BIG’s Blog: The Shift

It seems this is becoming a buzzword or phrase. When I was on the east coast a while back, several (not just one person) people from different groups I met with used the phrase… the shift … as in “fundraising is shifting.”

Then, just this last week in two separate conversations, they both used the phrase.

By last week I had begun to clue into it, and when the phrase was used the first time I said, “so what shift are you talking about?” The first person replied, “you know, the shift.” Classic, defining the phrase with the phrase. But the other person gave a more complete thought by saying, “the shift is about moving from the old marketing and advertising to social, you know, digital.”

Yes, I do know. And I think we are in the “moment.”

It is just my opinion, because when these things happen there is just a sense that something has changed. It is kind of like we all wake up and just know that something is different, but otherwise life goes on as usual. But the change… the shift … is real and every morning thereafter the shift becomes the new normal. I believe the critical mass of people in the fundraising industry have sensed for some time that what used to work extremely well doesn’t any longer.

And now they are shifting.

Want some anecdotal proof? I kid you not… last week I got an invitation to a Webinar with the subject line: “Direct mail fundraising is alive and well.” A year ago I would have laughed, but today I read it as a sign of the times that the shift is underway and it is affecting people’s way of life in a real way. The letter was full of hyperbole and, frankly, a bit over-the-top creepy. Think I am kidding? This was the first line: It’s ALIVE !!! (Direct mail, that is) and it is not going anywhere.

Do any of you Shakespeare scholars see anything similar to Queen Gertrude’s famous line from Hamlet? “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Methinks so too.

Look, we all know the old-line modes of marketing and advertising aren’t working the way they used to, and it doesn’t matter if it’s direct mail or television advertising.

The question is “why?” The answer is “The Internet changed everything.”

It’s becoming common parlance … “the Shift.” People get it, people know it, so just get on with it.

But that does mean that as a fundraising leader, you DO have to get on with it. The silly thing is to cling to what was, instead of figuring out what will be.

Join us.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: We Have Moved … Online

You read about it in the press, but you wonder . . . are companies and charitable organizations really moving online . . . and what does that mean?

Well, here is one firm’s perspective.

For over nine years, we have been working as a consulting firm with nonprofit charitable fundraising organizations, especially those that are overly dependent on direct mail appeals. Our fundraising clients understand that unless they start reaching the Baby Boomer and younger generations with a fundraising message and an online methodology that targets and resonates with these younger online generations, they face a steep decline in revenue in coming years. Time is not on their side.

For all these years we have been consulting in the traditional in-person and on-site service delivery model that people expect from consultants. And all the while we are talking to these fundraising organizations about the need for them (not us) to move online.

Well, this past January we opened a new chapter for Browne Innovation Group. We transformed our practice into an e-learning and online coaching delivery model that trains fundraising leadership and professionals in not only how to move their Development organization fully online and make it work, but why it is so critical for their future.  

If we are going to “talk the talk” we had better “walk the walk.” Right?

So, yes, we put our organization “on the line” that ONLINE IS THE FUTURE.

The reaction?

If the current group of Development professionals and organization leadership that is now engaged in our online e-learning program is any indication… we made the right decision. Forgetting for a moment that fundraising professionals can now access our program information for a fraction of the price of the old, traditional in-person, on-site consulting model… the feedback we have just received from this first group of Development leadership and professionals has exceeded our expectations.

It isn’t just that our organization’s program is now online. . . it is that our clients are engaged in the online program! Did you get that? They are engaged online. And living the experience as individuals and as a Development team, they can relate to what is missing in how their organizations communicate, develop relationships, and ultimately develop financial support within the context of a virtual online space.

Hey, I’m 60 years old, but I’ve got my iPad, my iPhone and my computer. Do you somehow think that your “potential” Boomer supporters don’t act like me, think like me and can’t be engaged online? Or, should I say, “think like us and can’t be engaged online like us… you and me?”

I would love to have your organization join our next program, which begins in July. The best way is to learn about our program is through one of our free Webinars and I want to give my blog readers priority. If you are interested, drop me an email and I will see you receive priority status to attend.

Join us.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Trend No. 11: We Will Contemplate More Purpose & Less Strategy

This “trend” brings this series to a close. I hope Mr. Kalehoff’s insights and my comments focusing on his insights from the nonprofit fundraising perspective have been of value. Mr. Kalehoff’s final comments about how advertising will shift are: “These big trends will most certainly reshape advertising. However, one thing won’t change: our competitive spirit and mandate to win.”

