Every dollar you spend on marketing means one less dollar dedicated to the awesome programs and services you provide. That means each precious marketing dollar put toward web sites, brochures, logos, DVD's, development materials and other marketing tools better count! Unfortunately, planning for all that activity too often takes a back seat. Marketing plans are in short supply.

We bet you like the idea of a marketing plan – but you don't have the time and energy for planning in the rush of managing time-consuming day-to-day operations. Too bad. The cold, hard truth is you can't afford not to have a plan. The good news: strategic marketing planning can – and should – be straightforward, results-oriented and easy to manage.

What's in a Plan

Your marketing plan determines how your clients and donors see you. It helps prioritize your target audiences (such as clients, donors and internal stakeholders). It details where your clients come from, how to get to the gate-keepers that refer your clients, how you describe your services, how you talk to donors and how you make critical budget decisions. It takes a look at your competition (and yes, you are competing for those hard-earned donor dollars.) A well-designed marketing plan provides a timeline of specific tactics, coordinated with other internal and external events (program launches, changing legal environments, etc.), to help your organization reach its overall objectives. If it's a good plan, it also clearly outlines your budget and how those valuable marketing dollars will be allocated. If that sounds complicated, keep reading to learn how to break it down into manageable steps.

Any solid marketing plan needs to include a few key elements:

Situation Analysis

Start with a review of where your nonprofit organization is right now. These are things you likely already know, but putting them front and center in your plan serves a couple of purposes. First, it gives you a benchmark of where you are. Second, it lets you build a plan that addresses the basic organization and environmental realties you face.

• Nonprofit Organization Mission and Vision: What are the key values and goals of your organization?

• Product or Service Review: Describe your basic products and services

• Client/User Drivers: What factors affect the environment in which you operate?

• Core Competencies: What do you do well? What do your clients /users rely on you for? Why do donors contribute to your cause?

• Competitive Review: Who are your key competitors? How is the competitive landscape changing?

Measurable Objectives or Outcomes

What do you want to accomplish this year? And how will you measure the results? Measurable goals allow you to formulate strategies and tactics that will get you there. Basic, but many people don't think through a set of realistic objectives.

We can't tell you how many times we have heard from nonprofit executives that their number one goal is to “raise awareness of our cause in the general community.” Sorry, that's not a measurable objective. So let's make it work: Launch a comprehensive communications campaign within service area in order to increase number of clients we serve by 35% over the course of the next three years (2009). Wow! Now you know what you need to accomplish, where, in what time frame and by how much! What a difference.

Audiences

Make a list of your key audiences. You have more target audiences than you think – the people you serve day in and day out, your volunteers, your stakeholders (board of directors), staff members, donors and major donors – and we bet there are more! When defining your target audiences, consider demographics as well as psychographics. That is not only where they live and how old they are, but also how each audience thinks and feels.

For example, we know that our average planned giving donor is male, 65 years of age – or older, is married, is a home owner, has a house hold income of more than $200,000 per year, is married, has grown children, is registered as a Republican, is concerned about the war, healthcare and education. We also know that he has a connection to cancer; either he or someone in his family has been affected by cancer.

The goal here is to really understand the people you are talking to. One tip: once you know your demographics and psychographics, write stories around them. It will help you better identify you audiences' needs. So take those same demographics and psychographics, but this time let's tell a story.

Dan Kennedy is 65 years old. He is a successful entrepreneur. He and his wife Tess have consistently contributed to Cancer Services campaign since 1995. Mr. Kennedy's mother died of cancer and in 1995 Tess underwent surgery and radiation following a diagnosis of breast cancer. Mr. Kennedy and his family have never needed our services, but he is passionate about the idea that all people deserve quality care and the education to make decisions related to their health.

Now imagine this organization is ready to kick off an endowment campaign. They have a powerful tool they can use to train the development staff and volunteers, perfect donor pitches and fine-tune marketing efforts.

How do you get to know your audience members mindsets, hopes and fears? Research! It doesn't need to be complicated. Simple surveys provide a tremendous amount of good data. You can also take a look back at your database and review current donors, volunteers and other stakeholders. And you probably already know a lot about each of your audiences from your experience working with them.

Messages

What is the core of what you need to say? In their brilliant book, Made to Stick, Chip Heath and Dan Heath write “The more we reduce the amount of information in an idea, the stickier it will be.” In other words, pare down your messages to the absolute core so yor your audience will remember them.

Example: Project Sunshine is a successful nonprofit organization which offers free social, educational and recreational programming for children and families with medical challenges. Their mission: We bring sunshine to a cloudy day.sm That's brilliant! Why? Because you, and Project Sunshine's employees, donors and clients, know exactly what that means; sunshine physically makes us feel better, conjures images of kids, sprinklers, swimming pools and health and overall makes us feel happy and healthy.

Channels and Tools

How will you send your message to your target audiences? Channels are groups/people through whom and places where you will distribute your message; tools are the materials you employ.

Examples:

Channels: Regional hospitals, social workers, oncology offices

Tools: t shirts, informational dvd, website

Strategy

Strategies are broad approaches to communicating that are linked to your measurable objectives. These are the big-picture approaches you take to communication and positioning your organization. You should look at each objective and come up with the strategies you need to accomplish it.

Examples:

• Recruit and hire a Chief Development Officer who will oversee all development activities including campaigns and events.

• Hire an advertising agency to oversee and manage all organization advertising and creative. Agency should have experience in nonprofit sector and be willing to donate a percentage of their time.

Tactics

The tactics are the specific tasks and activities needed to accomplish your strategies. These should be very specific.

Example:

• Develop comprehensive job description for Chief Development Officer

Timeline by Tactic

Prioritize your tactics, and then develop specific deadlines for each one. You'll also want to note which staff members or outside resources will be used to complete the tactics.

Here's an Example:

Develop comprehensive job for Chief Development Officer

Responsibility Katie Sternberg

Due 3/5/2007

Status

Evaluation

Your evaluation methods may be formal, like a research study or survey. But they might also be more informal, like reports on funding increases, feedback from clients or input from staff. The most important idea here is to do some kind of measurement so you know if your strategies are working. Your objectives and strategies should be so specific that you should be able to measure each and every one.

Examples:

• Percent increase in referrals from clinics over last year for the months May – August.

• Percent increase in number of hits on web site increased since re-launch

The marketing budget shouldn't be whatever is left over at the end of the month or quarter. And it shouldn't be unlimited, either. Go back through your strategies and tactics and assign some general budget amounts to each one. Is the number you come up with realistic? If not, go back and review your tactics and determine where you can make changes. You need to allocate money to achieve your key objectives. If you spend too much on one strategy, you won't have enough to accomplish the others.

Still Skeptical About Planning?

You may be getting short-term results with a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach. But there is a downside. This kind of makeshift marketing often does nothing to further the strategic goals of the company and frequently fails to look to the future. And that is a very dangerous place to be. Even a little planning can help you decrease your marketing risk and improve your results.