When an organization’s marketing is integrated, it goes way past the coordination of direct mail and online communications. It means:

• The fundraising department and the communications department are using the same words to describe the organization’s current mission;


• The people who answer the phone know the current mission and have the talking points ready to discuss with anyone who calls;


• The cocktail napkins at the special event carry the same branding (graphics and message) as the business card of the head of maintenance;


• Email messages, FaceBook posts, and print newsletters discuss the same current mission in the same terms;


• The home page of the website has some prime real estate devoted to the current mission, and that space is linked to a section of the website that describes the mission and has up-to-date status of the efforts related to that mission;


• Direct mail fundraising materials convey the same message and raise funds for the same effort, and contain a QR code or at least a URL to the mission page;


• Staff who blog and tweet personally are empowered to mention their organization’s mission and talk intelligently about it, and have a short URL to the mission page;


• Outdoor and transit ads support the message, and have QR codes that track the success of those ads and point users to mobile-friendly web pages that engage the users and get them talking about it;


• Social media engage followers and friends and empower them to talk about their shared mission;


• Personal fundraising pages encourage supporters to build their own teams of fundraisers for this mission;


• Google Adwords drive anyone who’s searching on this topic to the key page on your site, which has a compelling call to action;


• Press releases highlight the mission’s “human interest” stories and contain links to the key page;


• Board members are enthusiastic supporters and articulate spokespeople for the mission at their outside business and social events;


• Wristbands, tee-shirts, visors and other trinkets discuss the mission and direct the public to the key web page or mobile short-code;


• Advocacy efforts secure pledges of support for needed legislation or public action;


• Appropriate celebrities are recruited and supplied with the facts and the compelling story.

So, how do you get there? It’s a lot more than coordination. It requires your organization’s real leaders (whether they have the title or not) to know your organization’s overall mission, identify a lasting opportunity that will brand your organization in the public’s mind, and uncover, distill, or create a simple story that will capture the hearts and minds of the public. Sometimes that “opportunity” is an act of God, like a hurricane, a swarm of tornados, or a tsunami. Other times it’s a news event that is perceived to have more depth than the media have allocated (for example, a major sports star is embroiled in accusations of cruelty to animals). Sometimes it’s a compelling story that personalizes a universal or systemic problem, like health care, hunger, or peace.

Once the opportunity is identified and embraced by your organization, the story is told and re-told in photographs, video, words and images that fit the format of every medium, from FaceBook to business cards. Internal education is conducted so that everyone is singing the same tune and is empowered to tell everyone they know.

That’s integrated marketing, and the few times it has been executed that completely, the results have been fundraising tsunamis and action plans that created real change.

For me, integrated marketing means raising more money. It also leads to more diverse audiences, effective education and cultivation opportunities, broader PR, and more comprehensive “reach” as organizations promote their missions. It also ensures a seamless donor experience.

For the most part, we’re finding that donors are inherently multi-channel anyway, so integrating our marketing is a no-brainer. Our Web donor files are made up of 40-60% direct mail joins, and our Web joins (if given the appropriate opportunities) reciprocate and give through direct mail and telemarketing efforts. And if you take the time to match back your online gifts following the receipt of a direct mail package, you’ll find that direct mail drives as much as 5% more revenue online. And – no surprise here –follow-up emails can trigger as much as 25% more direct mail revenue when coordinated with the mail schedule.

The challenge with integrated marketing? Our own silos – the separate departments managing what should be seamless donor communications, the one-dimensional databases trying to manage multi-dimensional multi-channel donors, and the communications vehicles that only serve one audience. Not to mention the people who tell me an email/mail/phone effort is “cannibalizing” their email/mail/phone effort. Enough with the silos. You’re doing your mission and your donors a disservice when your strategies aren’t integrated.

Bottom line: I’m a fundraiser. My job is to help my clients raise as much money as possible. That said, I also recognize that they have a responsibility to promote their missions and build constituencies of support that go beyond raising money. So we work hand in hand with our clients’ program, advocacy, communications and marketing departments, to integrate messaging for all of these areas without diluting or distorting the message.

The key validator is the fact that when we integrate messaging, channels, and audiences, we see stronger donor value, higher retention, better engagement, and more satisfaction in our organizations. As fundraisers we need to challenge ourselves to do a better job of managing the mix – diversity, but not at the expense of profitability and productivity.

If you’re looking to raise more money, increase donor value, diversify you’re audiences, cultivate donors, and build stronger relationships – be everywhere in a way that makes sense to your donors, so you can capture their spirit of giving whenever and wherever it seizes them.

Thank you for visiting the IMABgroup.net blog site, a forum for you to have a dialog about integrated marketing with key industry leaders and the greater nonprofit community.

We are very excited to be launching this new blog and look forward to presenting you with the very latest in integrated marketing news, trends, case studies and innovative approaches – and questions.

To kick off the blog, we will be introducing the Integrated Marketing Advisory Board (IMAB) members by presenting their personal perspectives defining integrated marketing – in their own voice. The IMAB is made up of 12 founding members, each from a different, leading organization within the industry. What's more, each organization is already practicing integrated marketing and want to share - and learn - together. That's why they've signed up as founding members.

The board members have come together for a common purpose: to seek an unbiased forum to promote the sharing of strategies, tactics and philosophies surrounding the topic of integrated marketing. The 12 organizations that make up the IMAB, are Amergent, Avalon Consulting Group, Barton Cotton, CDR Fundraising Group, Convio, Donordigital, Grizzard Communications, hjc, Merkle, Russ Reid, SCA Direct and Thompson Habib Denison.

What is most important to the success of this forum is your voice and participation.

You can expect regular postings of valuable information from the members, engaged nonprofit community participants and guest contributors.

Thank you again for coming to the site. Please subscribe and come back for more of the conversation.

Sincerely,

IMAB Leadership Team
Michael Johnston, hjc
Chris McKinley, Grizzard Communications
Katy Dubina, CDR Fundraising Group

© 2014 Integrated Marketing Advisory Board. All Rights Reserved
The individuals who post here are members of the Integrated Marketing Advisory Board. The opinions expressed here are their own, are not necessarily reviewed in advance by anyone but the individual authors, and neither Convio nor any other member of the Integrated Marketing Advisory Board necessarily agrees with them.