How to Sell Integrated Marketing to Non-Believers
	Posted by Guest Blogger at Aug 03, 2012 07:00 AM CDT

Guest blogger Margaux Smith is a copywriter at the London fundraising agency, Bluefrog. After completing a post-graduate in Fundraising at Humber College in Toronto, Canada, she moved to the UK. She believes integrated marketing has become vital for the success of nonprofits, and looks forward to learning more as strategies evolve.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while now, you probably have a pretty good idea about why you should be integrating your fundraising channels, and even how to get started. But you’ll also know that as fundraisers, we often aren’t in charge of making the final decisions. Even if you have the greatest strategic fundraising plan, you’ll have a hard time putting it into action without first getting the right people on board.

So how can you convince your boss, your CEO or your Board of Directors to give the go-ahead to things like:

• allowing resources for social media,
• giving the fundraising department control over website messaging,
• attaching a telemarketing campaign on the back of direct mail appeals, and
• all the other ways you can help send seamless messaging out across your organization?

Finding data and tests to back up your proposals is important, of course. But while talking to SCA Direct’s Jeanne Harris a few weeks ago, I noted a simple but clever tip:

“We’re not an integrated marketing agency,” she explained. “We’re a donor-centric agency.”

And who would argue with that? Simply by changing the language they use, they’re presenting an idea everyone can wrap their heads around.

So if you’re trying to convince the powers that be to get on board with your ideas by using marketing jargon like "integration," "multi-channel," or "campaign strategy," you may inadvertently be driving them towards thoughts of high costs and misspent time. Instead, try approaching them with the idea of making your fundraising more "donor-centered." It’s about looking at how you communicate through your donor’s eyes. And, I bet you’ll feel less resistance.

Jeanne went on to make a strong case. “You have to know what your audience is doing, where and when, in order to remain relevant. Then demonstrate you’re listening by communicating with them about what they’re truly interested in.

“We no longer control our donor relationships; our donors do. So we’ve got to be really thoughtful and careful about providing a consistent messaging platform so that no matter where people go, it makes sense.

“As the demographics of our donors shift, those now approaching old age are expecting more from organizations with respect to the donor experience, accountability of organization and familiarity with technology. We need to be transparent and allow for increased engagement, allowing donors to participate and be involved. We cannot afford to remain stagnant.”