Max Kalehoff is one of those people who is followed by many in the marketing/tech world. He is currently VP of Product Marketing at Syncapse… one of those fairly unheard-of tech companies that is really changing things.

Max recently published a paper for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Future of Advertising 2020 Program. His paper entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond has garnered a lot of attention.Over the next few blog posts, I will attempt to take each one of his eleven points and give it my interpretation from the nonprofit Development perspective. Let’s take a peek into the future together

11. We Will Contemplate More Purpose & Less Strategy. Whenever I think about the future, I can’t help but think about the world we’re leaving for our children. Everyone on our planet could think a little more about leaving a world for our children that is not only hospitable, but sustainable and a better place. Right now, we’re not doing that. That’s why if there’s one human characteristic we could use a little less of, it’s strategy. Conversely, the characteristic we could use a lot more of is purpose. If advertisers approached their business in this way, our advertising industry — and our world — would become a far better place.

In this final “trend” from Mr. Kalehoff, he summarizes in emotional terms the shift in thinking he hopes will prevail that could change society for the better. My take is that the shift is well underway and that charitable organizations will be the beneficiaries of it…if they shift as well.

For too long we have all felt the oppression of our consumer society seeping into all areas of our lives, creating false hopes and expectations. Until recently we were powerless to affect it without feeling like we had to leave everything behind and take our families off to an isolated mountain where we could live detached from society and our communities. The longing to have others feel the same way and perhaps join us in attempting to counter the pervasive influence of “stuff and false idols” from our consumer society was our unspoken desire.

Now, however, the major culprit of creating envy, greed, and the peer pressure to keep up appearances has been slayed. The dragon of mass advertising and marketing that manipulated our desires, foisted upon us ideals in lifestyle and personal appearance that were nothing but false, one-dimensional caricatures are being undermined.

Mass advertising pushed messages at us with no independent confirmation that the purported “facts” of an advertising message were truthful. After holding up these ideals for so long, we just assumed that everyone accepted them.

Then came the Internet and it changed everything. The Internet broke the back of the mass publication/media and mass advertising juggernaut. Mass advertising supported mass media, so the media was never really going to raise hard questions about the implications of a society built on the constant want and desire of the new. Now, you and I can publish ourselves... in fact, you are reading my publication. The Internet isn’t one-way.  Its interactive voices, both pro and con, are equal. So now, when we hear commercial claims, we seek out other voices to confirm, contradict, or balance the messages...and we now all have our own networks of trusted sources.

Today we have the control. And we can focus on “purpose” in our lives since now we find that the whole of society felt the same despair we were feeling. We are not alone against the mass voice. We have options and a voice.

Now it is up to charitable organizations to leave the comfort of the safe huddle of the like minded and join the conversation. More than ever before, that voice is needed to bring balance to the hurt and despair wrought by decades of one-sided messages.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Trend No. 10: Trust Will Be Everything

Max Kalehoff is one of those people who is followed by many in the marketing/tech world. He is currently VP of Product Marketing at Syncapse… one of those fairly unheard-of tech companies that is really changing things.

Max recently published a paper for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Future of Advertising 2020 Program. His paper entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond has garnered a lot of attention.Over the next few blog posts, I will attempt to take each one of his eleven points and give it my interpretation from the nonprofit Development perspective. Let’s take a peek into the future together.

10. Trust Will Be Everything. Advertising is — and always was — about trust. It is likely the behaviors of marketers and advertisers that has driven low admiration of those professions. Regardless, the stakes are rising. Social media and our real-time connections have prompted a new age of transparency and consciousness around values, motivations, behaviors and outcomes of institutions. Doing good marketing and advertising means embracing responsibility and accountability throughout your organization’s entire value chain, and respecting their communities.

For Development organizations operating in 2013, Mr. Kalehoff’s point #10 should be printed out, cut out, blown up, framed, and hung in every office and on every wall in your Development department.

Remember, he thinks he is primarily addressing the commercial sector, not those doing fundraising in the not-for-profit sector. Selling Oreos, Chevrolets, or Clorox and talking about trust is a completely different planet than the level of meaning of trust when associated with your organization and ministry or mission.

