The world of nonprofit marketing is full of success stories: annual giving goals met, national legislation passed, and target audiences’ behavior changed. It’s also just as full of missteps, cautionary tales, and blunders. Be a success story by not falling into one of these seven common nonprofit marketing traps.
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Nonprofit Marketing Mistake #1: Fixating on Raising Awareness
Raising awareness is important. But don’t forget that your ultimate goal is changing behavior…whether that’s persuading a recurring donor to contribute to your capital campaign, prompting a newsletter subscriber to sign your public lands petition, or convincing a local homeowner to install a rain barrel. That means that most of your would-be action-takers need to go through three phases: a) awareness, b) intention, and, finally, c) behavior change. Education is a key piece of that puzzle, but it’s not the whole picture.
Let’s take climate change for example. Most advocates assume that the more an individual knows about climate change, the more they will care about the issue, but a groundbreaking 2012 study uncovered something surprising. Research showed that as science and mathematical literacy increased, concern about climate change actually decreased (*insert shocked face emoji*). But a closer look revealed something deeper going on: as science and mathematical literacy scores increased, liberals and Democrats became more concerned about climate change, while conservatives and Republicans became more skeptical.
Research showed that as science and mathematical literacy increased, concern about climate change actually decreased
In other words, those with higher science and mathematical literacy scores were merely using that knowledge to reinforce their already existing, closely held beliefs. So what does that mean for your nonprofit marketing strategy? It means that you need to look beyond merely educating your audience and instead tailor your messaging (and messengers) to appeal to your audience’s already existing beliefs. This brings us to our next nonprofit marketing mistake.
Nonprofit Marketing Mistake #2: Targeting the Wrong Audience
Here’s the thing, your audience is not one big clump, but instead is made up of lots of smaller clusters, each with its own interests, preferences, and aversions. Understanding these will help you segment your audience into the right bite-sized pieces and adapt your strategies appropriately. There’s a right and wrong way to go about this, or at least a better way to go about it. To demonstrate, let’s look at an example from the backcountry.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC) recently recommended hikers carry bear canisters along the entire length of the 2200-mile trail. Now, as a former Appalachian Trail thru-hiker myself (who once got into an argument with a fellow thru-hiker until he finally took his food bag out of the Shenandoah shelter we were sharing and hung it on the nearby bear pole), I can tell you that the ATC is fighting an uphill battle with this one. So let’s look at how they might use segmentation to convince very stubborn hikers.
Understanding these tactics will help you segment your audience into the right bite-sized pieces and adapt your strategies appropriately. But there’s a right and wrong way to go about this, or at least a better way to go about it.
Suppose someone at the ATC suggests segmenting their audience by age, crafting one message for the Gen Zers, one for the Millennials, and one for the Baby Boomers. Someone else wants to segment their audience by length of the hike, crafting one message for the day hikers, one for the weekend warriors, and one for the thru-hikers. Which would you choose? The truth is, segmenting your audience by demographics (what you often see in nonprofit marketing), is not nearly as effective as segmenting your audience by psychographics (attitudes, beliefs, and lifestyles), making the latter the better option.
Nonprofit Marketing Mistake #3: Using the Wrong Message
Once a nonprofit has segmented its audience, preferably by psychographics, what’s next? Segmenting doesn’t mean anything if you don’t match the right audience with the right message. In the world of nonprofit marketing, we call this framing, or setting an issue within a particular context or emphasizing particular attributes of an issue in order to achieve a desired interpretation or perspective. How you frame an issue in turn influences how your audience perceives that issue.
For example, one of Darby Communication’s long-time clients, Appalachian Gear Company, makes performance garments and gear made out of 100% natural fibers. Their goal? Replace the synthetic garments that currently dominate the outdoor industry with all-natural garments that are sustainable, biodegradable, and free of microplastics. However, we understood that not every segment of Appalachian Gear Company’s audience would be moved by an environmental argument.
Therefore, rather than merely framing the purchase of an alpaca garment as good for the environment, we also framed it as good for their audience’s health and good for their audience’s wallets
Therefore, rather than merely framing the purchase of an alpaca garment as good for the environment, we also framed it as good for their audience’s health (by reducing the number of microplastics that humans can inhale or ingest) and also good for their wallets (by purchasing a garment that will last for years without needing repair). The result? An omnichannel campaign that resulted in a 400% increase in website traffic and a 900% increase in direct-to-consumer sales over the previous month.
