Defining Your Marketing Strategy – One Piece at a Time
Published by
Admin
on
We conducted a bequest program survey last fall and it was no surprise to hear that a third of the respondents noted marketing as one of their top challenges. Issues cited included, “
creating and maintaining awareness, lack of overall strategy, finding new prospects, and educating constituents.”
In my experience the marketing challenges in a bequest program are no different than those of a planned giving program. So, where is one to begin?
All of these topics are related, but seeing how they are tied together can also be part of the challenge, making the issue larger than it really is. Let’s start at the beginning, lack of overall strategy, as the other issues stem from this absence.
A strategy can take anywhere from two hours to two days to complete depending upon your working knowledge of your organization. The problem is that gift officers are so busy that they don’t have time for this. Here’s the fundamental question that needs to be answered, “Is planned giving an important part of my organization’s development goals?” If the answer is yes, then time is not really the issue, it’s more likely that not knowing where to start is the culprit.
A marketing strategy, or what I like to refer to as a framework, has six components which if addressed individually can make the process a manageable one.
- Objectives
- Audience
- Strategic Priorities
- Metrics
- Marketing Activities and Tactics
- Schedule
Over the next several months we’ll focused on each one of these topics in more detail so there will be no excuse for not having a marketing strategy. Breaking up this exercise into smaller tasks is really the most manageable way to approach it.
Identify Your Planned Giving Objectives
Ideally, an organization’s marketing strategy is based on five or fewer planned giving objectives over a one-to-three year period. These objectives are dependent upon numerous factors which include but are not limited to: the existence and strength of its Legacy Society; maturity of the existing planned giving program, availability of demographic data of planned gift prospects and existing donors; and awareness of the planned giving program among key constituents. Here are some examples of typical planned giving objectives, which generally speaking include some form of revenue/dollar component.
- Increase awareness of the planned giving program among constituents
- Maximize the number of completed planned gifts
- Increase the value of planned gifts
- Maximize the number of internal planned giving referrals
- Increase collaboration with development staff
- Reinstate stewardship program and/or increase membership to the Legacy Society
- Reach planned giving revenue of $[established revenue goal]
In the issues previously mentioned, creating and maintaining awareness and educating constituents are examples of the specific objectives your program is trying to achieve. However, since you cannot create and maintain awareness simultaneously, it would be best to determine which one is truly the objective to focus on, since the rest of the marketing framework will change based on this decision.
Your marketing strategy is your investment in your planned giving program. Once your strategy has been defined, you’ll have the roadmap to follow for the next 18-24 months. During that time all you’ll need is a tune-up every six months or so. Like other things in life, putting the time into this framework upfront will save you more time over the long run.
Stay tuned for the next installation of the Marketing Corner- Defining Your Marketing Strategy: Step 2 Your Audience.