Programs or Marketing Tools?

Consider a new twist on how you market your organization. Make a list of the 10 things your organizations does best. Ask 15 potential clients/members what 5 things they look for in an organization that does work similar to yours (whatever meta-category you fit into). Are there places those two lists cross-over? What would it look like for your organization to provide training, information or programming out in the community based on those topics? For example, if you are a JCC and are great at kids’ day camp, consider opportunities to run 1-day mini-camps all over community – at festivals, at the Jewish hospital for older siblings of newborns, at day schools during breaks, etc. If you are a Foundation or a fundraising organization, consider offering family philanthropy workshops in locations around the city. Make them geographically accessible and make the program about the content, and not a sales pitch for your organization. Once you have made first contact with people, on neutral turf and with a service they can use, you then have laid the foundation for a new kind of relationship with those potential clients/members. Follow up later with an informational enews related to the topic and then further down the road, invite them into your organization/building for another taste of what you offer. It takes time to build relationships and finding unique marketing opportunities will help you in that endeavor.