Marketing hasn't really changed that much, just HOW we market. It's time to take a step back and think about the actions we're taking. Do they make sense for what we're trying to accomplish, or are we doing them because we think we need to.

This episode walks you through the elements of marketing that you should be thinking about and starting from. It will help you understand what activities will move the needle and be more intentional with your actions.

What you'll learn:

→ the purpose of marketing.
→ why creating stories for your ideal audience is best!
→ where to market for best impact.
→ value driven content.
→ utilizing video!

Want to skip ahead? Here are key takeaways:

[2:54] The true purpose of marketing. The goal is to get people to donate or buy our product or service, over and over again. It starts with getting really clear about who we serve and then making them feel like they are part of our community.
[6:22] Think about the stories you're telling and the impact you're creating. This is how you'll connect with your ideal customer. Think about why you're talking to them and what they care about and refine the way you build your stories.
[7:07] Where do you share your stories? Think about who your ideal audience is and where they live and show up. That is where you want to be sharing your message.
[10:02] Make the content about them, not you. Making the content personal and relatable to their pain points will help you build a better relationship and bring up a more emotional connection.
[14:06] Utilize video. This is especially important if you're targeting Gen Z. However, all platforms are prioritizing video so it will help you get your message out there more if you utilize it. You'll also make a more personal connection with your audience.

Resources

EP 191 | Marketing Activities for Your Off-Season with Jordana Merkin
EP 152 | Build Your Brand Message with Ashlee Sang

Full Transcript

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern] What if I told you that marketing hasn't really changed over the years? Probably think I was crazy, right? Well, before he stopped listening to this episode, make sure you listen to what I'm going to say. Marketing really hasn't changed over time, the way we market has changed, but the concept of marketing has not changed. The reason why we mark it and the goals that we're trying to achieve, has not changed. And I feel like this is something that I see a lot of organizations get stuck on. They're focused more on the ways that they're going to market without first having conversations about why they're doing it. What's the intent? What's the purpose.

So today, I'm going to share with you some of the reasons why marketing really hasn't changed to hopefully bring you back to reevaluate the activities that you're doing, and figure out what's the best next step for you and what you need to achieve. Now, this is the last episode of our podcast in this kind of format. So the format of the podcast is going to stay the same. But I wanted to do this particular episode, because we're gearing up for a new way that we're going to be creating content on this podcast ways that we're going to be categorizing the things that we're talking about to make it easier for you to really deep dive on particular topics. So take a listen to this episode. And then make sure you stick around to the end so you can hear what's coming up starting March. With March episodes that we're super excited about. Still great guest experts steal great content, steal digital marketing tips and strategies for your nonprofit organization. But we're going to make it easier for you to learn and dive deeper on particular topics that pertain to you. So make sure you give this episode a listen. So you know which topics are the ones that you should be paying attention to. And you can shut out the noise on rest.

Okay, before we get into this episode, it is brought to you by our digital marketing therapy sessions. These are 30 minute one on one sessions that you can book with me at https://thefirstclick.net/officehours , we can go over anything that you want in the digital marketing and website space. If you need help with your content plan if you go through your goals, and now you want to reevaluate the marketing activities that you're doing, if you have questions about the tech that you're using, anything is on the table. Again, you can go to https://thefirstclick.net/officehours schedule your time today, and have me in your back pocket without having an expensive consultant on retainer. Let's get into the episode.

[INTRO] You're listening to the digital marketing therapy podcast. I'm your host, Sami Bedell-Mulhern. And each week, I bring you tips from myself and other experts, as well as hot seats with small business owners and entrepreneurs to demystify digital marketing and get you on your way to generating more leads and growing your business. 

[Sami Bedell-Mulhern]  So when I say marketing hasn't changed, the reason is, is that the purpose of marketing is to get people to buy your product or service, right to get people to engage and to get people to want to come and buy your product and buy your product again and again. And so the ways with which we do that have definitely changed from, you know, the madmen times of magazine articles, and all of that good stuff. But it all has always started with I think two things.

One is really being clear and understanding the audience that is the perfect customer for you. And number two, making them feel like they're part of a community making them feel like this is the best thing in the world to solve the problem that they have. Now we know that there are people out there that do what we do. There are so many marketing podcasts, you choose to listen to mine, there are so many marketing consultants, website designers and developers, my clients that choose to work with me choose to work with me. And the reason being is that we have connected on a more personal level. You like my style, you like the way that I coach the way that I teach the information that I bring? So it's not about who does it best. It's about who reaches the right audience the best. That's how we define success. And instead in a lot of places in marketing, we get caught up in these vanity metrics like oh, well, I have 3.5 million followers. I have 1000 100,000 million, 2 million people on my email list. Like we get caught up in these things that make us feel good, that we're not focusing on the reason that we're doing what we're doing and who we're talking to. So this goes way back.

