Marketing: no longer a department

Who should be doing the marketing in a nonprofit organization? Well, how about the Marketing Department?

Think again. The Make Marketing History Blog, in a good post titled The J Train (A Marketing 2.0 Minifesto), makes some excellent observation about marketing after the marketing revolution. At the end of the short piece comes this important statement: Marketing Is Not a Department. Instead ...

Marketing is a combination of elements that creates the environment in which it is possible to meet a customer need (starting right back at product development). It operates online and off and should inform and occupy every aspect and department of an organisation. More than ever before, it is everybody's job.

It doesn't matter how smart (or lacking in smarts) your Marketing Department is. If marketing isn't built through your entire organization from top to bottom and side to side, you're going to be lost.

It's everyone's job to tell the story in a motivating and exciting way.

It's everyone's job to articulate the mission in a way that donors, prospective donors, and third parties (like the press) can understand.

It's everyone's job to create programs that donors love.

It's everyone's job to take part in the conversation that's forming around the things you impact.

It's everyone's job to know, understand, and respect donors.

Sadly, many nonprofit marketing departments think it's their job to be gatekeepers for these functions, keeping everyone else out of marketing. And that leads, usually, to an irrelevant marketing department that spends its time and energy controlling the message and keeping others quiet, while they themselves neglect the real thing, the genuine conversation that is what marketing is becoming.

If you can overcome this dysfunction, your marketing has a chance to soar beyond your dreams.

Technorati Tags: fundraising, marketing

Comments

[Nancy E. Schwartz]

You're right on target, Jeff. But two steps are critical to having an organization-wide marketing department: 1) involving folks cross-functionally in marketingn planning, message development, etc. -- so they get it, get the value, plug in program expertise; and 2) training in what the key messages are, how/why to integrate them into everday work, what to look and listen for (and get back to the marketers--front-line staff hear it all), dealing with objections and more.

All best,
Nancy
www.GettingAttention.org

More in my article
4 Steps to Creating a Strong Nonprofit Brand at:
http://www.nancyschwartz.com/strong_nonprofit_brand.html