By: Lidia Varesco Racoma Brand Strategist & Creative Marketer Lidia Varesco Design Determining your organization’s audience is a crucial part of branding and marketing. Developing a persona for each segment of your audience provides a framework for your content and assures that your outreach is strategic, focused and targeted. What Is a Persona? A persona is a representation of the target audience segment you are trying to reach based on internal data and research, and it includes the basics of who they are, as well as insights into their challenges and values. Some personas even include a name and image...
By: Melissa Lagowski CEO/Founder/Queen Bee Big Buzz Idea Group Routine “bored” meetings have transitioned from conference rooms to Zoom rooms for today’s remote workforce (and many are still a challenge to get enthused about…). Video conferencing is here to stay, so if you want your meetings to stand out while you increase engagement and avoid contributing to your staff’s zoom fatigue, you’ll want to pay attention. Whether you are using Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts or one of the many other online video platforms, it is always a good idea to look for ways to increase the engagement of your...
By: Melissa Lagowski CEO/Founder/Queen Bee Big Buzz Idea Group In “Promotion Ideas to Benefit Your Nonprofit – Part I” we covered ideas for you to utilize relative to email marketing, leveraging your community and capitalizing on some basic public relations tactics. Part II will advance the promotional discussions and cover more ideas for digital exposure. Online Marketing Marketing online via social media remains an important part of overall promotions for nonprofits and associations so we encourage our clients to include online promotions to achieve maximum exposure. Social media options can be a bit overwhelming, so it’s best to compare the various...
By: Melissa Lagowski CEO/Founder/Queen Bee Big Buzz Idea Group I recently heard a horror story about a nonprofit that was promised a packed room for their annual fundraiser. The development team guaranteed that the tables would be full and the event would be a huge success. I don’t know all the intricacies, but in the end, their promotions clearly failed as there were not even three full tables and it was a huge flop. This is everyone’s worst nightmare. We are constantly tasked with growing our audiences and engaging new supporters but often don’t know where to begin. This list...
By: Debbie McCann Partner W4Sight A virtual event is a great opportunity to showcase your nonprofit’s resilience and demonstrate your impact amidst the “new normal.” Just like with any in-person event, good planning is critical to virtual event success. Keep these three tips in mind to ensure that people remember the inspiring speaker, the amazing video, or the thought-provoking panel discussion – not the glitches. Tip #1: Set Expectations. Make sure people know what your event is all about, especially if you are doing a virtual event that specifically takes the place of an in-person event. In your email blasts...
By: Brad Ball Vice President Big Buzz Idea Group Whether you are well-seasoned in your nonprofit management career, just starting out at an entry-level nonprofit job or somewhere in the middle, you most likely spend a good deal of time in the digital workspace. In this post, we’re going to tell you about our top five favorite online tools to make your life easier and keep your nonprofit organization running smoothly without spending a penny. DESIGN: Canva We’ve written about this one before and it’s worth mentioning again because it’s such a powerful tool for your nonprofit marketing team. Keep...
By: Lidia Varesco Racoma
Owner of Lidia Varesco Design
Are your organization’s visuals on-brand or have they slowly started to derail?
Between working with multiple team members and outside vendors—plus the popularity of image creation apps like Canva and Adobe Spark—brand visuals can start to become diluted over time.
But fear not, you can maintain successful brand consistency by doing some simple planning and preparation.
By: Lidia Varesco Art Director & Designer, Lidia Varesco Design I work with many nonprofits in Chicago, and one of the reasons they choose to work with me is because they need help bringing consistency to their branding and marketing materials. For an established organization (or even a new one), branding can start to become diluted over time, with marketing materials using multiple versions of logos, colors and images that are not on-brand, and messaging that is not targeted or audience-focused. This is where brand guidelines can make a big impact. What are brand guidelines? Brand guidelines (also sometimes called...
By: Valeria Basso Symphonic Communications Consulting Here is a fact you most likely don’t want to hear but need to: 98% of your marketing is a waste of money. It’s just noise and your audience is hardly noticing it. The truth is that most non-profits miss the mark with their marketing because their message fails to answer a simple question: What’s in it for the donors? You can tell uplifting stories about how your organization is changing lives but if you don’t show your donors how your work impacts and matters to them, those stories are going to be largely...
8 Ways Social Media Can Further Your Mission By: Melissa Lagowski CEO, Founder and Queen Bee, Big Buzz Idea Group When to-do lists run long, social media management is often one of the first things to fall off a busy nonprofit team’s plate. While it’s crucial to stay focused on organizational strategy, building and maintaining a social media presence is a tactic that can help your nonprofit successfully execute that big-picture strategy and meet next-level goals. Social media may seem small-reaching, especially if you’re still working to build a following, but with consistent, engaging content, it has limitless potential. How...
