Marketing is all about positioning your brand in the mind of the buyer, user or beneficiary so they see no suitable substitute for you and your products and services. For nonprofits, it is exactly the same. Most nonprofits focus on their strategic plans and forget that positioning themselves with volunteers, donors or collaborators is just as critical. Otherwise, they will remain unknown to those that can benefit from their offerings or can help sustain the organization.

Just like for-profits, nonprofits have to understand the “buying continuum.” It is a process by which users and donors become aware of, understand and believe in the mission, and use or donate — and if satisfied return and recommend the nonprofit to others.

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Nonprofits must successfully do more than get eyes on their campaigns or fundraising initiatives. It means grabbing and maintaining the attention of people so they are prepared to take action to support the organization’s mission. There are new techniques and approaches being adopted every year, but applying the basics is often the difference between a successful marketing plan and one that is just in the wind along with many other messages.

On Cape Cod and the Islands, we face a somewhat different environment in that there are only approximately 236,000 full-time residents, according to the Cape Cod Commission, and by some estimates between 750 and 1,000 nonprofits all vying for attention from the same pool of donors, volunteers and collaborators. For any nonprofit to receive the attention it needs to achieve its mission and sustain itself, it needs to be an aggressive marketer.

Get to know your donors. Effective marketing starts with identifying and knowing those who will support the organization’s sustainability. The trick is first starting the conversation (getting their attention) and secondly continuing the dialogue and making a lasting impression. Being able to target means knowing key fundamentals: age, location, attitudes, employment status, motivations, lifestyles, personality, communication preferences — how they get their information — and very importantly their relationship with the nonprofit.

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Become a storyteller. The best way to capture and maintain a donor’s attention is to tell the organization’s story in a compelling way so that it creates an image in the mind of the donor. And, good stories use more than words — photos, images, videos, infographics, shareable content, vlogs and testimonials. A nonprofit's Statement of Cause is the best way to tell the story. Most importantly the content has to be of high quality because it will boost engagement and sharing.

Brand creation is critical. The brand represents the values of the nonprofit and it matters in nonprofit marketing. The brand is what connects all the communication channels that are used to market the nonprofit from emails to websites to social media. It is what makes communications integrated and consistent. Consistency over the various communication platforms helps create sustainable differentiation that yields commitment to donating, volunteering or collaborating. Some of the best communications are personal ones that reflect the brand through written messages.

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Know donor psychology. It is often said that a sale is never made until the seller understands the buyer's motivation. The same holds true for nonprofit fundraising. Understanding different behaviors are critical. Why do some donors wait until the end of the campaign when the goals are almost at hand versus at the beginning is key to reaching the campaign goal? Why do donors give sustaining donations versus one-time? Who donates when is a fundamental key to fundraising success.

Segment your communications. Messages need to be differentiated. The same message cannot be delivered to first-time donors as to sustaining givers or lifetime donors. Segmenting your fundraising lists by type, amount, channel of communication, and frequency of giving will also guide you as to messaging to each of these segments. Your message to first-time givers will be different from occasional donors where the goal is becoming sustaining givers.

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Use social media but create a unique presence of each platform. Because social media platforms continue to evolve, being up-to-date on changes is important to create differentiation. For example, Instagram has “live rooms”, TikTok has TikTok Ads Manager, Pinterest has Idea Pins, Twitter has Tweet Take or Topic Tag Bars, Facebook has Facebook Reels, Snap Chat has Poll Stickers, and LinkedIn has LinkedIn Live.

Test, adjust, and test again. Remember all strategies and every tactic doesn’t work all the time. Test and measure the outcome of each initiative. Determine if it worked or not. If not adjust. If it did ask what can be done to improve the outcome the next time. The goal is to do it better each time you execute a defined strategy and tactic.

Contributed by Marc L. Goldberg, Certified Mentor. Source: "Nonprofit Marketing: 10 Lessons for All Nonprofits", Jess Woloszyn. For free and confidential mentoring: www.capecod.score.org, capecodscore@verizon.net, 508-775-4884.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Marketing is an essential element in nonprofit organizations' success