4 Reasons Why Your Nonprofit Needs Booklet Marketing

One of the greatest challenges of a nonprofit organization is attracting potential investors. With so many other nonprofit organizations out there, it can be hard to get sponsorships, especially from the corporate world.

Here’s the thing with corporate sponsorship: it’s a mutually beneficial relationship between businesses and nonprofit organizations. Even now, businesses are investing in building up their corporate social responsibility image in order to attract customers themselves. Nonprofit organizations can get financial support from businesses in exchange for the good PR image that they can provide.

As I’ve said, the large number of nonprofit organizations can make it difficult to acquire sponsorships. In addition, most of these businesses are picky about the type of nonprofit that they would partner with. After all, it’s the image of their brand that is at stake. Most businesses would only partner with organizations that are related to their industry. They would also look through an organization’s activities and history, especially their professional relationships with other businesses and organizations they have partnered with.

With this amount of necessary information, there is one marketing medium that could accommodate them all—the booklet.

Not convinced? Here are some reasons why your nonprofit needs booklet marketing:

1. To properly present the causes that you support.

Booklets are great for conveying information to your reader. This makes it one of the best mediums to present the causes that your nonprofit is supporting. Briefing booklets, for instance, could provide tidbits about your organization for people who need to absorb information quickly. These people are usually businessmen, local officials, or members of the media who don’t have the time to peruse the details of your cause.

2. To illustrate the history of your organization.

For potential donors, the history of the organization is important. Supporting a cause is not only just a donation from one party to another but also a matter of trust. Indeed, some nonprofit organizations are used by not so well-intentioned businessmen for their schemes. We don’t want that. Being transparent with the history of your organization and the people that operates it from behind is a good way to attract supporters.

3. To highlight activities and events spearheaded by your organization.

Potential investors would want to know what kind of projects you have developed in the past. While you can use brochures and flyers for economical reasons, you can opt to use a booklet’s bigger area to dive into detail and create an extensive backstory on these activities. An example of how you can do this is by creating a profile of one of your beneficiaries and telling their backstory.

4. To motivate investors to invest.

The aim of a booklet is to attract donors, and get them to invest in your organization. After reading through the information, details, and stories, they should realize the need for your nonprofit and the necessity of their action. With a booklet, you can highlight your ongoing projects as well as the challenges that your organization currently faces. Coupled with a call-to-action page, this would motivate your readers to lend their support.

Effective Booklet Marketing Tips

1. Focus on the cover.

Some people would say that one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. But this doesn’t hold true in the marketing world. Creating an appealing booklet cover is imperative in attracting would-be readers. In your brainstorm session, you should devote a sizable amount of time and effort to conceptualizing a good booklet cover design. Decide on the message that you want to convey. Keep your target market, that is, corporate sponsors and investors, in mind. Tap into their emotion using powerful imagery. Use only high quality images.

2. Create a well designed structure and narrative flow.

A good strategy for booklet marketing is telling a story. Your booklet should follow a logical structure in a way that flows naturally. Here’s an example. Start by introducing the cause you are supporting. Readers tend to get invested if you tell a story instead of using technical terms and jargon. A story about how your nonprofit was conceived or a profile of one of the beneficiaries of your organization would be a good starting point. You can then lead to the specifics of your organization, your organizational structure, and so on. Highlight some of the events you’ve spearheaded or taken part in, and end with your current projects and the challenges that your organization is facing.

3. Distribute your booklets through relevant channels.

Similar to business marketing, you should not be throwing things against a wall and checking what sticks. Your booklet marketing strategy should at least target your intended demographics, especially those who are likely to support your cause. Your own events, for instance, are one of the best channels to distribute booklets.

Another way is direct marketing. It goes without saying that you need to do some legwork to get in touch with people who may support you. Expect a ton of calls with business owners, public officials, and even the media to get the word out.

4. Include a call-to-action.

It’s not enough that you just tell the story of your organization. You need to incite action. Thus, ending with a call-to-action is a powerful last page that will be stuck in your readers’ minds. This will engage your reader as an active participant of a conversation, instead of just being  a passive receiver. It will also make them reflect on what they’ve just read and decide on what to do afterwards.

5. Tweak your booklet as necessary.

Finally, a booklet is not just a one-time thing. It would evolve along with your company. As you develop different relationships, spearhead several projects, and help beneficiaries, your booklet should also accommodate these changes. Taking feedback from your readers is also a great way to improve your booklet. Ask your readers about the information that they need and incorporate it in the next iteration.

 

Do you use booklets for your nonprofit? Do you have more tips for using them in marketing? Hit us in the comments section below and tell us what you think.