Ben Delaney's Nonprofit Marketing Handbook updated

Highly Regarded Handbook for Nonprofit Marketers Updated – Second Edition Released

The Second Edition of Ben Delaney’ Nonprofit Marketing Handbook has been published with a new chapter, Marketing Automation information, and hundreds of updates.

Chapter on Crisis Communications Management available online at BenDelaney.blogspot.com.

Oakland, CA —Ben Delaney’s award-winning handbook for nonprofit marketers has been updated and released in a second edition.

The Second Edition continues the mission of the first, to provide a guide for the people doing providing communications functions in nonprofit organizations. Often these people are drafted to do this work with no training and little experience. But this work is very important; in fact the very sustainability of a nonprofit organization can be impacted by its communication efforts.

Said Delaney, “A lot has changed since I wrote this book, especially in the social media and marketing automation areas. Nonprofit marketers need every tool they can find, so that their small budgets can stretch to do the work that is needed. I also see that more nonprofits are faced with crises of all sorts, from leadership malfeasance to fires to injuries, so I added a chapter on crisis communications management that I hope no one will ever have to use, but everyone should read.”

Also added to the Second Edition is information on Marketing Automation – using apps to handle routine marketing tasks, like responding to a new sign-up on a webform, and sending emails to the right people at designated time. Marketing Automation is enabling marketing departments to accomplish more with less, and in most nonprofit organizations, that is essential. A list of some of the best Marketing Automation tools is also included.

The Second Edition also included hundreds of updates to ensure that all references and web addresses are accurate.

The first edition of Ben Delaney’s Nonprofit Marketing Handbook received numerous awards, including the coveted Platinum award in the Annual MarCom Awards contest, and was a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards in 2015. It has all 5-star reviews on Amazon and Reader’s Choice.

Ben Delaney’s Nonprofit Marketing Handbook, Second Edition is available on Amazon as a paperback book or in a Kindle edition. It may also be ordered from local bookstores or at NonprofitMarketingBook.com. The ISBN for the print edition is 978-1-5136-3554-5.

For more information on nonprofit assistance and interim leadership, visit ImmersivEdgeAdvisors.com

Nonprofits losing millions from poor communications

New book helps nonprofits get their message to the people who need to hear it.

Starting a new job as a nonprofit Marketing and Communications Director, Ben Delaney looked hard for insight into the specific issues of nonprofit communications. He couldn't find the help he needed in the few dusty, ivory tower textbooks that addressed the issue. So, when he left that job a few years later, he decided to help others in similar situations by writing a book based on his experiences. That engaging book, Ben Delaney's Nonprofit Marketing Handbook, was just released on Amazon in print and Kindle editions.

Despite the proliferation of social media, smart phones, and the internet, many nonprofit organizations are still not great communicators. Often, their communications efforts are relegated to interns and lower level staff who lack experience and specific knowledge of marketing tools and techniques. These organizations are losing millions of dollars in potential donations because the people who care about their programs never hear about them. Delaney's book will help nonprofits upgrade their communications for high impact and strong donor support.

Written for small to medium sized organizations, Ben Delaney's Nonprofit Marketing Handbook is the hands-on guide to marketing and communications that he couldn't find when he started doing nonprofit marketing eight years ago. Novices and experienced marketers alike will find a wealth of actionable information here.

Realizing that many nonprofits lack the resources for effective marketing, Delaney wrote his book as a do-it-yourself handbook that addresses all of the key aspects of marketing and communications for nonprofits. He covers all the issues that nonprofit marketers need to address, starting by explaining the importance of System Marketing™, his method of ensuring that everyone in an organization is telling the same stories in the same words to provide unified communications.

Filled with helpful tips and real-life examples, Ben Delaney's Nonprofit Marketing Handbook includes detailed descriptions of various marketing tools, describing what each is good for, how to measure their impact,  and their comparative costs. One chapter explains how to use different networking and presentation opportunities for maximum impact. He addresses branding, social media, public relations, advertising, search engine marketing, event management, advanced networking, research, working with nonprofit boards, and more, in 22 crisp chapters.

Delaney leads the reader through building accountability into marketing efforts and building websites with stickiness. He unravels the tangles of search engine marketing and optimization. His chapter on testing makes even this often daunting concept easily understood. He concludes the book with a resource guide and glossary.

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Ben Delaney's Nonprofit Marketing Handbook on Amazon.

Written in a conversational tone, and based on more than thirty years of award-winning marketing and management experience, Ben Delaney's Nonprofit Marketing Handbook is a valuable tool that should be on every nonprofit development and communications specialist's iPad or bookshelf. It is available on Amazon as a Kindle ebook or in paperback. Find more information on Amazon.com or at www.BenDelaney.com.

