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By Nancy E. Schwartz
Publisher – GettingAttention.org / President – Nancy Schwartz & Company
Challenge:
You have a marketing and communications strategy and are implementing varied tactics to meet your goals. But you’re not convinced you can’t do better. Are you focusing on the right messages? Is your graphic approach consistent with your work and your audiences? Are your competitors simply saying it better?
Solution:
Audit! But not the IRS kind. Here are the steps to take to to examine what you are doing (and what your competitors and partners are doing) and pinpoint what’s working and what’s not. You’ll use this understanding to help reframe your marketing and communications program around messages that do resonate with your core audiences. And you’ll continue to leverage this information to revise your strategies and tactics to work better than ever before.
Situation Analysis
- Work with staff to identify goals and target audiences, barriers, and opportunities
Research
- Conduct internal research which may include:
- Interviews with staff, across functions and perspectives
- Assessment of existing name and tagline, marketing and advertising materials, and Internet strategy. (It’s critical to evaluate both the substance and the style of these items. Our findings will include an assessment of the messages that do come through strongly.)
- Conduct research of external audiences
- Interviews with and surveys of external stakeholders
- Review of existing research (focus groups, surveys, etc.)
- Review partner and competitive materials and messages
Analysis and Interpretation
- Analyze and interpret findings
Recommendations
- Develop or refine your brand (a positioning statement, key messages, and tone and style guidelines)
- Design an action plan to adapt name, tagline, existing materials, and Web presence to conform with this brand
- Identify new or revised strategies to meet stated goals.
Then it’s on to implementation! An audit is an investment well worth it.
Nancy E. Schwartz helps nonprofits succeed through effective marketing. Nancy and her team provide marketing planning and implementation services to nonprofit organizations and foundations nationwide. She is the publisher of the Getting Attention e-update and blog. For more nonprofit marketing guidance like this, subscribe to her e-update at http://gettingattention.org/nonprofit-marketing/subscribe-enewsletter.html.
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