My mother is 83 years old. She comes from the generations that trust institutions; “Here is my gift, I know you will do the right thing with it… I trust you.”

My wife is 56 years old. She comes from the Baby Boomer generation that remembers Vietnam, Watergate, pedophile scandals, and (specific to the world of fundraising) Jim and Tammy Baker. A gift is defined as no strings attached. My wife and her generation don’t trust institutions. They do not give gifts to charitable organizations. Boomers invest in people, causes, ministries and missions. Transparency is expected and TRUST is the coin of the realm.

Is your current fundraising model built on trust? If not, or you are not certain, please drop me an email and I will make sure you receive an invitation to our next Webinar where you will learn how to transform your Development group built on TRUST.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Trend No. 9: Legal & Privacy Issues, As We Debate Them Today, Will Go Away

Max Kalehoff is one of those people who is followed by many in the marketing/tech world. He is currently VP of Product Marketing at Syncapse… one of those fairly unheard-of tech companies that is really changing things.

Max recently published a paper for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Future of Advertising 2020 Program. His paper entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond has garnered a lot of attention.Over the next few blog posts, I will attempt to take each one of his eleven points and give it my interpretation from the nonprofit Development perspective. Let’s take a peek into the future together.

9. Legal & Privacy Issues, As We Debate Them Today, Will Go Away. The speed and adoption of technological and media advancements we’re experiencing is incredible. This prompts an interesting sequence of societal events: First, a life-changing technology arrives. Then, mass adoption comes over the next few years. Social norms gradually mutate. Laws trail new social norms by another few years, if not several. This creates a messy transition. Consider today’s workplace, where social networks often surface personal behaviors that conflict with HR laws and workplace customs. (Apparently, an entire generation of high school students is making itself unemployable by uploading photos and other evidence of behaviors that the rest of us have never ever engaged in.)  We can be sure of one thing: social norms and our notions of privacy are changing, and laws will eventually evolve to reflect them. It will be painful at times, but they’ll eventually converge and we’ll stop talking about them so much in this “digital age”. Oh, we’ll eventually stop talking about the digital age as well.

Over two years ago, Mark Zuckerberg essentially said, “the age of privacy is over.” In answer to a question about Facebook’s privacy policy, Zuckerberg said that if he were to create Facebook again today, user information would by default be public, not private, as it has been for years.

I actually agree with Zuckerberg and Mr. Kalehoff’s opinion that today’s ideas of privacy will morph. You can’t have it both ways. If you want privacy the way you define and think about it today, then for heaven’s sake, don’t go online. When you decide to “play” on social networks, understand that you do control what you say and do, but you are tacitly allowing those platforms to know things about you. That is the quid pro quo. . .  and as long as it’s not creepy and is used by reputable commercial companies to more appropriately and accurately target their goods and services to you… because they, not you, are paying the tab … so be it.

-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Trend No. 8: Trusted Intermediaries Will Rise To Prominence

Max Kalehoff is one of those people who is followed by many in the marketing/tech world. He is currently VP of Product Marketing at Syncapse… one of those fairly unheard-of tech companies that is really changing things.

Max recently published a paper for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Future of Advertising 2020 Program. His paper entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond has garnered a lot of attention.Over the next few blog posts, I will attempt to take each one of his eleven points and give it my interpretation from the nonprofit Development perspective. Let’s take a peek into the future together.

8. Trusted Intermediaries Will Rise To Prominence.  Until our intensive consumerism retreats, we can bet that a dizzying array of choice and noise will continue to rise. It’s a tax on our attention. Of course, this is why marketers argue for investing in their brands’ equity in the first place. However, to fight attention deficit and fatigue, consumers will increasingly look to trusted intermediaries to make better and faster choices. Consider a successful wine shop, where the merchant serves customers by getting to know them intimately. He then helps them quickly navigate thousands of confusing choices — and then provides relevant products for a fair price. This wine merchant will not only help customers find what they’re looking for, but help explore and discover value which customers were not looking for in the first place. Consumers will increasingly look for similar, trusted intermediaries in all areas of their lives.

This one is huge for nonprofit fundraisers.

Let’s be honest.  Everybody (including me) needs to sell his or her product or service to stay in business. As David Scott reminds us, however, in his book Real-Time Marketing & PR, with the advent of Search (read Google), everyone has access to all the information . . . and because of this newfound power as a consumer, our consumer ethos has changed – Information Good / Selling Bad. We don’t want to be sold.