Like I said, I don't know if any of you've if you've watched Mad Men, I was obsessed with it for a while. But even back then when it was all magazine articles for the most part, right or PR you're still hyper targeting the publications that makes sense. For the audience that you're talking to, if you're doing direct mail, you're targeting people that fit a certain demographic. If you're reaching out via one on one calls for sponsorships, you're targeting companies that you think have the best alignment. So you're already doing this in a lot of offline fundraising and marketing areas. But when it comes to digital marketing, we almost like go into this Tizzy of like, okay, we have to do everything. Nothing is working, yada, yada, yada.

We also have to get out of this mind frame that it's going to happen like that, because it's not our marketing activities are things that are going to help us be sustainable in the long run, get us out of this feast or famine routine, right? It's like the ripple effect, like if you drop a pebble in the water, and then you see the rings that go out, right? Each one of those rings is some more engagement, some more increase in visibility, some more new donors coming in. But if we don't ever drop that pebble, then we're, you know, not ever going to see any results. So we need to be thinking about it from a sustainable space, over time, reaching the right audience and getting results. So marketing hasn't changed.

So I want you to first think about when was the last time that you sat down and really thought about the stories that you're telling and the impact that you're creating? And we've had a couple of really great podcast episodes about this. So I will make sure to link those up in the show notes for you. If you want some help with storytelling and brand messaging, but really thinking about who are we talking to? Why are we talking to them, and why do they care is going to be critical at getting started. Because that's when then we can decide what marketing activities are going to be the best for us to reach them. Plus, then you already have the story built out for yourself. And you can make it easier on what you're going to say and how you're going to say it and how you're going to talk to these people. That's point number one. The second thing is really then honing in on where your marketing activities are going to take place. And before you really determine all of the activities you're going to do. We want to start to match up. So these are our audience. This is our ideal audience. This is where they live.

So my ideal audience, let's just say is female, nonprofit, founders and owners of small to medium sized nonprofits that are feeling burnt out, and maybe just need some more resources and support but they're not ready to hire somebody to help them with. So they're looking for a consultant to help them get to that next step, right. So I might target interest, I might target Instagram, I might even target Tik Tok, because that's where those folks are. Right? That's where they're living. And that's where I know I can have conversation with them. Maybe your ideal donor is a family with two parents and two kids. And the parents are looking for additional resources to provide value to their kids after school, you have an after school program. So maybe then your target is Facebook, maybe it's Instagram, maybe it's chatting with different networking groups or school programs like networking with PTAs, right? You start to kind of build this out for where can you reach your audience where your audience lives. It's a moms group. Right? So it may be that you limit your digital, because you know your audience, you can reach them much better locally, in an offline situation. So we don't have to spin. We don't have to spin our wheels on trying to do all the things we can target them where they're at.

And that's the beauty of paying attention to the story and the person, people that we're trying to target. And that is what about marketing has never changed. When we think about things like Nike versus Adidas, Coke versus Pepsi, these brands that are mega powerhouses, if you talk to people, they're probably pro one or the other. Right? They aren't going to go back and forth between those brands because they have a personal feeling about each of those brands and the stories that they tell and the way that they engage those customers. You can do the same on a smaller scale and just be really hyper focused. Okay, so now that you know what you're doing, you know where you're going, you know who you're talking to. Now it's time to craft the messages and craft the content that they care about. So this is the biggest thing that we see is organizations that want to share all of the things that we do, this is what we do. This is why we're great, this is what we do. And that's awesome. But you can do that in a way that still makes it about the other person makes it about an emotional poll for them makes them feel more like oh, my gosh, you are the organization that's going to do the thing, and make the change in this thing that we feel something that we feel is important, right.

So let's say it's a food bank, instead of just saying we have donated 10,000 pounds of food. That's great. That's an amazing stat. And you should definitely feel proud of that and share that and impact statements and share that on your website and have you know, all of that information out there. But instead telling the story, and I think we had, this was an example on a previous podcast, but instead sharing the story of an impact that had a family has had right, what success story has a family had, because of this food that was donated because 10,000 pounds of food is like a number you can't really even like, it's not easy to conceptualize how many people that can serve. So sharing those stories, because now let's say you share a story of single mom with three kids who's working three jobs, and really wants to make sure she has healthy food on the table, you're gonna have people that are going to identify with that, as opposed to 10,000 pounds of food, right? Or maybe it's a story of a volunteer. And you know, he has been coming to the food bank to help put together boxes. And he alone over the course of a year of his service has put together 10,000 boxes, right? Like something like that with that personal poll is going to be much more engaging, and get people to be like, Oh, my goodness, this is the stuff like this is somewhere I want to engage with, I want to meet this guy, this organization is doing amazing things. And I can make an impact, too. So we want to think about it from that regard. And then as we're building these value, add pieces of content, we want to make sure that the content is built for the platform it's going on. So you know, we really want to be hyper specific. That's why I say don't do all the things do one thing really well layer the next thing layer the next thing, I'm going to push you a little bit because while we say marketing hasn't changed the way that we market does, and the way that we're telling stories right now is really done through video.

