Problem
Gilda’s club needs our help in developing creative ideas for inexpensive marketing and a more significant online presence. The end goal is ultimately to help them raise funds through greater awareness.
1. Gilda’s club Facebook page
Create a Facebook page for Gilda’s club with the intentions of increasing their online presence and reaching out to a younger demographic
2. Email marketing campaign
Work with Emma to develop an email marketing communication plan in order to decrease current mailing costs. This could also be used for future fundraising
3. Employee/Volunteer/Member blogs
Create a blog where employees/volunteers/ and members can post info about what’s going on at Gilda’s club, opportunities to volunteer etc. It also could serve as a forum where people could ask questions and receive answer from people associated with the organization.
Thanks for helping with this organization. Could you also pursue similar groups to coordinate listservs - say, cancer survivor groups, grief groups, Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, etc.? Also, is Gilda's Club registered in The Community Foundation's online service "Giving Matters?" If not, Gilda's Club could potentially get money through it from donors in Middle Tennessee. Websites can be built with "feed" features, too; maybe you could contact some larger, related websites for permission to feed promotions for Gilda's Club onto the larger group's website...
ReplyDelete2) I think this idea as one piece of the solution. Can donors currently make donations online? If not, if that could be done and a link were embedded directly into the emails, this may increase donations. However, this does not seem sufficient because this would only target the current mailing list rather than increasing awareness among people who do not know about Gilda's Club.
ReplyDeleteFacebook - This can allow blogging as well, and will do well in terms of coming up in google searches right off the bat. Make sure to get lots of content in there, and get current members to become 'friends' with it - seems like a easy and effective solution to creating an online presence.
ReplyDeleteFeedback on each idea:
ReplyDelete1. Facebook page is a great idea and the cost is $0...only time spent to create and manage the FB page. The younger demographic does respond via word of mouth and viral marketing is where Gilda needs to be to increase awareness in this young and hip demographic.
2. Email marketing is also a great idea. Before instilling an email marketing campaign it might be a good idea to send out a survey (survey monkey) to all members/donors to ask questions that would help to develop an email newsletter that will actually be read and not just a piece of junk email in the inbox. Questions can be things such as how often would you read an email from us, what type of news/content would you like to know about..etc.
3. A blog attached to a website is a great way to keep the website high in search engine rankings. This is a great search engine optimization technique. Blogs work because entries (content) is usually added on a daily basis. Along the same lines, you could create a ning.com or social network for the organization to use allowing members to connect to one another and communicate in that way.
-Kira B. Bielfield
These are all great ideas, probably all of which should be implemented. I would probably start with Facebook, however, because of its wide reach and ideal target market. On the page, Gilda's Club can spread information about upcoming events, volunteer opportunities, pictures, message boards, etc. By encouraging members to invite their friends to events, they should be able to increase awareness, volunteers, and eventually number of donors. By asking every current volunteer to "invite" all of their Facebook friends to join the Gilda's Club page, numbers would grow immediately.
ReplyDeleteEmail campaigns would certainly be much cheaper, but the amount of email clutter would make it hard for these campaigns to make much of an impact (although it would certainly be cheaper and probably no less impact than mail campaigns).
The blog is great, but could initially at least be housed within the Facebook page. This seams like a great charity that needs much more exposure within the Nashville community.
1) Facebook is a good solution. However, if your target segment in the facebook were the younger demographic, how could you achieve the final goal - raise funds. Greater awarness may not be helpful for raising funds.
ReplyDelete2) The average coversion rate of e-mail campaign is only 0.15%-1% since people are used to neglect/delete the mails they could not recognize. The traditional mail campaign even has higher conversion rate - 3%.
3) I like this idea. Blogs could create great 2-ways communications and definitely have positive impact on raising the funds.
#1: Facebook has members all over the world you would have to be very specific so that this is not a generic page but has only targeted people in the group.
ReplyDelete#2: The limitations of marketing only via mailing would be lack of response.
