HOW TO WRITE A NONPROFIT MARKETING PLAN Lesson 3 – Situational Analysis

When it comes to creating your Marketing Plan, as important as it is to know where you want to go, it is equally important to know where you are – Right NOW! Life changes, the economy changes, available funding changes. If you aren’t in sync with the changes going on around you, the odds are good you will fall quickly behind. Defining your organization’s current situation each year when you rewrite your Marketing Plan will help you adapt to change. So what will your Situational Analysis look at?

1. What people believe to be true about your organization (today)
2. What you have to offer (today)
3. What your current challenges are (today)
4. What is critical to your success (today)
5. What you need to do from a marketing perspective

To get clear and meaningful answers to all of these questions, you must do your research. Why? Because your research will help you to understand not only what your internal audience (staff, volunteers and Board Members) think about your organization, but how your external audience (clients, donors, partners, and the media) perceive it. And believe me, if you have a bad reputation for something as simple as not returning phone calls, your reputation and success could easily be affected.

Here’s an example of how completing a situational analysis, and doing the research, makes a difference!

Several years ago, I was hired by a nonprofit to create a Marketing Plan that would increase their client base and support a building expansion upcoming Capital Campaign. The organization had been in business for many years, had an outstanding addiction treatment program, and their success rate was high. Clients came primarily through referral resource from the healthcare field, and secondly - through family members, friends, and the potential client themselves. Although, they had managed to stay in business for a long period of time, for many years their census had never exceeded 70%.  I knew that by completing a Situational Analysis, it would not be difficult to identify why they were unable to break their census ceiling.

Starting with research on the organization’s external identity, the first group I surveyed was their referral resources. I created a satisfaction survey which was mailed out. I called a few people to interview over the phone. And, I held one on one meetings with several resources that had over time referred fewer and fewer potential clients. All of these methods, showed one thing. When calling the facility to refer a client for treatment, response rates were poor, slow, or non-existent. Not a good thing when you are counting on referral resources to fill your programs.

 

So here’s what I did. I met with the Executive Director and reported my findings. We then met with the receptionist who was the first line of contact, and the intake counselors whose job it was to get them to the facility for evaluation. What we learned from each group was this: The receptionist, was as frustrated as the callers themselves. It seems, she was so busy doing extraneous administrative work that she had very little time to give the caller more than a quick hello and transfer them to an Intake Counselor or their voicemail. Most calls were going to voice mail. The intake counselors, also overscheduled, were either in appointments, away from their desks, or at lunch (all of them at the same time!) Unfortunately, most voicemails were retrieved at the end of the day which meant return calls didn't happen until the next day. By this time, referral resources, or potential clients, had already called another facility. Luckily, there were simple fixes to each of these problems. Here's some that were made immediately.

1. The receptionist was given less work so she could make client service her top priority
2. The intake counselors defined a better schedule for intake appointments, returning phone calls, and taking their lunches.
3. A paging system was put into place to that allowed the receptionist to alert staff that a caller was holding that needed attention.
4. The organization created a marketing strategy to contact all of the referral resources through a variety of marketing tools (newsletter, postcards, events, etc.). The message to their target audience was: "We heard what you said and we’ve redesigned our process to make sure we are available to take your call every time you call!"

The results: Within a few months, the organization saw significant increase in referrals and census reached full capacity

This is a perfect example of why writing your Marketing Plan is so critical to your organization’s success. It is also a clear indication why defining your organization’s current situation through research is a step that should not be skipped. By working on your Situational Analysis, you will have a clear picture of where your organization is right now. And, through the research that is part of the process of answering all the questions included in your Situational Analysis you will find that you can focus your marketing efforts in areas that will reap the most rewards.

Add this to your Marketing Plan Worksheet

III. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
The Situational Analysis defines your organization’s situation TODAY.  It will include a combination of research and a SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats).  We will work on the SWOT specifically in the next section but you must do your research first. 

Tools for gathering information for this section can include:
1.Internal and External Focus Groups
2.Internal and External Personal Interviews
3.Mail, Telephone, and Electronic Surveys

Directions: Answer these questions:
1.What do our target markets think and know about us as an organization today? (our clients, our donors, the community, etc.)                        
2.What do we have to offer to our clients and our community?                     
3. What are our current organizational challenges? (ex: awareness, funding, resources, alliances, etc.)                      
4.What is critical to our organizations success? (ex:increased awareness, volunteers, supporters, etc.)                      
5.What do we need to do to be more successful from a marketing perspective? (ex: increase communications with supporters, educate the community, etc.)

  

Next: Lesson 4 –Developing your SWOT Analysis (come back to learn more!)

Do you want to learn "How To Write an Effective Nonprofit Marketing Plan" for your organization?  Join me for a full day workshop in Atlanta on November 15, 2011. 

In this 6 hour hands-on workshop, you will learn the fundamentals of a strong Marketing Plan and how to write one for your organization’s unique goals and mission.

Workshop includes:  
• A customizable electronic marketing plan template
• Comprehensive presentation, discussion and instruction
• Real life examples of other nonprofit marketing plans
• In-class exercises and homework to complete your marketing plan
• Expert support and review of completed plans after the class

Topics covered:
• What’s in a Marketing Plan?
• Completing your SWOT Analysis  (and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
• Identifying your target audience and how/where to reach them
• Determining realistic marketing objectives
• Developing strong strategies for success
• Outlining tactics to support your strategies
• Creating timeliness, budgets, and accountability
• Evaluating and reporting on results

DATE:  November 15, 2011
TIME:  9:30 am – 4 pm
LOCATION:  Ignatius House Retreat Center
                         6700 Riverside Drive, NW
                         Atlanta, GA  30328

FEE:  $89.00 (includes lunch and FREE Parking)

FOR MORE INFO OR TO REGISTER:  Online at www.purpleduckmarketing.com/pdu.html or Call (678) 925-3582

PRESENTED BY:  Purple Duck Marketing www.purpleduckmarketing.com