There's a reason why we took this podcast and added it to YouTube so that I can see you, I can't see you, you can see me and engage with me in another way. So if you want to have in your ears, and listen via podcast streamers, perfect, that's great. If you're somebody who wants to see the videos and see the guests and engage with us in that way, that's great. We're giving people that opportunity to really personally connect as why I like podcasts over blogging, right, you get to hear my voice, you get to feel like you know me a little bit better. And I think it's just a great way to connect. So video is something that I'm going to challenge you to do more of and this does not mean it needs to be complicated to be overly edited and overly produced. It just needs to be thoughtful in the ways that we are what we're talking about. And the way that we're crafting the story and building that engagement. Video is going to be critical as you start to expand and grow within the Gen Z space. Well, your eyes they are not too young to be marketing to and not too young to be getting donations from. But video is a way that more and more people are consuming information. And the thing that we need to pull ourselves out of is it's not about me, it's not about how I consume content. It's about how your ideal customer, your ideal donor, your ideal community member consumes media.

So a quick thing you can do if you have time is sort of survey your audience and ask them how they would like to participate and get information from you. But video is always going to be a great opportunity because most platforms are prioritizing video and people are watching it. Tick tock reels, YouTube shorts, interest videos, video is everywhere. And it's not going anywhere. So figure out a way that you can incorporate that into your business, whether that's trying to find an intern or a volunteer that's younger, maybe it's maybe it's a high schooler of one of high school child of one of your awesome volunteers that needs to have some volunteer work for a college application, right? There's great ways that you can reach out to people and have them help you engage and create and the beautiful thing about video is you can take it from your phone, you can edit it and free apps it no longer is an expensive thing that needs to be created and have way produced. So video is going to be a big driver. And I hope that's something that you can incorporate. And it's a perfect way to share stories. It's a visual way to share stories, and it engages and captures people's attention. We'll talk more about that in future episodes, which I'm going to get to here in a second. But really, what I want you to walk away with today is making sure that you are critically clear on what you're doing for your marketing. Why? What's the intent? What's the purpose, you're not going to go out and pick up a phone book, books don't exist, but you're not just going to do a Google search, and then call every single person that's on this list and be like, Hey, would you be interested in donating to our organization? So why would you waste your time on Marketing doing the same, we want to bring those things together, be hyper focused, and get it done. And in the long run, it's going to save you time, money and effort, it's going to save you staff, it's going to make everything function a whole lot better. Okay.

So make sure you review who you're talking to, why you're talking to them, maybe it's I'm talking to this person, because they're an ideal donor, I'm talking to this person, because they would be perfect for the services we provide. I'm talking to this person because they'd be perfect to support us in our organization, as a volunteer, whatever it is, just make that list. Really focus on the story that you're telling, and why you're telling it and what what pain points that you are solving for people. And then take a look at the content you're creating and make sure it's not talking at people. It's talking to people engaging with them, and it's building community.

Okay, so now that we're at this point, here is what you can expect from the digital marketing therapy podcast moving forward. Each month, we're going to have a theme that we will be talking about, I'll be bringing in guest experts to specifically talk about a particular topic. So in March, we're talking all about websites in April, we're talking about monthly giving, in May, we're talking about your content, marketing, so on and so forth. And it's going to be a great opportunity for you to really deep dive into those topics. I hope that you'll listen every week. But I want to make sure that it's more important that it's easier for you to come back and say, Okay, I'm working on X topic, I'm going to listen to these episodes. And then of course, if you have any questions I'm always available in here for you to follow up with. But that's what we're doing with the podcast moving forward. And I'm very excited about it, because I think it will really help you understand one digital marketing topic that you can build on and grow with. Okay, so I'm excited. Our next episode is going to kick off the new topic of monthly audits and your website. So I hope that you'll join us because I really truly feel like your website is the best tool you have in your toolbox. It's the thing that is going to work for you 24/7 And it is real estate that most organizations are not maximizing.

So I hope this episode was helpful for you. Thank you so much for taking time to listen, I hope you'll subscribe wherever you listen, so you don't miss out on a single episode still coming out on Tuesdays. Check us out on YouTube at the first click marketing and make sure that you check out the show notes for the other storytelling and impact statement episodes that I mentioned here because there'll be a great resource for you as you build out this plan. I appreciate you so much. And I'll see you in the next one.