While having access to all the competitive information helps educate us and narrow the field, we still want to talk to those we really trust to get that final opinion before buying.

The new currency is trust.

Now, if you don’t think that applies to your charity, I’ve got four words for you: Jim and Tammy Baker.

Trust for charities is the whole enchilada.


-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Trend No. 7: Successful Advertising Will Be About Service

Max Kalehoff is one of those people who is followed by many in the marketing/tech world. He is currently VP of Product Marketing at Syncapse… one of those fairly unheard-of tech companies that is really changing things.

Max recently published a paper for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Future of Advertising 2020 Program. His paper entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond has garnered a lot of attention.Over the next few blog posts, I will attempt to take each one of his eleven points and give it my interpretation from the nonprofit Development perspective. Let’s take a peek into the future together.

7. Successful Advertising Will Be About Service. The idea of “advertising as service” is nothing new. Some of the wisest, gray-haired advertising luminaries I know have told me this as far back as I can remember. However, if you look around, it seems that few advertisers live up to this ideal. It seems most are interested in only serving themselves. With daily messaging exposures continuing to rise to stratospheric heights, avoidance and intolerance will only increase as a matter of survival. As a result, there will be a growing premium and receptiveness to marketers and messages that actually serve and deliver value. Of course, this would mean that customer service be aligned with advertising.

In advertising… and, by extension, marketing… what is the difference between “Service” and “Agency discount” or “mark-up or margin” in direct mail as the author is describing it above?

In the old world of advertising agencies, they made their money buying media (TV, radio, print advertising) for their clients. Agencies made the difference between the cost of the media and the agency discount [normally 15%]. So for every one million dollars in advertising that a client bought, the agency generated $150,000 in fees. When your client is Ford Motor Company or Proctor & Gamble, and is spending tens of millions of dollars, the agency can provide a lot of service.

This is similar to direct mail. The charge to the client to create, print, sort and mail a package might be 20 cents, but the cost to produce that package might be 10 cents. Again, you can offer a lot of service to a direct mailer that is mailing 10 million pieces of mail a year.

There is nothing wrong with either the advertising agency or the direct mail company making money on the work that they do for clients, so long as the agency or direct marketing company delivers a return to the client that is greater than what they charge the client.

What do advertising agencies and marketing companies do today when everybody fast-forwards through commercials and fewer and fewer people open their advertising mail? When all the new media, including social media, [think Facebook] are essentially free, how do they stay in business?

Well, Mr. Kalehoff argues that they help their clients … including fundraisers … in the same old way…bringing in more revenue for their clients than their clients pay in fees. This Mr. Kalehoff correctly refers to as “value.”

The service is to deliver value.

Here is where it gets hard and complicated for nonprofit fundraisers who are used to generating donors through marketing campaigns… most direct mail. What do you do when Marketing is Dead?


-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Trend No. 6: That Which Can Be Commoditized Will

Max Kalehoff is one of those people who is followed by many in the marketing/tech world. He is currently VP of Product Marketing at Syncapse… one of those fairly unheard-of tech companies that is really changing things.

Max recently published a paper for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Future of Advertising 2020 Program. His paper entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond has garnered a lot of attention.Over the next few blog posts, I will attempt to take each one of his eleven points and give it my interpretation from the nonprofit Development perspective. Let’s take a peek into the future together.

6. That Which Can Be Commoditized Will. I’ve been on the early teams of several innovative startups in media measurement, marketing intelligence and advertising technology. One of the key lessons I’ve learned is that anything that could possibly become commoditized, will be commoditized. When a new technology or a new platform arrives, it’s easy to get carried away with its unique value and promise. Increasingly, fast followers will match you at alarming speed and one-up you. Success is determined not by who is first, but by those who arrive on time to execute and out-commoditize the rest. Those become the advertising technologies and platforms that win.

I’m going to go a slightly different direction here.

I’m going to use the author’s concept of That Which Can Be Commoditized Will, but instead of using the author’s term “commoditized,” the way he uses it, I’m going to shift the idea slightly to “me-too-ism;” as in copying other organizations’ fundraising ideas.

