Five Ways for Nonprofits to Approach Integrated Marketing on a Budget
	Posted by at Oct 03, 2013 07:03 AM CDT

Integrated marketing should reduce costs and increase return on marketing investment (those are the reasons we -- the IMAB -- exist). But all change involves some friction, and what follows are some ways your nonprofit can increase the results of integrated marketing while you counter arguments that “we can’t afford that right now.”

1. Engage in ongoing conversations with supporters, not a string of disconnected monologues:
• Tell people what’s new with little Timmy, whose classroom was the subject of your last fundraising appeal.
• Re-use enough pictures so they remember.
• Highlight a different aspect of the same story, or segue cleanly to another story that focuses on another fundraising priority.
2. Write all your copy, and do all the design, at one time:
• Hold an Integrated Strategy Session, where you discuss the key themes of a campaign, and then ask how it can be implemented in each channel.
• Writing three supporting email messages is much easier right after the direct mail fundraising copy has been planned and written.
• The social media posts, face-to-face and phone scripts, and subway signs all can flow from the same main points of the grant request or the direct mail package.
3. Re-use successful campaigns. Why did Coca Cola get away from “I’d like to teach the world to sing”? Come to think of it, why did Coca Cola get away from Coke itself? (remember the “New Coke” debacle?) The biggest waste in advertising is to change advertising that still works.  Remember that great fundraising campaign from two years ago? Dust it off, update the story, and tell it again. It touched people. Let them be touched again. Thinking that your donors remember everything you send them is pretty egotistical.
4. Tell all your supporters everything.  Tell your event donors about your grant applications. Tell your direct mail donors about your advocacy efforts. Let your donors know they’re part of a bigger picture, and they’re more likely to find new ways to support you.
5. Use free media.
• Update social media regularly, and especially during campaigns. Not only is Facebook free, everyone knows how to find your information there (that’s not always true with a nonprofit website).
• Link your website to your Facebook feed, so that updates on social media appear on your site. That’s a lot cheaper than updating your site several times a day.
• Feed information to bloggers who cover the same issues as your campaign. Bloggers have reach and influence you don’t.

There are many other ways to implement integration, but five is a good number for a blog post. What are your additional ideas?