#3: This would be nice as then it would be an interactive site.
Further to get a good response all three of the above concepts would have to be incorporated.
#1: Target audience must be specific and well defined. Great resource if managed properly.
ReplyDelete2#: Would need to test the fundraising piece as on-line marketing can be difficult in reaching target audience, but another viable idea.
3#: I really like this idea, and think that you could generate a lot of attention and would receive genuine feedback as the initiative would be driven by the individual. Would need to designate a moderator or some group to actively monitor the responses and collect input.
I think the most effective way for yall to spread the word would be the email marketing campaign. Email is a very effective and inexpensive way to spread information and I think if you could obtain a substantial list of email addresses, this could be a way to significantly improve your communication.
ReplyDeleteI really like the facebook page idea. This idea will be no cost and will reach a target segment. With facebook becoming mainstream i cant see why you wouldnt want to use it!
ReplyDeleteI think #1 is a no-brainer. They need to be pushed into doing this kind of page. It meets their demographic needs, and is already a platform for "social support" for people. #3 is very interesting to me if I draw the analogy to the Owen bloggers. It is often very effective to have "third-party-referrals." Also, this gives people a way to contribute substantively as volunteers without having to actually go somewhere to do their part.
ReplyDeleteI like all three ideas, as each of them will efficiently reach a portion of the target market. However, they all involve exclusively electronic communication (I realize this is an online marketing project). You still need to develop a plan to create awareness for these new projects...which may simply be e-mailing as discussed in #2. Often times however, personal communication is a more effective tool in creating awareness. An "on the ground" awareness campaign could serve as a complement to the proposed electronic methods.
ReplyDeleteI think all of your ideas are good but I particularly like #3. I think you could incorporate ideas #1 and #2 into a blog format and that way people could read up on what's going on and then choose to receive more via email or linking to Facebook.
ReplyDeleteAnother option you might consider is looking at what other cancer support groups are doing through an organization called Volunteer Match. This is a website that matches curious volunteers with charities in their area and allows them to track and report on the volunteering they do. It might be a good place to research what other organizations are doing to promote themselves in a cost effective way!
#1 Targeting the younger demographic will not only drive interest in a younger population but create a community that perpetuates the idea of education especially inthis industry. Make sure that the website describes links directly to the facebook page.
ReplyDelete#2 Email marketing communication would be great but may create junk mail in recipient's mailboxes. Perhaps, a monthly newsletter and calendar invites for events would work better?
#3 Blogging is great. Tying this to the main website with Facebook would also help. You may be able to hit two birds with this to drive more traffic to the website. Actually having the blog on the main website would be better than a web forum where ideas and blogs would be read. Refer to Owenbloggers.com who has a pretty good setup and has different "topics" of blogging.
One more thing. Go to Irunfortheparty.com and market with them since the participants of the organization target the same young groups.
ReplyDeleteI think these are all good ideas, but I think the key o their success will depend of how Gilda's Club is able to manage your innovation once they no longer have help and guidance from the members of your team. For example, if you choose option 1, you may need to spend some time educating someone at Gilda's Club about Facebook and teaching them how to use all of the different features the site offers (i.e. photos, blogs, e-mail communications to group members, event invitations). If you choose option 3, you will need to find someone at Gilda's Club with the knowledge and the motivation to maintain the blog.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in regards to your second solution, my triathlon coach has developed a very successful e-mail newsletter that has significantly enhanced his business and increased his presence in the Tennessee multi-sport community. The key to his success has been combining something people want (free training tips and stories about successful athletes) with something that he wants (a very low-cost advertising strategy and an open forum to promote his business). If you go with option 2 and would like to see an example of a similar solution that has worked well in a different context, e-mail me and I will send you a copy.
Solution #2 would definitely cut down on mailing costs, but it is possible that people would immediately delete any email blast that they view as junk mail. Which, if this actually happened, would totally defeat the purpose of the email blast anyway.
ReplyDelete