Borrowing another organization’s approach in a fundraising letter or copycat event is a time-honored tradition in nonprofit fundraising. Right? Today we have so many copycat walk-a-thons … some on the same weekends … that you can’t keep them straight. I guess what Mr. Kalehoff ascribes to technology as becoming a commodity can also become commodity-like tactics in nonprofit fundraising. Except that… with each copy, they become less and less valuable.

But, what is valuable? One word… trust.

The time is coming … and quickly … when your traditional marketing won’t work anymore. Your direct mail is already headed south. It isn’t just direct mail in fundraising that is failing; traditional marketing in the commercial world just doesn’t work anymore.

Trust, however, works.  Especially for charities.

How do you build trust? How about engaging your Supporters and focusing on building the relationship.

You cannot commoditize trust.


-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Trend No. 5: Consolidation of Ad-Tech Will Grow the Ad-Tech Pie

Max Kalehoff is one of those people who is followed by many in the marketing/tech world. He is currently VP of Product Marketing at Syncapse… one of those fairly unheard-of tech companies that is really changing things.

Max recently published a paper for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Future of Advertising 2020 Program. His paper entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond has garnered a lot of attention.Over the next few blog posts, I will attempt to take each one of his eleven points and give it my interpretation from the nonprofit Development perspective. Let’s take a peek into the future together.

5. Consolidation In Ad-Tech Will Grow The Ad-Tech Pie. The diminishing cost of computing and starting a company means that we’ll continue to see a steady flow of innovative media and advertising upstarts. Still, we’re due for a large wave of consolidation among venture-backed ad-tech companies. That will be a good thing because that sector is experiencing a tragedy of the commons: lots of noise, too many companies, not enough traction. Fewer companies will mean fewer choices, which will mean simpler decision making for marketers, which will mean lower friction to spend more money in innovative ways on new platforms. Second, ad-tech consolidation will concentrate talent and resources into fewer companies, which will mean a higher likelihood for the most promising companies to achieve critical mass in adoption and revenues. Ad-tech consolidation will have the ironic outcome of creating a larger sector, altogether.

Reading Mr. Kalehoff’s fifth trend, I can imagine that most of my fundraising management and leadership readers will fall into three groups.

Group number one consists of our current and former clients who clearly understand what Mr. Kalehoff is talking about in general.

Group number two are those fundraisers who have been watching the world of marketing change dramatically with the advent of the digital Internet and all the new tools, social media, and services created for the marketing communications industry (which includes nonprofit fundraisers) but have not moved to change their fundraising model.

Group number three has no idea what Mr. Kalehoff is talking about… Ad-Tech??

Rather than comment directly on his insight about the consolidation of Ad-Tech and its implications for marketers, let me first comment on the specific mention of consolidation in this sector and, second, comment on why our clients understand this.

First, consolidation. When do industries consolidate as defined by the bigger and more successful companies buying up the smaller? Answer: When the industry has matured.

Some examples that will resonate with you.

In the early 20th century, when the automobile industry was brand new, there were forty to fifty auto-manufacturing companies just in the U.S. Now the auto industry has consolidated down to three in the U.S.  Many of the General Motors brands for instance used to be separate companies. This consolidation took 60 years.

In the early days of the personal computer in the 1980s, there were over twenty companies that I can think of (maybe more) building PCs. Today, maybe five big players worldwide? Obviously the PC industry rapidly consolidated within its first twenty years.

So, for many of my readers, Mr. Kalehoff is talking about the consolidation of an entire industry that, as marketing communications fundraisers, they should not only be aware of but actually be using these products and services.

Interestingly, our clients, if not knowing all the Ad-Tech companies and services, nonetheless understand that the digital Internet-based marketing communications product and service sector exist, but more importantly, they understand what it means for their future in fundraising. Their biggest insight is they have learned how inexpensive and powerful these tools are for building supporters from the younger generations. They understand how to integrate these new digital tools into a new model of fundraising, which gives their Development group a future in fundraising.


-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Trend No. 4: Social Media Marketing Will Cease To Exist

Max Kalehoff is one of those people who is followed by many in the marketing/tech world. He is currently VP of Product Marketing at Syncapse… one of those fairly unheard-of tech companies that is really changing things.

Max recently published a paper for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Future of Advertising 2020 Program. His paper entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond has garnered a lot of attention. Over the next few blog posts, I will attempt to take each one of his eleven points and give it my interpretation from the nonprofit Development perspective. Let’s take a peek into the future together.

