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7 TIPS FOR FUTURE-PROOFING YOUR MARKETING PLAN

Marketing directors often have to adjust their strategy on a dime – especially those who work in the nonprofit space. How can you prepare yourself and your team to quickly pivot your plan when things suddenly change?

Build your strategy based on these seven principles to future-proof your plan. Deploying these steps can ensure your marketing campaigns will remain more relevant and effective – even in times of change.


1. Identify and reach out to your highly engaged patrons

The people most likely to respond to communications are those who are already highly engaged with your organization. Look at your data and take the time to figure out how to effectively reach them. Here’s a link to our free Marketing Persona worksheet if you need some help with this important step.


2. Be authentic in your messaging

Authenticity and transparency in your messaging is key. Keeping patrons up-to-date will help you establish trust with your supporters. Besides event status updates, be ready to share contingency plans and cancellation policies.


3. Use the right communications channels

Deploy messages on the channels that are the most effective and in a highly targeted way. Segment your direct mail, email, and social media campaigns to ensure that folks are receiving messages that are most relevant to them. Don’t clutter their inbox with messages that don’t apply.


The Westmoreland Museum of American Art works with us to deploy a new combination of organic and paid social media campaigns to help them reach more undiscovered patrons.

4. Segment your follow-up communications

Rather than sending out a series of email blasts to the same group, send follow-ups after the initial communication in a strategic way. Segment follow-ups by behavior such as opens, CTA clicks, and non-opens. This method will allow you to increase the relevance of your messaging and improve your metrics.


5. Change your CTA

If plans have changed, you may also need to identify a new CTA to direct your patrons to take a new action. For example, instead of buying a ticket, ask them to engage with a piece of content, donate, or subscribe.

6. Set Key Engagement Metrics

Before you deploy your campaign, identify what your KPIs will be. These are unique to your organization and may have changed over time. Having clear key metrics will help you better gauge the efficacy of your campaign so you can quickly adjust. Set goals based on your own prior engagement rates. In other words, make it your goal to outperform your past self.

7. Be Flexible

If your campaign doesn't perform as you expect, be prepared to change your strategy. Your patrons will tell you what is working through the data. We helped the Westmoreland Museum of American Art adjust its strategy based on monthly analytics data.

We help nonprofits reach more patrons by improving their digital marketing strategy. Contact us to learn how we can help you.

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