To the Point: The Great Debate: Which Channel Is Best?

Regardless of how you gather information about your donors, members and advocates, you must make time to listen to the marketplace. Here is where a conversation about marketing channels and tools begins to be useful.

For example, the Latin American Youth Center in Washington, D.C., serves (you guessed it) youths. It uses social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook to listen to what young people are saying. Some of this research has yielded important information about gang activity that is then relayed to school administrators and police. While it’s hard as marketers to “get outside” and listen to our constituents, it’s critical if you’re going to stay relevant.

How can we meet more people where they are?
More specifically, what can we do today, tomorrow and the next day to meet more people where they are, and get them engaged and connected with our cause?

The answer to this question has to do with finding the “sweet spot” between the goals of your organization and the desires of your audience. It’s this overlap that should be the focus of all your marketing efforts.

Now, we can talk channels. For example, if you find that your major donors are increasingly moving online, your best bet is to get your online program in shape. On the other hand, it would be foolish to abandon your direct-mail efforts if the majority of your donors are still offline.

Asking the right questions is really important to building a sound marketing, fundraising or communications plan. Unfortunately, the question, “Which marketing channel is best?” is not the only question you have to ask. It’s not even the first. Better questions include, “Who are we as an organization?” “Who are our constituents?” And “How can we connect with the people we cherish and meet them on common ground?” FS