4. Social Media Marketing Will Cease To Exist. Like digital marketing, we’ll soon all be doing less “social media marketing”. Marketing and media are inherently social — to one degree or another. Social is simply an aspect of all the marketing we do. We’re social beings.

Again, very short and sweet but LOADED with insights and new perspectives for nonprofit fundraisers who today still depend on direct mail appeals. Even those organizations that today are bringing in 90%+ of their donations through direct mail appeals have launched Facebook, are using email blasts and other social and digital marketing methods, and are already into their second or third generation Web site. Nonprofit fundraisers are just getting started in this new digital world and along comes this respected voice in marketing saying, “we’ll soon all be doing less ‘social media’ marketing.”

What does he mean by that? He can’t mean what he says?

Actually, Mr. Kalehoff means exactly what he is saying. So this trend that will reshape nonprofit fundraising is either a real wake up call or a gut-check for those nonprofit fundraisers who continue to believe that direct mail will last forever. Max Kalehoff doesn’t even mention old media, but he has the audacity to jump over old media like direct mail and tell us that the NEW social media will soon cease to exist.

Huh?

Sometimes we forget that, in the commercial sector, they do not have the government-supported economic advantage of reduced postage, so they have been using and incorporating the new digital online tools and social media platforms into their marketing since each was launched.

Mr. Kalehoff is looking out seven years and saying at some point in the not-too-distant future the “norm” will be that social media will become so integrated into your marketing communications that you won’t think about social media as a distinct element of your marketing communications.

Now you need to ask yourself, “how does that LOOK in my fundraising organization?”

If, essentially, all your communications are social [“Social is simply an aspect of all the marketing we do. We’re social beings.“], doesn’t that seem, feel, or look very different, not just in how you execute marketing communications, but organizationally as well?


-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Trend No. 3: Digital Marketing Will Cease To Exist

Max Kalehoff is one of those people who is followed by many in the marketing tech world. He is currently VP of Product Marketing at Syncapse… one of those fairly unheard-of tech companies that is really changing things.

Max recently published a paper for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Future of Advertising 2020 Program. His paper entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond has garnered a lot of attention. Over the next few blog posts, I will attempt to take each one of his eleven points and give it my interpretation from the nonprofit Development perspective. Let’s take a peek into the future together.

3. Digital Marketing Will Cease To Exist. Face it. We’re all doing less “digital marketing”. Instead, we’re simply doing more marketing in a digital world. It’s a nuance, but an important one. It will dictate your organization’s culture and marketing roadmap for the future.

Although this trend and explanation by Max Kalehoff is short … only four sentences … it is loaded with insights for nonprofit fundraisers.

“Face it. We’re all doing less “digital marketing”. Instead, we’re simply doing more marketing in a digital world.”

Many of you, after reading that, are probably saying to yourselves, “We are???” After all, digital marketing is relatively new to the nonprofit world. Realizing that he is addressing the whole of the marketing world (mostly commercial) puts his statement in context. There is, however, a more important point here and that is that just like we all are getting more and more of our news and information from digital sources, so too, marketing communications will inevitably move more to digital.

“It (digital marketing communications) will dictate your organization’s culture and marketing roadmap for the future.”

Actually, this is the most important insight. Essentially, what he is saying is that digital marketing communications are fundamentally different and because of this, your very roadmap for the future of marketing communications is fundamentally different. And because it is so different, it will actually be a different “work culture” for your Development organization.

In our programs, in which we train fundraisers how to connect with younger donors, we say this a little differently, but make the same point. Your current fundraising business model will at some point cease to work. You will need a new fundraising model that is built online (digital). This is not a transition, it is a fundamental transformation of the way you develop supporters and develop relationships with those supporters. There is no transition from the old model to the new model; the old model will decline while the new model (online and digital) rises. It will be different in every way including the actual work culture of Development. The good news for fundraisers, however, is that you can start growing again.


-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: Trend No. 2: Social, CRM and Advertising Will Collide

Max Kalehoff is one of those people who is followed by many in the marketing tech world. He is currently VP of Product Marketing at Syncapse… one of those fairly unheard-of tech companies that is really changing things.

Max recently published a paper for the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Future of Advertising 2020 Program. His paper entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond has garnered a lot of attention. Over the next few blog posts, I will attempt to take each one of his eleven points and give it my interpretation from the nonprofit Development perspective. Let’s take a peek into the future together.

