How to Reach Your Target Market
Marketing an Educational, Charitable or Nonprofit Organization
The task of promoting an educational, charitable or nonprofit organization has to receive the highest priority in your organization. But what marketing techniques and strategies are successful in the current economy?
If it's executed properly, marketing spans the gap between your brand and your audience. If you fail to recognize the primacy of good marketing you'll quickly find your educational, charitable or nonprofit organization cut off from the marketplace.
A robust marketing plan cements your company's relationships with customers. When viewed from this perspective, marketing becomes a customer engagement concern in a educational, charitable or nonprofit organization's planning process.
Broadcast Advertising
In an entertainment on-demand universe, broadcast TV and radio have been the big losers. But broadcast advertising hasn't disappeared entirely and educational, charitable or nonprofit organizations can still use it to their advantage. Best practices for the use of broadcast advertising require businesses to evaluate their target audience's listening or viewing patterns and then tailor their media purchases to specific media outlets rather than blanketing the geography with brand messaging. When marketing educational, charitable or nonprofit organizations, local consumers may represent a sizeable portion of total revenues, making local radio and other broadcast media viable marketing channels -- but only to the extent that you match the station's audience to your customer base.
Marketing Collateral
Every piece of collateral your educational, charitable or nonprofit organization creates is a tangible reflection of your brand distinctive and core values. Some pieces of collateral can be customized for recipients, while others serve a more generic purpose. Either way, you have a stake in making sure it gets into the right hands. For direct mail campaigns, premium mailing lists from established vendors can protect the value of your investment. If you're like most business owners, you invest substantial resources in the creation of quality collateral. If you don't invest similar resources in mailing lists and other distribution channels, your educational, charitable or nonprofit organization's brochures, direct mail letters and other content has no value.
Do We Really Need A Logo?
Having a strong logo for an educational, charitable or nonprofit organization is a big deal. A logo is a visible representation of your organization's mission, identity, and values. Without a high-quality logo, your brand will simply blend in with the rest of the marketplace and gain little traction with consumer audiences. Creating a unique logo is more difficult than it sounds. In addition to quality design, you need to be concerned about infringing on the proprietary rights of other logos in your industry and throughout the marketplace.
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