Diane Lightfoot from United Response spoke from recent experience, on how to adapt your marketing strategy successfully within rapidly changing markets. The Director of Communications & Fundraising was speaking at a recent CharityComms conference about marketing and communicating on a shoestring.
Using United Response as her case study, Lightfoot discussed how the Government’s ‘personalisation agenda’ had a massive effect on the charity. As an organisation supporting adults with disabilities, the personalisation agenda involved moving purchasing power and choice from local authorities direct to the end user, putting individuals in control of directing their own support and budget. This has had a radical effect on the way that United Response operates as an organisation, requiring a major rethink on how they market themselves.
Despite being a large charity, United Response is almost entirely funded by contracts, meaning that it has a very small communications team and a relatively tiny marketing budget. Lightfoot broke down all the aspects that need to be considered within a small communications team when putting a new marketing strategy in place:
Firstly, you need to be clear on what has changed and how this redefines what you do as an organisation. The success of your different marketing channels will be dependent on you clearly setting out who you are and what you do as a charity. Considering questions such as, what are your motives as a charity? What do you offer as a charity? Where do you operate as a charity?
Secondly, who is your new audience? Once you have redefined what you do as an organisation, you need to consider how this change will affect your audiences and start developing your new market. Clearly identify who your new audiences are, so you can start thinking about how you’re going to reach this new group of people to market yourself.
Thirdly, establish your new promotional channels. Finding ways to reach your target audience directly isn’t always easy. In most cases you will need to use different marketing avenues in order to reach all of your potential audiences. As Lightfoot put it for the case of United Response ‘there is no mailing list for people with learning disabilities and their families’. You therefore have to be creative with developing new ways to reach your new target audience. There is no guarantee that these new channels will work, but testing them is the only way forward and a good learning experience. Make sure you are continually tracking what is and isn’t working.
United Response established that they needed to be able to offer their services directly to the individual rather than to authorities, as they had done in the past. When brainstorming how to reach their new audience, one of the places they decided would be a good target area was GP surgeries, so they produced postcards to distribute in surgeries. They also developed a new promotional channel online through the ‘Shop4support’ website, which showcases their products, so their audience could purchase United Services products and services online.
Use case studies to market your organisation, they are an extremely powerful way of reflecting your services, as the people you help are the best advocates of what you do. This is especially effective when changes have taken place and you are redefining your focus, as it is a time when it is going to be particularly important to make sure you are promoting your message correctly and people understand your services. Get the stories of people who really highlight what your organisation has to offer.
Lightfoot emphasised the importance of really making the most of every opportunity available to you:
- Consider what publications your new audience reads?
- Create your own printed publication and promotional materials to fit your new missions
- Develop your website to fit in with your new audience
- Conduct events and workshops making sure people are up to date with what you do
- Push to get your organisation and its new missions spoken about in the press
- Think both locally and nationally
In this workshop, Diane Lightfoot highlighted the importance of organisations remaining alert to the fact that markets are changing all the time and we must be prepared to adapt our marketing strategies quickly and effectively. Charities must be clear on what they do, who their audiences are and always be considering creative new marketing channels to get their message heard.