8 P's of Strategic Social Marketing for your Nonprofit

Marketing for your nonprofit is not just about raising funds. The larger goal of marketing is to create a sound image for your nonprofit, deliver the right message about the causes it espouses, and a meaningful difference. Strategic Social Marketing your nonprofit is, therefore, based on the same principles of marketing as any other business organization, but also something more.

The first 4 P’s of social marketing are the same as the marketing mix of any other business organization:

Product
For your nonprofit, your product is the cause or the mission that you are supporting. Therefore, it is most important that the mission of your nonprofit should be of acute current relevance, and there must be an inherent need in the society for an organization like yours to pursue and fulfill that mission.

Price
The price in the case of a nonprofit will refer to the magnitude of effort and cost that it will take to achieve the goals and mission of the organization. The aim must be to achieve maximum results at the minimum of cost. Therefore, operational efficiency of the nonprofit must be very high in order to deliver optimized results with low overheads.

Place
If people wish to support and join hands with your nonprofit’s cause or mission, they should know how and where to do it. Therefore, easy accessibility of your organization to the potential supporters, and convenient facilitation for their donations or other material support should be in place. Online presence of your nonprofit also plays a vital role in fulfilling this goal.

Promotion
To promote your nonprofit, you need to devise and evolve innovative marketing strategies. Instead of opting for paid advertising like a business organization, the nonprofit must rely more on social marketing options. Online SEO marketing, conducting events and programs, media management, collaborative cause-related marketing, and other forms of non-paid publicity and promotion are key to the success of your nonprofit.

The following are the 4 additional P’s of a social marketing mix:

People
People within the nonprofit organization, people who provide outside support to the nonprofit, and associates and donors of the non-profit are all key to success of your nonprofit. Mobilizing their support, coordinating and communicating with them properly is a crucial part of the marketing strategy of the nonprofit.

Partnerships
Strategic partnerships, tie-ups, and associations with other organizations and individuals can help the nonprofit reach its larger objectives. It could be partnership with professionals, business houses, government agencies, or other social outfits that can be strategically useful for the nonprofit’s goals and mission.

Policy Changes
Favorable government policies can be critical to achieving the goals of your nonprofit in many cases. Therefore, pushing for necessary policy changes may become an integral part of your non-profit’s marketing campaigns.

Paid Marketing
Creating dedicated funds to support your non-profit’s marketing activities is an important part of your organizational goals. The nonprofit cannot solely rely on unpaid publicity and promotion. Sometimes it becomes necessary to raise funds and promote a cause through innovative paid sources of publicity that may cost a bit of money, but create a high impact towards the nonprofit’s goals and mission.