As most planned giving professionals know, one key ingredient for success in any philanthropic endeavor involves proactively visiting donors. You have to put in the time and effort to reach your potential donors. In other words, making the necessary calls and donor visits to get your message out, connect with potential donors, and steward those loyal donors who support your mission. While calls and visits are necessary, marketing is also an essential element for getting the word out to a broader audience about the benefits of planned giving, while also prepping those in your portfolio about giving opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t know about.
Here’s how marketing boosts your efforts—and your results:
Builds Top-of-Mind Awareness. If you’re not maintaining an on-going marketing presence, your donors may not think of your organization when they eventually meet with estate planning professionals to write up their will or set up a charitable gift annuity. Nowadays, many things are competing for your donors’ time and attention. Make sure your organization stays on the front burner so that when donors do plan their charitable gifts, they think of your nonprofit first. This is called “top-of-mind awareness” and should be one of the primary, albeit not immediately measureable, goals of your marketing. Otherwise, your organization will suffer from the negative consequence of not marketing, which we aptly call the “out-of-sight, out-of-mind” syndrome.
Builds Loyalty. Like any relationship, it takes time and effort to build trust between potential donors and your organization. With your marketing communications, you have a golden opportunity to convey success stories, showcase your mission, and advocate for your goals. Adequate information that is supported by what we call “social proof” can reinforce the belief—and conviction—that your mission is worth supporting as donors see what gifts their peers have made.
Builds Results. A good marketing plan successfully implements your short-term and long-range objectives. Perhaps you want to cultivate younger donors, reach more women donors, or increase your legacy society membership. Segmenting your marketing materials to better reach your target audience can improve results. Whatever your goals, your marketing plan, if done right, can help you achieve them through strategic use of content selection.
Let your marketing materials work for you by having them effectively lay the necessary groundwork so that your planned giving efforts reap the results you want.
Find out about Pentera’s most successful clients. Contact Pentera today.
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