Mark AdamsEvery marketing team is challenged to do more with less — especially nonprofit organizations. Often times, resources are tight, and teams are small. Sound like your organization?
We want to help. That’s why we created this nonprofit marketing guide. Your organization might not operate for profit, but it can still value from the traffic, funds, and awareness marketing brings in.
Know what to do, what not to do, and how to do it, because the effectiveness and responses will save your organization money and increase its bottom line.
Let’s take a look.
The 15 Steps Of Advertising A Ngo
Think of yourself as an extra member of a team that’s working hard to provide a service to a community. While you may not be the star performer, your duties are critical to the success of the service.
That’s why people depend on you — you get things done.
Market or broadcast, advertise or sell, recruit or provide resources, create advertising or fund recruitment and development, all together, a nonprofit organization communicates with its community for the benefit of the community.
Not a lot of agencies understand what this work entails, which is why this guide is so exciting to help Ngo’s and social entrepreneurs. Understanding how to succeed in this business requires a comprehensive understanding of how the business, and the entire organization, works.
With the guide and all the information you need, you’ll be able to:
- Preview a local community group’s advertising campaign;
- Ask for help with all the basic and complex tasks for an advertising campaign no matter where you are in the world;
- Know your rights when you make the decision between a business relationship and free advertising in your own community;
- Plan, develop, and follow an advertising campaign;
- Identify and coach people to do the follow up and tasks that come along with an advertising campaign;
And much more.
The Guide Has All of In The Guide For Ngo’s Simple Advertising
Forbes publishes a guide to help nonprofits understand how to make the sale. Let’s look at one of the most successful Ngo teams on the planet: the One Campaign Animal. Here’s what they do:
“As a Pet Project, our purpose is to raise money and awareness for orphanages and shelters worldwide. We do this, by doing what we do best — working with our friends and the help of our supporters, to find homes for hundreds of unwanted animals.”
But first, Forbes explains how One Campaign Animal got started
“Building an international network of like-minded individuals, One Campaign Animal was able to achieve something that no-one else could: create an organization that mounted an advertising campaign that generated millions of dollars for charity.”
In other words, massive revenue was generated for a non-profit that doesn’t do the work. Even if the organization isn’t making a profit, it’s still good for the community.
You can learn more about what One Campaign Animal does and how they create an advertisement campaign. Next, let’s take a look at an example campaign.
Live Ole Ngo The Ad Campaign
This campaign was developed by the multi-award winning One Campaign Animal Ngo.
Live Ole Ngo was launched in 2014. The campaign stands out because of its simplicity.
Send your ideas, creativity, and purchases in a PDF or PowerPoint presentation to liveole@liveole.org. The organization turns that completed project into an interactive branding product that sends direct messages through their website, Facebook pages, and YouTube channels.
Live OLE NGo is a nonprofit devoted to helping the homeless in the Philippines. The spots they run are on the community wiki, Facebook, and YouTube, where they introduce themselves as the “World’s Most Dangerous Animal.” One of their communities, the White Shark Center in California, filmed and promoted their videos and video content.
Live Ole Ngo created product that shows the differences between the animal experience of the celebrity being filmed and the animal being saved. Even their wildlife biologist explains the differences:
“I believe that the viral videos you just saw on social media and YouTube are the work of the great people of Live Ole Ngo. You know who you are. You are blessed to be living in the communities that you do and find out that there is a need to help others like you. It’s time to benefit yourselves and make a difference.”
To fund the project, the creators hired a graphic designer to design their business cards and branding. They got a grant to pay for all the bills and production costs associated with the advertisement campaign.
The total cost of the campaign is reported at $956,000, which measures as of December 2014. The advertising campaign ran the length of the country from San Diego to Tokyo to Manila. All told, Live Ole Ngo put up about $2.5 million in two months.
There are several things to love about this advertising campaign.
The biggest bonus is the enormous amount of engagement opportunities for the organization they funded. The original idea was simple: post a photo with their logo and a limited-edition t-shirt, and see what kind of response the community has.
The campaign was so successful that Live Ole Ngo decided to create this printable advertisement kit to hand out to the community.
“Well, the campaign was a huge success based on the 400,000 shares on Facebook, 2.2 million people who saw it, and countless follow-up emails from supporters. A few weeks later we found out that over 120,000 people had shared the campaign on their social networks.” – Live Ole Ngo
The follow-up campaign developed by Live Ole Ngo illustrates how to successfully use social media. Active followers on Facebook.com related to the project create a badge design that the community can use in creative ways.
