It’s the difference between getting jeans at Shein or Levi’s or getting a Philly Cheesesteak outside of Philly or inside of Philly.
Some people are trained to make the best product available. And when things are done at a higher caliber, the difference shows up in ways you may not expect.
Marketing, development, and communication positions at nonprofits are often filled by people who have – as one of our client’s says – “fallen” into the role. So your team may not have every skill you need in those areas.
And that’s ok. You probably don’t need all the skills all the time.
But when a special event or campaign is coming up…it could be worth it to call in the professionals. As specialists who are not responsible for the day-to-day, we can offer targeted support that boosts your efforts and your outcomes. A little help from a pro can level-up your campaign and ratchet down the stress of your team.
1. Planning
Campaigns and events require a lot of marketing planning. If your in-house team typically manages day to-day execution, stepping out of that to focus strategically can be a big shift. Having to flip back and forth between the horizontal thinking of strategy and planning and the vertical work of executing is called “context switching” and it bleeds time and energy.
If your team is at their best when they have a direction and can run with it, getting professional help to develop that direction allows your team to put their energy into delivery.
Consider support for:
- Creating the brand of your event or campaign so it fits appropriately into your organization’s brand hierarchy.
- Naming or creating the theme for your initiative
- Developing key messages for your audiences
- Crafting a marketing action plan
- Mapping out the timing for delivery
2. Templates
Event and campaign marketing needs both flexibility and predictability. Keeping colors, fonts and graphic elements consistent creates the repetition that drives action. But too much of the same and audiences can go “brand blind.” Your team may benefit most from a head start and some guideposts for creating materials. Templates lock in the key brand elements while offering staff the ability to create variations that meet their needs. Not starting from scratch saves time and ensures continuity.
We can design the overall look and decide what can be customized and what needs to remain static. We’ll create templates in a tool familiar to your team and provide instructions on how to update.
Build a base with editable templates for:
- Social media covers
- Announcements
- Engagement posts
- Thermometer-style progress graphics
- Thank you and reporting material
- Flyers, posters, postcards and signs
- Email and website graphics
- Customizable copy for social posts and email
3. Toolkits
Wouldn’t it be great if your board, volunteers, and other supporters helped promote your program? Making things easy increases the chance they’ll share.
Toolkits leverage enthusiastic supporters and gives them a straightforward way to spread the word about your organization and campaign. Even if you don’t get 100% usage, toolkits create excitement around the campaign and give everyone language to talk about it.
Toolkits also help document your marketing. When staff changes, you have a roadmap the next person can pick up and run with. We’ll work together to plan the right components and the best way to deliver to your ambassadors.
Turn templates into sharable tools:
- Ready-to-use and editable graphics for supporters
- Fill-in-the-blank as well as grab-and-go content for social and email
- Instructions for participants
- Guides and ideas for participants
- Consulting on finding and working with ambassadors
How does it all come together?
Spur Impact has ambitious goals to increase the number of Delawarean’s participating in Do More 24: Delaware Giving Day. To do this, they needed to help nonprofits promote their participation in the event – and give them the tools to get their supporters involved as well. With a team of three, Spur Impact brought in Iris. For the last four years we’ve planned, created templates and toolkits that have helped this campaign grow from raising $400K annually to $2.6 Million. The Giving Day continues to attract donors throughout Delaware and all 50 states. Need help reaching your campaign goals? Email us or call us at 267-468-7949 to see how we can help.
P.S. If turning supporters into ambassadors seems like a daunting task…you’re not alone. We’ll cover how to identify and inspire the right people in our next email.
