Keeping Up With the Times

Last month's Marketing Corner discussed the importance of imagery when marketing your program. A reader responded with the following comment: "Here’s one of the all-time great pictures of a face. It’s the eyes."

“Steve McCurry’s iconic photograph of a young Afghan girl in a Pakistan refugee camp appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine’s June 1985 issue and became the most famous cover image in the magazine’s history, ” according to the National Geographic website. 

It's amazing how much marketing has changed since this picture was published more than 30 years ago. Back then, magazines were one of the primary ways information was delivered. Print was king.

Now we have the Internet. And with it a revolution in how people consume information.  2014’s ALS bucket challenge can go viral with multi-million impressions within weeks or even days.

The ability to reach an incredibly large audience almost instantly and for very little expense has created unheard of potential to connect with your audience. But you have to reach them where they are, which may be in a magazine, or on a website, or via email, or somewhere else where they look for their information. The fractured nature of today’s communication landscape makes marketing planned gifts – and everything else – a new kind of challenge.

You need to be sure you are communicating to your potential donors using every channel possible: print, email, web, social media, even radio or television where appropriate. This is the only way to get your message in front of all your constituents. It also is not a secret.  We all are deluged with marketing messages every day that vie for our attention. It is not enough just to reach out to your prospects through multiple channels. You need to make your messages personal and relevant to your audience, so that what you have to tell them stands out amidst all the chatter.