You may have heard this from a parent or grandparent, but like most things your elders tell you do not brush this piece of information aside because times are in fact changing at a drastic pace.  In terms of the marketing world, there has been a huge shift in what the business world is now calling “traditional marketing” to a more content based type of marketing.  This shift is also referred to as outbound marketing to inbound marketing.  Outbound marketing is referring to the process of reaching out to consumers, and trying to hook them by sending its message out to an audience.  This form of marketing is proving itself to be obsolete, which brings us to inbound marketing, which Brian Halligan from Hubspot defines as

David Meerman Scott is a firm believer in the power of inbound marketing and how we as a society are more molded towards that sort of content driven marketing.  In his book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR Scott talks about how in the traditional way of marketing messages had to “talk through media” in order to be heard by the masses.  Today, in contrast, we as the public are capable of finding these messages ourselves through various technological means and creates the buzz that keeps the rest of the world talking.  One of the new paradigms that Scott highlights that I took away from his writing was

One post in Scott’s blog that I found really interesting and thought provoking was a post Scott wrote back in March titled The marketing one hundred is now the marketing ten thousand.  This was a short but powerful post where Scott emphasized the power in numbers in today’s marketing world.  Scott highlights the shift from putting out marketing campaigns, to a whole slew of marketing ideas and initiatives that are put out there.  Scott says that in today’s world:

And keeping it going in order to ensure that ideas and initiatives don’t get stale and become lost in the background.  A company that I believe has done a remarkable job at this is Apple.  Apple is constantly changing and evolving to meet the consumer’s needs, even if the consumer doesn’t know they need it yet.  It’s that kind of forward thinking that has kept Apple current and successful.  Apple puts out ideas and products and see’s consumers reactions and takes those reactions and turns them into profits.  Apple doesn’t just put out campaigns, they start conversations, they get people talking, and once they get the public talking about a product they just can’t shut up about it!

But we encounter various forms of marketing everyday; whether it is an advertisement on TV or interviewing for a job position, the way we view and present our environment all ties back to marketing.  David Williamson recognizes that people in the corporate world undermine marketing in certain situations, simply because they are ignorant to what an effective marketing campaign can do for their organization.  Williamson explains in one of his morals for marketing communications, that you need to respect marketing and utilize it early and not before your organization is in trouble.  If your organization is not marketed to the public properly, the public will start to perceive your brand with a negative connotation, and first impressions are always the hardest to forget.  An example of an organization that did not utilize their marketing department well and suffered the consequences was Groupon.  Once the company went public, their stocks tanked and eventually the company had to restructure and market themselves to the public in a way that showed the benefits of using their service.  Because Groupon waited to effectively market to the public their brand suffered the consequences.  The company is still not doing great financially and will have to turn things around and market themselves effectively in order to become a successful and viable brand.

Moving into the world of not for profit organizations, Williamson has a lot to offer when it comes to marketing to an audience whose hearts you first have to capture before capturing their wallets.  Williamson explains in another one of his morals that for a non-profit’s marketing campaign to be successful the mission behind the organization is what needs to drive the marketing.  The public needs to be aware and understand what your mission is you are trying to accomplish, or else they will feel like they are wasting their time and opt out of investing in your brand.  A non-profit that I think has made their message to the public clear is the National Domestic Hotline.  In the video clip below the message is clear and concise, and really let the mission behind the organization do the talking. 

I believe the most important takeaway from Williamson’s article on Marketing & Communications in Nonprofit Organizations is that everyone in the organization is a marketer.  Even if you are not directly involved in marketing, you are still apart of the brand and what that brand promises to deliver.  Whatever you say about the brand you work for is going to be taken to heart by people because they see you as a primary resource, so employees need to be educated and know what exactly it is their brand is promising to offer.  In Wendy Marx’s article, SAP And The New B2B Marketing And Communications Model the company SAP utilizes all 60,000 of its employees as brand ambassadors. 

“It’s not about the seven spokespeople in our PR department but in how we can use our 60,000 employees as communicators, and how many folks within the company can produce content.”

Coming up with an effective and relevant marketing campaign can be a hard pill to sallow, especially for non-profit organizations.  While multiple forms of marketing bombards the public, it is easy to ignore messages around us.  This is why it is so important to utilize David Williamson’s words and advice about non-profit marketing and make those people listen up and pay up.