Nonprofit Communication Strategies To Reach Your Audience
Communication is defined as “the exchange of information”, and therefore we can deduce that nonprofit communication is “the two-way exchange of information between a nonprofit and its stakeholders; this includes staff, board members, donors, volunteers and supporters.”
Knowing how to communicate effectively is extremely important as it helps us build relationships and connect to others. These two factors are the lifeblood of nonprofits; relationships and connections are how nonprofits gain the necessary funds, workforce and support.
Here are a few communication strategies you can use to ensure that you communicate in a way that resonates with your target audience.
1. Set your nonprofit communication goals
What is your intention when communicating? What is the end goal of your communication strategy? These are questions that need to be answered.
Good communication needs to facilitate the furthering of the overall goals of your organization. Without setting proper goals, your communication will be for nought. You need to define and articulate these goals.
There are many ways to set communication goals, but a common suggestion is to set SMART goals: making sure that your goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound will increase the likelihood of your organization achieving those goals.
2. Know your target audience
A message needs a recipient. Who do you want your message to reach? Who do you want your message to resonate with? That is your target audience.
In order to increase the effectiveness of your communication tactics, they should be tailored to who you want to reach. Your non-profit is important to a wide range of people. As such, you will have multiple target audiences, and your communication plan needs to take this into account.
For example, Millennial donors are most inspired to give by social media, whereas Baby Boomers are most motivated by email. Your nonprofit will need two different strategies to reach these two different audiences.
Defining your target audience is important. You can do this by creating personas. Having a robust donor database will help as it will give you insight into who your biggest supporters are. You can then use that data to create personas that you can tailor your message.
If you want to reach out to new audiences that are not reflected within your database, segment them; whether you want to reach politicians, community influencers or advocates. Do your research on each of these segments and create a persona for each of them based on that research. It is best practice to create 3-5 target personas for your nonprofit.
Here are a few demographics that you can use to build your personas:
–Age, gender, location, and income.
–Financial status.
–Technological affinity.
–Belief systems and causes they promote.
–Their aspirations.
–Jobs they are trying to get done by supporting a nonprofit.
–Their donation history.
3. Define your message
Now that you’ve determined who you want your message to reach, you need to define it. Your nonprofit needs to have key messages in place. These are the main points you want to communicate; it is what you need your stakeholders to hear, understand and remember about your organization.
4. Choose the right channels
Using the right communication channel to reach the right people is extremely crucial to the impact your message will have. From social media to email and snail mail, there is a multitude of communication channels to choose from.
As highlighted in the “Know your target audience” section of this article, different channels motivate different audiences to donate. As such, most nonprofits use a multichannel strategy to reach as many of their target audiences as possible. Choose your channels based on where your target audience will be most responsive.
5. Listen to your audience
Communication is a two-way process. You don’t simply want to talk to your audience, you want them to interact with you. This is where social listening comes in. By tuning in to the conversations people are having about your organization, you can better tailor your message. There are a number of social media tools that allow you to see posts about your company by tracking your hashtag.
You can also use data to learn more about your target audiences:
Examine data from previous nonprofit communication efforts. What was a success? What was a complete failure? Apply what you’ve learned to your future plans.