Visual impact as a positioning tool

Imagine you are the manager for a small, local museum, focused on the history of food. Your board is asking from you to develop marketing tactics that will position the museum as one of the more important ones within the region, and to become a recognized tourist atraction (as all museums' boards probably wish).  You know how difficult, expensive and sometimes non effective traditional tools could be, and then you have a wonderful idea: to create one image that summarizes the content of your museum, your geografic location and that has enough impact to become itself a landmark: voila!. It is exactly what Alimentarium, Musée de l'alimentation in Vevey, Switzerland achieved by creating this beautiful art piece, that I found while walking, exactly in front of the museum location. 

I invite you to think outside the box when creating your communication tools. Some times, to create a memorable image with a clear meaning could be more powerful than any amount of words. Forever I will remember that Alimentarium is located in Vevey, on the Geneve lake shore, just need to look for the gigant fork...

The power of gratitude

Usually we are so focused on trying to increase our donors' pool and to create awareness within our community, that we always forget about the power of gratitude.

I remember that once, while working as Development Director, I received an email from a donor. He has previously received a personal thank you email from me, acknowledging his donation and explaining how important it was for us (not standard, a really personal and unique answer). He was so shocked to have a personalized answer that he decided to forward my email to all his friends asking them to support us and explaining how touched he was by our gratitude gesture.

Audiences are tired to receive tons of mail asking them to give or do something. Please don't forget, specially at the end of the year, to take the time and acknowledge all the ones that support your cause.

Strenghten your current relationships is as important as creating new ones. Let's not forget how annoying it is to find out that only new cable customers will get the special discount or that only new credit card holders will have those $100 back (and what about our loyalty as old customers?)...

picture credit to www.cardsdirect.com

A nonprofit for profit?

A very common question that I get from nonprofits is: Is there any different way to be sustainable?. That question usually reflects a lot of fear to continue "depending" on future donations while the needs of the cause you protect continue growing...

While traveling through Scotland, I couldn't but notice that every town we visited had one specific store that called my attention: an Oxfam store. In the United States there are also thrift stores from the American Cancer Society and some other nonprofits. All this "for profit" businesses are trying to raise funds to be used for their own causes.

I am not saying that we are going to transform our nonprofits into businesses, neither I want to have that discussion in this small forum, but I want to invite you once again to think outside the box and to evaluate if from your organization there is a different and creative way to start that path towards sustainability.

If you want to hear more about a different mindset around this topic, a book that may interest you is Uncharitable, from Dan Pallota (his website included in my Useful links). 

Keep thinking..

New tools for you and your organization in this website

Thanks to your feedback, I have developed some new tools for you and your organization in this website:

• We have a very dynamic facebook page. To receive quick, practical and easy tips on marketing, social media and strategy, just LIKE our new facebook page!. You can find the LIKE button on the right side of the website, as well as a friendly window with the latest topics.  I invite you to be part of my facebook community, just click the LIKE button on the window and be ready to receive tons of marketing knowledge!. 

• Many of you are looking for the top-of-the-notch literature recently published about marketing for nonprofits. I have installed a new plug-in that allows you to chose one of many books that I personally recommend, and be redirected to Amazon.com to buy it immediately!. Could it be any easier?  Just scroll down the website and, on the right side of it you can find the books rolling up...  

• And if you want me to give you some feedback about your own marketing strategies or if you have any question, there are many discussion spaces for you: - The Guest Corner (link on the last right corner in the website) where you can talk about any marketing topic. - Our Facebook page Wall where you can leave us your comments. - Comments to our specific articles by using the "comments" link under the title of the article. And of course, the Contact Me section for a private email.

Enjoy all these new features and let us know how they work for you!!!!

Tips to create a spectacular website

Many of you have asked me about your websites. This week I decided to include a list of tips to consider when creating (or redesigning) your organization's website, as a response for your questions.

Once again, I invite you to go to my DOWNLOADS tab, by clicking on the left side of this website, and download the PDF file with all the important tips!.

Enjoy the new contents and the wonderful process of communicating with your audiences!