It’s important to understand that the community response is a motivating factor in the campaign’s success. Every visit to the LIFE Ole Ngo website, for example, was followed by a response from the community.
Live Ole Ngo created the following social media integration to show how they interact with their supporters.
Jokers can now vote on how the life ole logo would look like while the community votes on what kind of things they want to see.
Jokers can move their avatars up or down a poll as a virtual vote, to let the community know if you agree with their ideas and critique. If you use the kit, you’ll also see a sticker that says, “Given your support for Live Ole Ngo, we’re giving you a chance to win a $100 gift certificate for participating in the campaign.”
The stickers and participant gifts are placed on Facebook fan pages for the organization. As of March 29, 2016, Live Ole Ngo has more than 130,000 fans on their Facebook fan page Creating Brands for Today. Remember, the gifting option only goes for one month. Once a person is tagged, everything has to be logged into the campaign via Facebook, so it isn’t free advertising.
Live Ole Ngo’s emails are perhaps the most important aspect of the whole campaign. In a successful campaign, these emails are the most effective way to get attendees.
There’s no doubt about it. The emails are the most effective way to capture new members of the community.
Live Ole Ngo’s emails are a great way to save money and never miss a community event, or snag a discount. Once an email is sent, it can be seen by anyone in the community.
“Our income is made up of ads, social media, merchandise, people coming to the basketball game, and so on. Emails are a doable way to fund these things into the picture. The cost is split 50/50 between the two.”
How To Run An Advertising Campaign
One of the biggest mistakes that Ngo’s make is not asking for help from local community groups and businesses. Therefore, Ngo teams are faced with countless obstacles, such as marketing executives and final approval for the budget.
That’s why all of the community projects, including new campaigns, are developed with local support.
Community Marketing Collaborators
People in the community who understand the needs of the community or know how to reach them often help out.
Ngo used the existing social media accounts that they had to help develop the campaign. Twitter was perfect for connecting the campaign with the social network. Facebook posts were perfect for generating interest from people active with the campaign on Twitter.
Ngo’s have Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. By connecting the campaign and the social networks, Ngo is able to built a strong connection with members of the community.
With over 650 active followers, Ngo’s Facebook page has the advantage of being able to share and promote the campaign’s progress. Ngo’s also have a YouTube channel, where viewers can follow how the campaign will be run.
Offering a discounted price for the promotion allows the organization to entice participants, and it’s a great way to engage users with the brand if they’re watching the video.
The Facebook page has plenty of opportunities for community members to show their support for the campaign. For example, many of them comment with posts from the campaign, offer participation incentives, and share it to their social networks.
Ngo uses the Facebook page for several things. One example is to show the video. The transparency on the page tell the readers about how the video will be developed. They also provide contacts for further discussion and support.
“One important social media interaction we have is with Facebook. We post our campaign video there. We have behind the scenes content on Facebook. We’re giving away tablets, t-shirts, glasses, and more as a thank you.”
Considering how effective the campaign seems to be, Ngo’s must be doing something right. By taking the time to engage with the community through Facebook and Twitter, Ngo can run a campaign to help spread trust and awareness for the organization.
The best part about all of this engagement is that the organization can get its name out to the market. These efforts also entice those who are interested in buying a campaign, because of all the other discounts. This is a brilliant way to buy traffic to their website.
The next time you have an opportunity to sponsor an advertising campaign, be sure to take advantage of the opportunity. The more support you can get, the better your campaign platform will be.
Tips for Running A Successful Advertising Campaign
Bring The Fundraising Electronics to Campaign Events
The biggest obstacle to running a successful advertising campaign is bringing all of your fundraising electronics to the event.
The best way to include those who need the funds most is to make sure the campaign is a success. Once you have a few days to plan beforehand, bring your projects to the events. One way to do this is to bring your team to the community’s event so those who are desperate to get their funds can get them.
On top of that, if people are needed at the event, bring your electronics and project to the event. That way, there will be more people attending the event than there will be electronics, so the crowd isn’t as small.
When even more people are at the event, there will be more demand for the fundraising project, and the staff increases, allowing them to sell more.
“It’s much more efficient when everyone is on a team. We’re able to create a system where the donations come in daily. We have people who donate multiple times on a single day, so they don’t miss out on the potential. Each day the organization brings projects, they’re available to the community. It’s a way for the community to feel like somebody is paying attention to them, and we can be doing many things at once.”
Selling The Campaign
After the event, it’s important to sell the campaign. A successful campaign sells it to various types of people. The prizes are the best way to get people to attend the event. The free swag holders are a great way to get some more members of the community involved.