2. Social, CRM and Advertising Will Collide. Facebook has become the world’s largest social CRM database, with over one billion users. In fact, Facebook has become a richer, more elegant CRM database than those maintained by many of the largest marketers (who often have multiple CRM databases based on organizational silos, geographies and political fiefdoms). Facebook also is showing that it is possible to integrate techniques of one-to-one CRM marketing with mass media planning techniques like reach and frequency. And when you add social-endorsement to the mix, you begin to achieve something unprecedented. Smart marketers in the future will adopt a social-CRM-advertising model that embraces multiple social networks to create a master customer communications grid. In many cases, the social CRM database will become primary, while legacy internal databases become secondary.

Many professional fundraisers have used donor management “databases” to house and manage their donor files and create reports for direct mail campaigns.  Though most are familiar with the term Customer (or Constituent) Relationship Management (CRM), it has not been something they have incorporated into their Development organization process. As Development professionals see their current core supporters from the Depression and WWII generations decline in number rapidly and seek to engage Baby Boomers, they are finding the Boomers are quite different in their view of Philanthropy and support for organizations than their parents and grandparents.

Whereas our parents sent “gifts,” Boomers look at “investing”… “partnering” with nonprofit organizations both faith-based and secular. This is where CRM begins to play a crucial role.

When Mr. Kalehoff says Social, CRM and Advertising will collide… and then goes on to use Facebook as an example, he is saying (and rightly so) that your infrastructure of relationship management tools must integrate with the exploding social universe of varied platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. He is absolutely correct … and this should get you very excited as Development professionals when he says, “Facebook… is showing that it is possible to integrate techniques of one-to-one CRM…And when you add social-endorsement to the mix, you begin to achieve something unprecedented.”

Although he makes fairly definitive statements about legacy databases being secondary to primary social CRM databases, my take is that his opinion is just conjecture and really doesn’t focus on the important point. What really is the important point is that this new integration offers the ability to get a 360 degree view of a person through their social graph as well as their behavior information, which is housed on your internal CRM-equipped databases. This will give you the tools to develop relationships with Boomers as well as the younger generations.

Of course, the question is this: Will you be able to do this with your current model of fundraising? Not even close.


-Mike

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BIG’s Blog: 11 Big Trends that will Reshape Fundraising: No 1

I follow the writings of quite a few people, and I generally respect their thinking. It is not always about agreeing with them on every point, but about how cogently they make their case and argue for their position. Max Kalehoff is one of those people, and he is currently VP of Product Marketing at a company called Syncapse.

Max recently published a paper for The Wharton School’s Future of Advertising Program. His paper was entitled 11 Big Trends That Will Reshape Advertising In 2020 And Beyond. Over the next few posts, I am going to take each one of his eleven points and personalize it for nonprofit Development. Clearly, we can all agree that Development will look very different by 2020. Let’s take a peek into the future together.

1. Digital Breadcrumbs Will Become The New Research. Let’s start with media measurement and marketing research, where I’ve spent a great deal of my own career. Traditional market research — particularly representative sampling and self-reported survey techniques — will never go away.  Those methods, however, will eventually become subservient to the gathering and interpretation of large universal data sets that don’t represent populations but are actual populations. Some call this trend “big data” — as intelligence derived from digital breadcrumbs usually means working with very large data sets. That may be true, but it’s important to remember that data become valuable not because of their size, but because of their precision and insights. If the wonk word “big data” goes away by 2020, all the better.

As the Internet makes possible the aggregation of literally every data point (think about that for a second), research as we know it, while not disappearing, will take a backseat to having all the data for a particular population, whether that population is your current base of donors, all the people who have visited your organization’s Web site, or all the people who have visited all nonprofit organizations’ Web sites. Data won’t be the issue, analyzing the data will be the name of the game.

Since Mr. Kalehoff’s focus is on the commercial world, he mentions media measurement. In the future, nonprofit organizations will not be purchasers of media. However, nonprofits will aggregate and re-post news from all media sources that may pertain to their mission, and though they will not be purchasers of media, they will, for instance, measure and analyze media to more precisely understand the link between a news item and the visit to their Web site.

-Mike

Welcome to BIG's Blog!  Please feel free to forward this post to your friends and coworkers...and email me a comment at: mike@big-db.com