Nonprofit Marketing Mistake #4: Focusing on Problems, Not Solutions
There’s another common messaging mistake nonprofit marketers make. A lot of us live in a world of scary statistics and alarming tales. We deal with urgent issues with severe consequences, from climate change to stormwater sediment to environmental justice and more. It’s understandable that we want our audience to feel as anxious about the issues close to our hearts as we do. But here’s the thing, fear can easily backfire.
Fear appeals work best when, in addition to triggering a sense of severity and vulnerability, they also trigger a sense of self-efficacy and response-efficacy. In other words, yes, make sure your audience knows that your issue is serious and that it can (and will) impact them. But also make sure they believe in their ability to perform whatever behavior you are recommending and believe in the ability of the recommended behavior to actually fix the problem.
It’s understandable that we want our audience to be as anxious as we are. But here’s the thing, fear can backfire.
Let’s return to our Appalachian Trail bear problem. The ATC might emphasize the severity of the issue by highlighting the effects of going without food in the backcountry. They might emphasize hikers’ vulnerability to bear invasions by sharing statistics about bears stealing food at each AT shelter. However, the ATC should also emphasize hikers’ self-efficacy, perhaps by pointing them to the closest retailers selling bear canisters, and highlight the response-efficacy, perhaps by sharing a video demonstrating the effectiveness of these canisters.
Nonprofit Marketing Mistake #5: Getting Lost in the Noise
Of course, no matter how strategically you’ve segmented your audience and how carefully you’ve crafted your messages, all of your work will be for naught if you don’t capture your audience’s attention in the first place. You may already be familiar with some of the tried-and-true attention-getting devices (background music, loud voices, children’s voices, slogans, alliteration, repetition), so let’s dive deeper into why such nonprofit marketing gimmicks matter in the first place.
Bear with me, because I’m about to take you on a journey through the nonprofit marketer’s best friend and worst enemy: the human mind. Let’s go! People who are highly motivated to think about an issue are more likely to elaborate on the issue and more likely to change their behavior as a result. On the other hand, those who are less motivated to think about an issue are less likely to elaborate on the issue, more susceptible to counterarguments, and less likely to change their behavior as a result. Make sense?
I’m about to take you on a journey through the nonprofit marketer’s best friend and worst enemy: the human mind.
Experts call these two types of processing Central Route Processing (leading to more behavior change) and Peripheral Route Processing (leading to less behavior change). The good news for nonprofit marketers is that, with a little coaxing, people can jump from the peripheral route to the central route. Which is where those attention-grabbing devices come in. These nonprofit marketing gimmicks are used to encourage further elaboration.
Nonprofit Marketing Mistake #6: Using the Wrong Messenger
Now that you’ve got your messaging down, it’s time to focus on your messenger. Because just like selecting the right message, segmenting your audience also doesn’t mean much if you don’t match the right audience with the right messenger. Individuals are much more inclined to imitate the behavior of role models who appeal to those deeply held beliefs. So while you might select a preacher to talk about the moral arguments for protecting our environment, you’d probably pick a business person to talk about the economic reasons for doing so.
While you might select a preacher to talk about the moral arguments for protecting our environment, you’d probably pick a business person to talk about the economic reasons for doing so.
Nonprofit Marketing Mistake #7: Not Laying the Groundwork
I began this blog post by discussing the dangers of fixating on raising awareness. But there’s another danger — jumping straight to the behavior change stage instead. Nonprofit marketers often get anxious to alter behavior, and understandably so, but all the behavior change tactics in the world don’t matter if you haven’t laid the foundation first. That’s why this blog post began with awareness and intention and why you should, too.
Our Nonprofit Marketing Services
The Darby Comm team has years of successfully working with nonprofits of all sizes and with all manner of budgets, timelines, and needs. To learn how we can help your nonprofit garner impactful media coverage, enhance your social media or email marketing strategy, polish your public-facing copy, or otherwise engage your stakeholders, drop us a line HERE. You can also go HERE to learn more about our nonprofit services and successes.