Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 041115

Marketing Kits

Marketers for nonprofits and small businesses have at their disposal several packages with which they can promote their projects and products. Commonly referred to as kits, they help marketers tell their organizations’ stories along different lines.

According to Deborah Anderson, who was a corporate chief technology officer, there are five such kits.

Media Kit: If you take advantage of a website to promote or advertise your project, services or products, Anderson explains that the media kit is the best package to present to potential advertisers. Many sites include their media kit link to Google Analytics so that the advertiser and stakeholder could see the traffic stats, she wrote.

The media kit goes further than stats and allows for the insertion of media-related items that may be of interest to the advertiser, the sponsor, the radio show host, or TV host. Anderson said the key thing for the company to keep in mind is to define the objective or your market campaign. For example, is the objective to gain more advertisers on the site? If so, cater the media kit to those stats. If the objective to be interviewed on the radio or TV? If so, cater the media kit to demonstrating past appearances and media successes. What is the objective of your organization or campaign?

Press Kit: The press kit answers the question of who, what, where. Anderson suggests that a press kit would be the right kit for a product launch, a new website launch, or a project launch. The press kit includes information and items that the press may want in order to put write a story. That would include high quality headshots (which may also be included in the media kit) and audio files, videos, etc. Traditionally, these press kits were mailed or handed out, prior to the inception of the Internet. Now that the Internet is available, there is what is called the electronic press kit.

Electronic Press Kit: It’s an electronic or digital version of what would be included in the traditional press kit.

Brand or Identity Kit: The purpose of the brand kit is to create brand consistency. The brand kit is used within an organization and provided to contractors who are putting together marketing materials for the company. For example, it focuses on a style guide that dictates what fonts to use, what layouts, what images, colors, and more.

One Sheet: In the past, this was a printed sheet that included newspaper clippings and clips of gig appearances. Today, the one sheet can also be created online, as a digital piece. Is a concise press kit or media kit, but not a brand kit.

Previously, along these lines, clever marketers and advertisers offered the notion of a cocktail napkin or elevator ride presentation. This quick or one sheet kit, expressed on a 4X4-in. napkin or within the seconds in takes to ride an elevator, compelled the marketer to grab swiftly the potential audience’s attention.

“Now that you understand how all of these kits and promotional pieces are similar (and different), which ‘kit’ fits your business needs? It isn’t a bad idea to put together a version of all of them, but generally speaking, starting with one and doing it well, makes logical sense. You can always add the others, recycling components from the first, after you have mastered your first kit,” Anderson explained.

Fundraising

Nonprofit fundraisers are regularly challenged by developing intriguing ways of reaching out to their stakeholders. I uncovered an interesting solution in concept of community. Building a community, it has been said, is another term for fundraising.

“’This organization serves our tribe. I am giving. I invite you to join me.’ That three-part statement is the basis of many effective solicitations. We talk a lot about the second statement (endorsement) and the third (solicitation), but we don’t often discuss the first (community). If we can become more conscious and articulate about what that means, we will be better fundraisers,” opined Paul Jolly, founder of Jump Start Growth, Inc.

Understandably, community means different things for different organizations, Jolly said. For example, for global organizations, community is humankind. For local organizations, it’s a particular place. For schools – the families who share the values the school exemplifies. For arts organizations – people passionate about the importance of creativity and expression. For new organizations – people who are inspired by the founder’s vision.

What is the community that is served by your organization? Even small businesses have a community that they focus on with services and products. What do your communities expect from you and what do you want to deliver to your community.

“If your organization serves people who are excluded from the affluence that America can offer, then that ‘we are all in this together’ sentiment is all the more important. The most impressive service organizations I have seen are very protective of the dignity of their clients. Emphasizing the gulf between those who can help and those who need help does not serve anyone. And it does not lead to a sustainable commitment from donors,” Jolly advised.

Interesting Statistics about Contacts

4.5 is the average number of nonprofits that Baby Boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) donate to, according to Next Generation of American Giving Report. It also said 3.3 is the average number of nonprofits that Generation Y (or Millennials—people born between the early 1980s and early 2000s) donors give to.

Look toward the future

Special conference the next generation of leaders – nonprofits, small businesses, politics. Friendship Ambassadors Foundation is presenting the summer 2015 edition of its Youth Assembly at the United Nations. For more information, visit: www.youthassembly.nyc

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

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