The mother of all charity challenges: the need for brand marketing

If your charity isn't investing in brand marketing, its fundraising attempts and efforts to attract supporters are always going to be an uphill battle. In this blog, we explore why that it is and what to do about it.

Let's start by looking at this through the lense of private sector businesses, because there's a lot that charities can learn from their for-profit cousins.

For someone to buy from a particular business, they need to:

• know of the business

• trust the business

• have a want or need

If they don't know about them, they simply can't buy from them. If they don't trust them, they'll be worried about buying from them. And if they have no need of or desire for what they sell, they won't buy from them because why would anyone spend money on products and services they don't want or need - no matter how well they know and trust the business selling them?

When it comes to supporting charities, it's somewhat different, but not wholly so. People need to:

• know about the cause and charity

• trust the charity

• care enough to take action

Applying the same logic that applies to prospective customers of businesses, people can't give to causes and charities they don't know of, will worry about donating to charities that haven't earned their trust (in case their gifts of money are poorly used), are are almost certainly not going to give money to a charity whose cause they don't care about.

Tackling this trifecta is a brand marketing challenge.

What is brand marketing?

Brand marketing is the long game, and involves promoting the organisation and the cause that underpins its reason for existence, rather than just engaging in promotional marketing activities that are designed to drive immediate results in the form of donations, sponsorship, volunteer recruitment, and attracting sponsors.

For charities, it's about:

• Standing-out and being remembered

• Establishing credibility and trust

• Arousing empathy

There are around 75,000 charities in the UK, all vying for attention, all seeking people's time and money. And then there are the 5.6 million private sector businesses all doing the same. To cut through all this noise, it's important to find ways of grabbing the attention of the people you particularly want to reach, raising awareness of your cause and your charity. The more outlandish, unusual, unexpected and creatively you do this, the more chance you have of it working thanks to a quirk of the way our brains are wired to spot things that are out-of-place, or different from the norm. Being noticeably different also makes you more memorable for the same reasons, especially if you can attach emotion to your brand marketing efforts.

As people start to notice you more, you need to work hard to prove that you're trustworthy custodians of any money they might give you, and that you use donations wisely in the pursuit of your mission. 

And, all the while, you have to give them reasons to empathise, not sympathise. This is an important distinction: sympathy is a feeling of concern for someone who is going through something difficult, whereas empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. The former is more of a cognitive, rational response to a situation or stimulus, whereas the latter is more of an emotional response.

Unfortunately, the more remote your cause is from people's daily lives and general sphere of knowledge and experience, the more you have to work at your brand marketing. For instance, if you run a hospice, families of those you've looked after will have a personal connection to you as an organisation and the work you do. They'll care. Others will care because they might know of someone you've helped, or at least because they have an understanding of the work you do, and maybe even expect to be in your care themselves one day. But if yours is a charity that supports the victims of domestic abuse, sexual violence, drug addiction, or homelessness, then it's likely most people will have no real understanding of your cause, probably won't come across your charity, and may not care all that much as a result because they have no connection to it. 

What shape should charity brand marketing take?

There's no right or wrong answer to this, and much will depend on your appetite for risk (when it comes to doing what's necessary to stand-out and grab attention) along with your budget.

But, in the main, it can involve:

Continuously running low-cost awareness ads on social media. Facebook and Instagram are very affordable platforms for advertising on, and great for regularly getting your brand identity (logo, colours etc) in front of large audiences, along with compelling photos, graphics, and videos. 

Content marketing. Think blogs, information pages, case studies, and other resources on your website that you can drive visitors to from your social media and, if you've successfully applied, Google Ads Grant ($10,000 a month of FREE search engine ads on Google).

Organic social media. Posting regularly and consistently on social media sites so that when people see your ads and decide to check you out, they're not met by empty social media pages (that's a sure-fire way of undermining your credibility). Use videos of people you support sharing their stories as a way of evoking empathy.

The judicious use of PR. Getting your charity's brand mentioned in local, regional, or even national media is a fabulous way to draw attention to your cause, and establish your bona fides in the eyes of the public.

PR and marketing stunts. If you're not careful, even when doing all of the above, you can blend-in too much, when what you really need to do is stand-out. If you're prepared to take calculated risks, the pay-off from publicity-seeking stunts can be very high. 

Used alongside marketing designed to elicit action in the here-and-now, your brand marketing will actually boost your results. 

Key takeaways: the importance of brand marketing for charities

If you want your charity to thrive, boosting Individual Giving, Corporate Giving, volunteer recruitment, and supporter development, you need to invest in promoting your cause, your charity, and getting people to care with brand marketing.

1. Everything starts with awareness. Tell people about your cause, why it matters, what you're doing to tackle it, and why they should care. Put your brand identity in front of as many people as you can, as often as you can

2. Grab attention and get remembered by being bold. Just producing content for the sake of it, or copying what those around you do, isn't going to cut the mustard. You need to embrace being different and 'out there' if you want to stand-out instead of blending-in, but this doesn't have to mean taking unacceptable risks with your brand

3. Build trust with transparency and proof. Tell people what you spend money on, how it helps, and provide case studies that back this up, featuring real people discussing how your support made a difference

4. Give people reasons to care. Make it personal (it could be you or someone you know), and use extensive storytelling that puts people in the shoes of those you support or immerses them in the places you protect. Lean in to emotional imagery and language

5. Be prepared to play the long game. Brand marketing results don't always materialise overnight (they can with highly publicised PR and marketing stunts, but these take time to plan and execute themselves) but there is no doubt that it's a wise investment