Blog: Marketing that Inspires

Marketing for Non-Profits: Imagine's Great Giveaway

Imagine Group's third annual Great Giveaway to non-profits is about to begin!  Do you have a favorite community non-profit who could use some additional visibility to get the word out about what they do?  Now's your chance to nominate them. 

Here's what Imagine Group is giving away:

• 10 non-profit organizations will each receive $300 worth of banners, event signage, building signs, informational displays or other printed graphics products from Imagine Graphics that will help them get the word out about their mission.

• Grand Prize from Imagine Photographics and Imagine Fleet Graphics: 1 non-profit will receive a half-day of photography by the talented Imagine Photographics team, plus concepting, design and installation  for a vehicle wrap from Imagine Fleet Graphics that will transform their van or truck into a high-impact, high-visibility outreach medium for years to come.

Anyone can make a nomination. And any non-profit organization is eligible to win.  Winners will be chosen by Imagine Group based on who we believe would get the most leverage for their cause out of the donation. Past winners have included both well-known and relatively unknown organizations, with a wide variety of service areas. 

To nominate a group to be considered, just post a comment at the end of this blog entry (or post to the Imagine Group facebook page) and tell us:

1. The name of the non-profit
2. What you like about them (briefly)
3. Which of our products or services you think they could use
4. If they are not well known locally, we will also need to know their website or other contact information

Nominations will be open until November 30th.  Winners will be announced in December.  Thank you for joining with Imagine Group to support community non-profits! 

TO NOMINATE A GROUP, go just below this line to where it says  "Click here to read/write comments."

Marketing Effectively and with Integrity

“Marketing, in its ideal form, is an art that enlightens serves, connects, gives joy and creates trust.” 

The Imagine Group marketing strategy, and in fact, our whole brand, is increasingly centered on this ideal.  We believe that freely sharing our expertise and promoting our clients, is a one of the most effective way to win new business.  A great example of is our monthly Quick News and Cool Projects eNewsletter. 

Our eNewsletter shows photos of cool signs and graphics our clients have made recently, and photography that we’ve shot for them.  The copy is mostly about the client, with only a subtle mention (and a link for more info) of the product or service we provided them.  People love it.  Clients love being promoted.  And readers are always telling us how much they enjoy our eNewsletter and our Peek of the Week email offering.  They get ideas for effectively marketing their business, and stay “in the know” about what other local businesses and organizations are doing.  Our average Open Rate is 22% which I’m told is practically unheard of in either direct mail or email marketing.

But even with the goal of keeping our marketing enlightening and designed to serve,  it’s still easy to slip into the old school marketing style that I call "push marketing"… pushing my products and services. 

How many mentions of my products is too much?  How many links to my website are too many?  How do I integrate the need to use keywords for SEO with the overall goal of being of service to others? Does the subtle message of the copy match the intention to serve, rather than push?

This is an ongoing conversation within our organization, and one I actively seek feedback on with each draft of each newsletter, and each other bit of copy that I write for our website or our printed materials.  Writing copy and creating marketing materials in this way is both an inner and an outer practice, a striving that makes the job of marketing so much more fulfilling. 

Marketing in its ideal and fulfilling form must also be effective marketing - measurably helping people who need your products or services find you, and increasing your sales. No matter how many marketing gurus point in this direction, ultimately, you must measure your own marketing effectiveness with concrete sales-related metrics.

What values-related litmus tests do you measure your marketing efforts against? What sales-related metrics do you track and use as a look-back to hone your marketing effectiveness?  I would love to hear your thoughts on incorporating ideals and values into marketing strategy.  Share your practices or questions in the comments below.