their way around your property

(campus, museum, offices, etc.)

–! Is it all consistent, user-friendly and brand

appropriate?

8. Build your audience, then

stay connected

•! Always be collecting email addresses (and Twitter

followers, and people who like you on Facebook, and

YouTube viewers)

•! Think about how you can partner with other

organizations to build your exposure and audience

•! Segment and prioritize your audience (a casual

YouTube viewer may not merit the same level of effort

as a significant donor)

•! Stay in touch in whatever way makes sense to your audience (enewsletter, postcard mailings, print or

online magazine, annual report, etc.)

–! Use your comms plan to monitor cadence…don’t

communicate too much or too little

•! Be perceptive, responsive, relevant and compelling.

9. Remember to say thank you

•! Silly, hunh?

•! It works.

•! Look for every opportunity to recognize your

audience for their contribution to your success

–! Printed notes

–! Invites to events

–! Shout outs

–! Quick emails

•! They will be pleasantly surprised. And they will help

you again. And again.

10. Measure, measure, measure

•! For every tactic you consider, ask yourself “How will we

measure our results? How will we know we’ve

succeeded?”

•! Report, report, report…make sure staff and board are

aware of what you’re doing in terms of marketing

communication, and where you’ve been successful

•! The easy ones:

–! Web traffic and traffic patterns

–! Enewsletter response rates

–! Event registration

–! Inbound phone calls

–! Press mentions

–! Referrals

–! Social media metrics

And the bonus tip…

•! REPURPOSE (it’s no longer a dirty word)

•! Every single piece of content, every single piece of

multimedia, every bit of press…they all have more

than one use (maybe not in the same format for

each channel)

•! Think about how to wring every last piece of value

out of everything you do (on mission, on brand,

relevant and compelling, of course!)

•! For example…

–! Video

–! Press mentions

–! Magazine stories

Let’s look at the poll results

Special thanks

Thanks to the colleagues who responded when I sent

out a late night poll asking for their “must do”

communications tactics:

•! Nicole Palovich: www.childrenshospital.org/

•! Diane Viera: www.historicnewengland.org

•! Priscilla Lund: www.chds.org

•! Jennifer Harrington: http://www.hatch12.com

•! Sue Landay: www.trainerswarehouse.com

•! Jennifer Powell: www.excellentwriters.com

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