Wonder sometimes why your marketing is falling short of its goals or why momentum feels harder than it should?
As a ministry or nonprofit, you feel the weight of responsibility to be a good steward of the resources you’ve been given, so when you struggle to get people to respond to ads, social media posts, newsletters, and campaigns, it can crush your optimism.
Organizations often reach for marketing when momentum slows, but the real issue is alignment across leadership, messaging, and daily practice.
Here are ten common mistakes organizations like yours make that keep them from growing and making the impact they are called to — but here’s the good news: they are easy mistakes to fix!
1. They don’t have a core message that is consistent throughout all of their marketing.
Some take the approach that they’ll send out lots of different messages in the hopes that something will resonate with someone. The problem is, all the different messages, all the different words you use to describe what you do, and all the different calls to action just add to the marketing noise.
When you use a clear way to talk about what you do and people hear it consistently from several sources, it cuts through the noise and begins to sound more like a repeatable melody. People take notice.
Have you ever been to a symphony or even a school band concert? Think about the cacophony of squawking instruments as every musician focuses on tuning their own instrument and warms up with scales or practices a few measures, completely out of sync and tune with everyone else. The audience just hears noise and tunes it out as they begin conversations with their neighbors (or, if they are introverts, pretend to be captivated by the info in the program book.)
Now think about the moment the conductor steps to the podium, lifts his baton and the musicians begin playing in perfect time and harmony. What a difference! The audience sits up in their seats, listening intently, allowing the music to stir their emotions to the point that as the concert ends, they stand to their feet in thunderous applause. They are “with” the orchestra.
A clear brand strategy helps you develop a core message that is the difference between the cacophony of an orchestra warming up and the beautiful harmonious sound of everyone playing the music together.
2. They don’t harness the power of story in video, newsletters, photography, etc.
Stories give messages sticking power in the brain. They create empathy and connection.
Churches have stories of lives transformed when people meet Jesus or are obedient to His calling.
Charitable organizations that serve “the least of these” have stories of transformation when donors have created opportunities that were previously out of their reach.
Speakers and authors receive stories from people who experience fresh insight into dealing with their problems after hearing a presentation or reading a book that was life-changing for them.
You get the idea. As a church or nonprofit leader, you have a wealth of transformation stories that can’t be equaled in the for-profit marketplace!
Tell the stories in your newsletters, social media posts, blogs, videos, and direct mail. Use photos to tell stories rather than lining people up for group shots.
3. They focus on themselves and make themselves the hero in their communications.
In storytelling for your church or nonprofit, don’t make it about you. No one really cares how great you are and if you focus on that, your marketing will fall flat, never resonating with anyone.
The people you need to connect with want to know how they are the hero when they partner with you to make a difference — or how the people you serve are the heroes as they overcome obstacles in their lives.
Follow the signs of transformation to find the heroes in your organization, and focus on talking about them in your communications.
4. Their content is boring. It doesn’t show a clear connection why their audience should care about their cause.
Stories are a great way to connect, but you can also make your message resonate with your audience when you connect it to something they care about: a deep need to belong or find purpose, a problem they have experienced themselves, or a personal core value like family togetherness.
The secret is to know your audience — not just the demographics like age, geographic location or education level, but the more subjective and nuanced psychographics like, who influences them, what they hope for, and how do they prefer to spend their time off work.
Surveys, focus groups, and interviews are a good place to start. Then distill the info down to a persona — a fictional “character” based on real data from your audience. When you create a new marketing message, write it as though you are talking to that one “person.” Your message will be relatable and more likely to create a message that resonates with the audience you need to reach.
5. They get caught-up in technical insider language.
The NGO world is fraught with acronyms that confuse everyone who isn’t a grant writer or nonprofit leader. (And if you’re not one of them, it might be helpful to know that an NGO is a non-governmental organization, often a philanthropic group, that is working for the welfare of others.)
Churches are no better. How many times have you visited a church other than your own and in the announcements you’re told, “If you’re interested in the S.A.G.E. Ministry, see Jim in the Alcove after service.”
What? Feels like you need to know the secret handshake to be a part of things there! Not the experience churches want guests to have.
6. They aren’t clear about their call to action.
It’s hard to ask for money, but if that’s what you need to carry out your mission, don’t just share your vision in a letter to your donor base, tell them how they can help. Make it straightforward — and easy to respond.
At the other end of the spectrum, some organizations cram so much into their communications, they end up with multiple calls of action — too many options, opportunities, or ways to respond — which leads to decision paralysis on the part of the readers.
Zero in on one call to action and make it clear.
7. They don’t make it easy to respond, give, or sign-up.
Nonprofits and churches unintentionally put up all kinds of roadblocks that cause people to give up before responding: Asking for too much unnecessary information, too many complicated steps, too many ways to respond, or visual signals that aren’t intuitive (i.e., a button that says “go” but signals “stop” because it’s red).
A couple of simple things you can do: Embed forms on a webpage rather than redirecting them to another page. Only ask for what you absolutely have to have from people, e.g., don’t ask for their address if you’re only going to email them. If you’re a church, have one spot where people can go for information in the lobby. Have a single hub for information about sign-ups on your website.
Tell them what to expect — what is their next step? Don’t assume they know.
8. They miss out on the benefit of multiple impressions from coordinated efforts online, in social media, in print campaigns, video and PR.
I often am asked, does direct mail still work? The answer is yes, it can be highly effective — especially when working in tandem with other media. Most campaigns will benefit from a multichannel approach.
To get the most mileage out of a cross-media campaign, make sure all of the visuals are coordinated. If the words are the same, but the visuals are different, people won’t pick up on the fact that the two messages are related. If the visual elements are similar, people immediately see the connection — even if the words are different. Of all the visual cues, color may be one of the most powerful to signal that two things are related.
Make sure your videographer, print designer, digital designer/developer, social media manager, and copywriter are all working together to present a cohesive campaign or appeal. One may need to take the lead in establishing the direction of visuals, but it’s important that they work together to be sure all of the constraints and conditions of the various media are considered and optimized.
9. They don’t invest in design and end up looking unprofessional or fly-by-night which erodes trust.
First impressions are formed in milliseconds. It takes the blink of an eye for people to decide if they trust you and that is almost entirely based on how things look. And, studies have found that longer exposure to your content, seldom changes that first impression.
Design matters. Don’t waste that initial impression. You need it to convey trustworthiness long enough for you to build a relationship and prove it.
10. They don’t test how their messaging and design resonates with donors.
Testing seems like an extra step that uses up valuable time in getting your message out, but ultimately, it can save you time and money. How do you know if your envelope teaser works to get people to open your letter? How do you know which photo connects with people better? How do you know what call to action will produce the best results?
Ask your audience.
There are two simple ways to test your message: check with a focus group for feedback before launching a campaign or do A/B testing where your list is randomly split into two groups to receive different mailings to see which performs better. It’s good practice to focus on one specific thing to test with each campaign: a photo, 2-page or 4-page letter, envelope teaser, etc. That way you can identify what works better for you and implement it into your next appeal.
With a social media ad, you can see which version of an ad gets traction and then turn off the ad with weaker response and put all the campaign resources behind the better performing ad.
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A lot of marketing problems are really branding problems (and no, I don’t mean there’s anything wrong with your logo!)
Sometimes the best way forward is to stop and get clarity about what you do, how you do it, why you do it, and how you talk about it to others.
If you find that your marketing efforts are struggling to gain traction and you want to talk about how to get clear about your brand, choose a time for a free 30-minute strategy call with me. You’ll get great value from the call whether you choose to work with me or not. Just click on the “Schedule a Call” button in the header.
