Consultancy reveals its recipe for success.
A recent report suggested that charities which spend the most money on marketing tend to raise the most income, a new report has confirmed.
Ringing a Bell stated that those charities which splash the cash on promoting themselves have the highest levels of brand awareness and thus receive the most income.
However, although not necessarily a surprise, the report, by third sector research consultancy nfpSynergy, warns that charities can’t simply throw money at a media campaign in the hope of boosting brand awareness.
Here, nfpSynergy’s Jo Saxton provides a seven point plan for charity campaign success.
Seven point guide to a successful charity campaign
1.Have a strategy for how you build awareness
Awareness is raised in a host of ways: advertising, media coverage, shops, services, staff, volunteers, community activities and so on. The biggest charities will probably raise awareness through all these routes. However, smaller charities with lower awareness need to pick two or three of these and make them happen.
2. Decide which aspects of brand andawareness matter to you
Awareness is multi-dimensional. Are people aware of the charity? Do they know what it does? Does it come to mind when people think of a certain cause? Would people go to a charity for advice, but not to leave a legacy to one? The permutations are endless, so each charity must decide which aspects of its awareness and brand it wants to raise or change.
3. Decideonthekey audiences for high awareness
While some charities want the general public to be aware of them, in many cases the audience is, or should be, more focused. If a charity wants to influence five million people (about 10% of the total UK adult population), a targeted effort will go further than if it’s just directed at anyone over 45 (20 million+ adults), but not nearly as far as if 650 MPs or 10,000 GPs are targeted. Target audiences must be an appropriate size for the resources available.
4. Work out how you can communicatebestwith key audiences
An integral part of targeting anyaudience for brand, awareness, communications or fundraising activities is theability to reach that audience. In other words, a communications channel orroute is needed. An audience without a means of talking to them is likepicking a holiday destination which nobody flies to and can’t easily bereached.
5. Which of your activities would makesomebody aware of you?
Few charities releasing one or two communications, competing with the thousands of other messages in a consumer’s life, will create awareness. It’s all too easy to believe a few well-placed ads or straplines will do the job. In reality, it takes dozens, if not hundreds, of messages over a period of time to create awareness.
6. Make sure the right people are on board internallyand externally
One of the constant refrains we hear from comms and fundraising directors is how their CEOs, and particularly trustees, tend to have limited patience or support for the importance of a charity’s brand. Indeed, on some boards, “brand” is a dirty word. One of the tasks for anybody hoping to build awareness and focus a charity’s brand is getting the right people on board.
7. Prepare for the long haul
Raising awareness of a charity is no easy task, especially if the audience is large and the budget small. One key ingredient of success is sticking at it. Our rule of thumb would be that a charity can raise awareness among MPs in six to twelve months, but raising awareness amongst the general public will take two to five years, probably longer without the resources and consistency of strategy.