About advertising

© 2014 Ben Delaney 

Advertising. We're all surrounded by it, inundated by aural and visual noise that pollutes our environment and covers every surface around us. But advertising serves a purpose, and the best advertising sticks in our minds for years. Good advertising reaches the right audience with the right story at the right time. Good advertising creates good impressions and memories. There's no reason that you shouldn't use advertising to help get your message out. The only question is how to advertise so that your advertising is effective, both in terms of reaching the people you want to talk to with the message you want them to hear, and doing that while spending the least amount of money.

As with any other marketing, you first have to understand your audience. If you are a nonprofit organization you should know your audience fairly well. You should have lots of records on your donors, as well as people who have expressed an interest in your organization. You should also have good records on your clients, who often can become donors and supporters. You have a clear mission and vision, and a fine message crafted.

As in any other marketing effort, you first want to define your goals. What are you trying to accomplish with this advertising? Who do you need to reach? What do you want them to do? How much money do you have to spend? How long do you have to accomplish what you need to do?

As part of your System Marketing™ plan, advertising needs to fit in with all the other marketing that you're doing. Everything needs to form a coherent whole. Your staff needs to be ready to handle inquiries and be prepared to respond to people who are interested in your product. Depending on the product you're promoting, whether it be your big annual benefit, a donor outreach effort, or new product from your social enterprise, the entire advertising campaign, including preparation for response, needs to be thought out in advance, and with data collection and measuring points built-in.

One of thing to remember about advertising is that one ad rarely is as effective as you hope it will be. People respond to repetition. They need to see your ad over and over again. So before your event you should run the same ad, or very similar ads, in as many places, as many times as you can afford. Weekly newspapers and online outlets provide regular updates which enable you to have many impressions in the window of time available. More impressions are good. Just be sure you're reaching the people you want to get your message.

Let's consider a hypothetical case, an advertising campaign to support Kitty Rescue League's Fat Cat Bash. The goal of this at this event is to bring a hundred seventy-five donors to a fancy dinner. The advertising budget is $2,000. That might not seem like a lot money but will see how to spend it to get the most effective return.

Identifying our target demographic is fairly easy. We know we want cat lovers in our local area. We know that older cat lovers have greater disposable income, and possibly more free evenings. However, we don't want to ignore the significant millennium generation; a lot of them like cats too.

We start by start by surveying local media: radio, TV, newspapers, and magazines. For each of these we want to ask publishers to provide demographic as well as distribution information. For example, where I live, the San Francisco Chronicle is the largest newspaper, reaching close to half a million people every day. Its distribution range is roughly a 200 mile diameter from its publishing base in San Francisco. If I needed to reach a lot of people who didn't need to be in any particular nearby area, the Chronicle is a great way to do it. However the Kitty Rescue League is in a small suburb of San Francisco. Ninety percent of their donors live within twenty-five miles of the office. So buying advertising in the Chronicle would not be cost-effective, because much of the advertising would be wasted on people who live too far away. Looking further, the marketing intern at Kitty Rescue League discovers that a local weekly newspaper covers the target geographic area well and has a broad demographic appeal. This newspaper fits the criteria very well, and happily costs far less than the Chronicle.

Other local advertising opportunities might include church newsletters, local animal shelters' newsletters, and newsletters at local senior centers. All of these are relatively inexpensive. Because this is a one-time event your campaign will only stretch over a month or two, which also reduces cost. What is important is reaching the target demographic, and reaching a lot of people a number of times, within your budget.

For radio and TV, be sure to consider public service announcements (PSA's). The can be provided by email, or, if you have the ability to produce it, a complete video announcement. Be sure to contact the stations directly to learn how they handle PSA's. PSA's are free, but you have no control over when, or even if, they are shown.

However, print and TV are far from your only advertising option. Social media is an essential part of your advertising mix, especially for fast-breaking information. Social media is also very inexpensive – essentially free – so you can use it a lot with minimal impact on your budget. Remember, though, that the criteria for social media must be evaluated in the same way as those for print: reach and audience are key items to look at. Social media casts a broad net, but since it's free, it doesn't matter that much of the reach is wasted. Remember, too, that social media is ephemeral and dynamic, so you must update it frequently, and you must keep your updates interesting or you risk losing your audience.

Here's a checklist of things to remember when you plan your advertising:

1. Demographics of your target audience, including gender, age, income, physical location, previous giving history, and the source of this name.
2. Specific program interests, which means that certain donors prefer to give for certain programs.
3. Media preferences. for example, if most of your donors are under 30, mobile media might be the way to reach them best. However if your donors are older and perhaps not as computer literate, you may reach them best on traditional media; television, radio, newspapers, and magazines.
4. Budget. You don't want to spend more than you can afford.
5. An offer. What's your call to action? You need to get people to do something; in this case, buy tickets for the Fat Cat Bash.
6. Set goals. How many tickets do you need to sell to pay for this advertising? That's your minimum goal.

Finally, be sure your budget includes a good graphic designer for your print and online efforts. Your audience is sophisticated and will ignore or deride bad design. The money you spend for good design will help your organization look professional and help your advertising cut through the noise. And ultimately, that's your bottom line.