Your strategy should answer four questions:
Who are you trying to reach? Be specific. “The general public” isn’t an audience. “Women aged 35–55 who care about education equity in regional Australia” is. Most nonprofits have three to five distinct audiences — donors, volunteers, beneficiaries, partners, media — and each needs a different message.
What do you want them to know and do? Every piece of marketing should have a purpose and communicate a clear message. If you can’t name the action – donate, sign up, attend, share, learn – the content probably isn’t earning its place.
Where will you reach them? Go where your audience already is, not where you wish they were. If your donors are on Facebook and LinkedIn, that’s where you invest — not TikTok because someone on your board saw a viral video.
How will you know it’s working? Don’t stray from your overall goals like total donations, clients or sales. Pick two or three metrics per channel and track them consistently. More on this at the end.
