Finding the Right Non-Profit Marketing Agency

If you’re trying to hire a marketing agency for nonprofits, it can be daunting. After all, how can these firms that normally create marketing campaigns and strategies for huge multinational corporations and businesses that are so far removed from the scope of a nonprofits’ mission possibly be able to market for one?

There’s some good news.

Many marketing agencies are perfectly capable of serving as a marketing agency for nonprofits. However, the trick is that you have to find the right marketing agency, which isn’t always obvious.

What do you look for? Here are 3 key attributes that will tell you a marketing firm is up to the task.

A Good Marketing Agency For Nonprofits Takes Time To Understand Your Mission

Every nonprofit is different, with different missions, methods of operation and business models, so a good marketing agency for nonprofits takes the time to learn what yours is all about. This applies to almost any for-profit business, from automotive dealerships to ecommerce sites, but is especially true for nonprofits.

When you have those initial conversations with a potential marketing agency, take note of whether they ask questions and what kind of questions they’re asking. If all they’re asking you about is budgets and what kind of campaign you want, chances are you’re just another account on a spreadsheet.

You should be marketed by a company that gets you. That understands what you’re all about.

Marketing is, in many ways, telling a story. How true the story is can depend a lot on who’s telling it and who they’re telling it about, of course! However, it’s still telling a story, a story about your organization and its role in the world.

Would you rather your story be told, and your message be put out there by someone who really knows it? Who believes it?

Or is it okay for your messaging to be put together by someone who views it as putting some words together and just putting it out there in the hopes it resonates without caring about it?

Make sure a marketing agency takes some time to get a feel for who and what your nonprofit is, what it does, and why that makes you special.

A Marketing Agency For Nonprofits Should Be Capable Of Multiple Campaign Types

Another key element when it comes to finding a marketing agency for nonprofits is the kind of marketing campaigns that they are capable of and experienced with running. This is critically important, and for a few key reasons.

First is the cost aspect. This isn’t to say that a dollar can’t be stretched or spent efficiently on marketing, but it is to say that a nonprofit often has to be a good steward of its resources. Padding expense accounts for ad agency executives is not doing that.

In other words, a marketing agency that’s working for a nonprofit has to be smart with their efforts, and utilize marketing techniques and channels that can produce a lot more return on spend than others, or that are more passive rather than active.

For instance, search engine optimization services are not necessarily cheap but they aren’t necessarily wickedly expensive. However, this digital marketing tactic – making your site rank higher in search engine results – can bring in a lot more traffic to your site (as well as conversions, donations or sales, whatever your goal is) than other methods for pennies on the dollar compared to advertising.

Content marketing, the creation and sharing of content related to your brand through social media and content channels, can raise a lot of brand awareness and create a lot of interest in your nonprofit. While creating quality content like video isn’t cheap, it’s also a lot less expensive in the long run than traditional marketing and advertising activities.

There are many other tactics that can be cost-effective while still being very effective at sharing your message and your nonprofit’s brand, of course; these are just a couple of examples.

However, the corollary to making the spend going further is hiring a marketing agency that knows about these digital and other marketing tactics and how to leverage them, which is the second key aspect in this regard. You need a marketing agency with broad knowledge of marketing tactics in today’s digital-first, social media-first landscape.

An agency that says they’ll just get some ads in the paper, on the radio or on local TV? They’re out of touch. Only specialize in social media? It’s a great start, but social media isn’t everything.

Get A Marketing Agency For Nonprofits That Knows The Market You’re In

While many nonprofits are national or even international in scope, far more are more localized, but regardless of the nature of your nonprofit, the marketing agency for nonprofits to hire is one that understands the market that you’re in.

If you work for a large, multinational nonprofit organization, you’re going to need a marketing agency that has experience with campaigns for businesses and organizations like that.

If your nonprofit is locally or regionally concentrated, make sure that you’re hiring a marketing services company that understands your city, state and/or region. Hiring a big name is great and seems very prestigious, but the largest marketing and ad agencies don’t always have the best lay of the land in some cases.

If you work for an Idaho nonprofit, you should probably hire an Idaho marketing services company.

It’s important to have a marketing agency on your side that has direct experience with the market that you’ll be dealing with, and understands how best to market your nonprofit within it. How best to appeal to the people that live there, and what channels to use in order to do it.