Communication in an association is as important as in a business . It is essential because of the increase in competition , the need to find funding or to communicate better with its backers, donors, members and members.
Creating your communication strategy means transmitting
information about your organization, its activities and its impacts. It is also
telling a story , doing storytelling . There must therefore be a guideline, an
objective, a structure.
In this article, we give you the 8-step process to create
your association's communication strategy from A to Z.
To do the inventory
Before starting to communicate on different subjects it is
essential to first know who you are, what you do, where you are and where you
are going .
For this, you must draw up the “identity card” of your
association.
• What's
your vision?
• Your
mission ?
• Your
values?
These 3 components must be clear and shared with all the
people who contribute to the association's project. This will help you later,
especially in deciding on the tone to use: formal, playful or educational.
Define your objectives
Why do you want to communicate? What is your goal ?
There are different types of communication goals:
• Notoriety
: communicate to make yourself known.
• Image :
improve your image with your current audience
• Influence
: provoke action (membership, donation, etc.)
• Make its
efficiency and transparency credible
It is important to communicate on a single objective at a
time so as not to get lost and to convey the message as clearly as possible.
Analyze the context and the issues
Analyzing your competitor is a key step in developing your
communication strategy. Indeed, you must know what is done in your sector to be
able to differentiate yourself.
The competition being more and more strong in the
associative environment you must position yourself so that your target turns
towards you rather than towards your "competitors".
Finally, communicate by accurately portraying your ideal
targets (personas, see below). A regional or departmental donor does not have
the same objectives as your donors, for example. It is therefore a different
editorial line that must be adopted. This is the next point.
Identify and define your targets
In communication, it is not enough to throw your bottle in
the sea in the hope that someone finds it. You need to know who you are talking
to and most importantly, DON'T TRY TO APPEAL EVERYBODY AT THE SAME TIME .
Likewise, each persona has different goals and expectations.
You must therefore refine and regularly update the knowledge
of your personas. In marketing, they represent
semi-fictional characters representing a group of people who share the
same problem with your offer.
Choose your communication channels and media
What media will you use to communicate?
You can launch more “traditional” type campaigns such as
flyers, catalogs, posters… or / and digital campaigns (social networks,
e-mailing, website, ads…). To get started, you can find our tips: 3 reasons to
change your communication plan .
These different supports of course have different costs and
skills to set them up.
These channels and supports are to be chosen according to
your personas , your budget and your ambitions.
THE criterion to be respected is: 1 medium = 1 message = 1
target .
Choose your tools
It is crucial for a handyman to have the right tools,
imagine him tightening a screw with a hammer… It's the same for a marketer. If
you use the wrong tools or don't know how to use them you will waste time and
money.
Thus, it is essential to take stock of the software, in
particular the CRM to store data and a marketing automation tool to be
effective.
This is what we have set up for the Export Club . Until
then, a multiplicity of tools not really connected to each other caused them to
lose efficiency.
By deploying a platform like Hubspot , we were able to
centralize the sales / marketing and the member / member / donor relationship
and all the databases shared in the excel files, to easily create email and SMS
campaigns, to manage the member pipeline or even revive donors. While measuring
all actions ...
Define your budget and resources
This is not necessarily the most “fun” step in your
strategy, but defining your marketing budget
to match your ambitions remains a complex exercise.
You must therefore plan all expenses from the creation of
your content to their sponsorship on social networks. This also involves the
budget allocated to the various service providers (graphic designers,
webmasters, etc.) and to the tools (go take a tour of the ISD, HRD and DAF to
obtain additional budgets)
You got it, you'll need the resources to defend your 2021
marketing budget and get what you need.
Remember, this budget is an investment and will pay off in
the long run .
Evaluate / Adjust
You must be able to measure the impact of your communication
campaign. For this you must have recourse to statistics .
Remember that the communication strategy is not set in stone
and can be corrected over time to improve constantly .