Engagement Marketing Metrics for Nonprofits
Pamela Georgiana, MBA
Brand Strategy and Content Marketing for Mission-Driven and Faith-Based Organizations, B2B Services, and Healthcare.
How to take nonprofit marketing from transactional to relational and measure it effectively
I haven't yet tackled the subject of measuring results from content marketing and branding here in this newsletter. However, I always mention that the end goal and how that goal will be measured is critical to building any successful strategy. As VP of Engagement at Lutheran Social Services, measuring and reporting results were a huge part of my job. My reports were a permanent agenda item in almost every Cabinet and board meeting. Suffice it to say, metrics for nonprofit marketing strategies kept me up many nights in my seven-plus years there.
So, since I am writing about nonprofit marketing strategies this month, let's talk about how I measured results at LSS. Hopefully, it will benefit you, dear reader, even if you are not in the nonprofit sector.
First, though, I need to explain our goals at the time. Traditionally, marketing goals are very transactional, even in the nonprofit world. Nonprofit communications professionals use traditional marketing messaging and techniques to ask for a donation dollar, volunteer hour, or press release coverage. But I knew that the world was changing. Consumers are interacting with brands on a more fundamental level. They communicate with brands in real-time via digital platforms, wear logos on their clothes, and recommend them to friends and family. Consumers are building long-term relationships with their favorite brands. They are loyal. They are engaged. Smart brands are pivoting their marketing efforts to build these relationships more effectively.
I knew that LSS should also do this if we wanted to survive. I've discussed the differences between engagement and transactional marketing in my blog. Here's an excellent first read for more information.
Relationships with Who?
So, how can you build your nonprofit brand as a "relationship-worthy" cause? First, it's important to know your important customers or constituents. At LSS, we categorized our critical constituent groups as The Client, The Employee, The Volunteer, and The Donor. Each is equally important to our mission and our existence. Their individual engagement with LSS is an important reflection of our brand. Your organization may classify other critical constituents based on your mission, such as Government Leaders, Foundations, or Local Chambers of Commerce.
Next, defining your aspirational relationship with each constituent group is important. This is more than defining customer demographics and transactional information. It's a long-term goal. For example, our organization aspired to build a donor relationship that may start with a holiday gift to our homeless shelter but, over time, becomes a monthly gift to the same shelter and then expands to in-kind donations to other programs within our organization. This same relationship could also develop into becoming a regular volunteer and possibly even a board member. However, we understand that this relationship is a two-way street.? We take our cues from our constituents as we engage with them every step of the way. They help us define the engagement they want to have with our organization. We are here to make it as easy, positive, and fulfilling as possible.
The Promises We Make
As you define your critical constituents and the relationships you hope to have, write Value Propositions (VP) for each. VPs are the promises you make to each group that improve their lives and enhance their experience with your organization. The VP is also a list of the benefits each group should expect from your organization and the problems you will solve for them.
The VP is a reflection of the relationships you want to have with these important people. It should also be a reflection of your agency's long-term organizational strategy and the start of building relevant metrics.
For example, the LSS Volunteer VP was "LSS will collaborate with and support an engaged and compassionate volunteer team across service lines, bringing together individuals and groups, motivated by the LSS mission, to provide experiences that enhance and add value to client services within LSS while nourishing both the client and volunteer spirit. A fully engaged volunteer team is well prepared (through superior orientation and ongoing training), well supported (through open communication and opportunities to provide input), well respected (through appreciation for the time, talents, skills, abilities, limitations, and preferences), and continuously celebrated (through ongoing recognition and acts of gratitude) in their impact." Within this VP is a strategic roadmap in which the volunteer engagement team will work to enhance our volunteer opportunities and experience. As we develop these initiatives, we build brand experiences as well.
Value propositions help us understand how to strategically use resources to provide value for our constituents. It provided my team with a framework to develop messaging and design marketing based on the aspirational relationship we are building within a certain constituent group. But because engagement is a two-way street, we also collect pertinent data from our constituents whenever possible and pivot in our messaging and engagement opportunities when it is warranted.
Measuring a Relationship
Understanding the strength of each relationship and how you deliver value is why tracking engagement metrics is extremely important. These metrics help you know what you are doing. LSS identified critical metrics that fall into four succinct buckets.
Acquisition: This goal is to change the number of constituents within a constituency group. It may be an increase in donors or volunteers. It may also be a decrease or "keep flat" goal for clients or residents of our programs.
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Retention: This goal is to change the retention rate for constituents within a constituency group. Again, the goal depends on the group.
Growth: This goal is to increase the growth rate for constituents within a certain constituency group to deepen their relationship with LSS. This measurement would only apply to constituents that can help the agency grow and thrive in the future.
Movement: This goal is to increase the rate of constituents moving among groups without affecting in-group retention and growth rates. This is the most critical set of goals and the hardest to measure. To do so, an agency must invest in technology and systems that are integrated and available across programs. It also may require sophisticated data analytics that many nonprofits cannot access.
Writing Goals
It is important to write goals using the SMART methodology. This means that each goal is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. It's hard to motivate the troops with a goal that can't be met or is unclear in scope. For example, the LSS volunteer growth goal could be written as "By the end of the fiscal year, LSS will increase the number of volunteers who have maintained one shift per month in both the LSS Faith Mission Community Kitchen and for the LSS Faith Mission Speakers Bureau for at least 3 months by 15%." This includes a lot of detail important to our overarching engagement strategy for the agency, but it is also completely understandable and attainable for our volunteer engagement team.
Goals vs. Objectives
It's also important to remember that these metrics measure overarching strategic goals. They do not measure results from a specific marketing tactic like an email newsletter, event, or social media campaign. The expected results from tactics are your objectives. Objectives should also have a set of metrics, and the results should always roll up in some way to influence a goal's measurement.
For example, attendance metrics and objectives for a volunteer recruiting event can be rolled up into the overall acquisition goals for volunteers. Or, increased social media engagement metrics can inform the goals for donor engagement.
Engagement Marketing in Other Sectors
Building customer relationships is critical for almost every business or organization. Keeping Value Propositions in mind, tailor your marketing messaging and creative to your critical constituents to meet your promises. Be sure to integrate all messaging (sales and marketing) to be consistent and authentic. Establish your critical goals and set up your tracking mechanisms. Measure results at every step and be ready to iterate as needed. Before you know it, you'll create life-long and passionate partners for your organization. That's the most satisfying part.
If you'd like to talk more about engagement marketing or nonprofit marketing strategies, contact me here or on my website. Thanks for reading!