An article published recently by Marketing Magazine, entitled Companies are Starting to See the Limits of Digital Marketing, has been my inspiration for this piece.
In it, James Cowan for Canadian Business, says, quite rightly, that the battle of digital vs. analog is still very rife. The prime example offered is that of news organizations moving their content from offline to on and struggling to generate the same revenue from both content sales and through advertising.
Of much concern to all organizations, for profit and non-profit engaging in online advertising to find, prime and re-engage audiences, is the apparent rise of ad blocking technology.
The Internet, however, even with all its limitations is a vast and luscious environment – meaning, there are many applicable and relevant audiences still very much available to advertise to.
As charities are still considered novices in the space of online advertising, our analysis on the place of analog and digital for both fundraising and marketing is slightly different.
This is because the analog / print / offline experience is integral to the profitability of Canadian charities today.
Many organizations have fallen victim to one of two schools of thought.
The first being that everyone will naturally move online. As long as a basic infrastructure is provided, our key audiences will make this transition with little incentive and continue to engage in the same kind of behaviours as they did offline. In this scenario, analog efforts are still invested in as the move takes place.
The second focuses more on actively pushing the audience online. Analog efforts are, either in part or in totality, abandoned and replaced with online only communication, engagement and infrastructure.
Does your charity fit within one of these two buckets?
Going back to Cowan’s take for a moment, there are two interesting groups of organizations to look at. Those that began as online only but are starting to move toward analog and those who began offline but have moved predominantly online.
Ultimately, this culminates in one resounding thought for me that can be summed up in a word that is perhaps too often tossed around frivolously: integration.
Integration is the connection, collaboration and consistency of multiple channels used to achieve a singular objective.
Whether you started online, offline, or are somewhere in between, there is one ignorable key to success that this logic and Cowan’s assessment points to and that is true integration.
For the balance of 2016, I challenge us (myself included!) to think differently about integration. What are we looking to achieve? How will go about doing so? Is there a particular mix of channels that will help drive this success? In what ways can we ensure, regardless of channel, time, and spend, our message is singular and focused? What must we invest to get there? What does true integration look like for us?
Simren has established herself as an expert in digital fundraising, advocacy and marketing in the nonprofit sector at large. Heading up Stephen Thomas’s digital department as Director, Digital Innovation, Simren works with ST’s clients to ensure that they’re thinking strategically about their digital channels when it comes to exceeding their fundraising and marketing objectives. Simren has a proven track record of attracting new donors and supporters to her clients’ cause while making sure existing donors feel even closer to the organizations they’re supporting. From developing strategic campaign plans and leading website builds to launching online and email fundraising and marketing programs, Simren leads the agency’s digital and integrated efforts for all of ST’s clients. Follow Simren on Twitter at @SimrenDeogun.
