Why it is more important to get your local charity marketing right.
If there’s one good thing that came out of the covid pandemic, it’s the brilliant rise in community spirit. We saw people come together and support each other like never before and there is no doubt that taking part in community initiatives is here to stay.
68% of people say it’s important for them to feel part of their local community and approximately 28 million people in England alone have volunteered in some way in the last 12 months.
Across the UK many incredible charities are doing amazing work in their local communities. Charities like St.Gemma’s Hospice, The Yorkshire Children’s Trust and The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund are providing vital services in and around their communities and the need to raise awareness and drive funds is more important than ever.
It has never been more important for local charities to be visible within their communities and many tactics can help drive awareness. In a recent article, we took a look at ways for charities to supercharge their marketing.
However, not all tactics are applicable when working locally. There are times when charities must pivot their marketing to increase their impact locally. Therefore, today we take a look at 4 tactics that we believe work best when used in smaller communities.
COMMUNICATE YOUR CORE MISSION.
Make sure your mission is clear and you’re demonstrating how you’re having an impact on the local community. This should help people who feel strongly about the same cause identify with you easily. Subsequently, it will mean they feel compelled to get on board and become a loyal charity supporter. However, getting the message right is crucial to increasing visibility amongst your key audiences.
BE VISIBLE IN LOCAL NEWS.
Ensure you are making regular appearances in the local news. This can include print, online or local television and radio shows. Whatever you choose to do, it all counts.
Many communities actively read and engage with their local news platforms and are keen to hear what is going on in their local areas. To achieve this consider creating a strategic calendar of PR activity that sits alongside key dates like awareness days or similar.
CREATE OPPORTUNITY TO BE INVOLVED.
One of the easiest ways to engage the local community in your charity marketing is to think of creative ways to involve your audience. This could include ready-made challenges or volunteering schemes that people can easily support. These challenges should be connected to your cause to help authentically raise awareness of the mission you are trying to achieve. This also lends itself well to increasing awareness on social media.
DEVISE A STRATEGY TO GET IN FRONT OF YOUR LOCAL MP.
Local MPs can still have a big impact when it comes to driving real change. Therefore, getting in front of parliamentary figures is crucial to upping your visibility amongst an important stakeholder group. To achieve this, devise a targeted political stakeholder engagement strategy. This will enable you to be seen, and more importantly heard, by your local MPs to help change government policy, release funding etc.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PHA GROUP.
If you are looking to build awareness of your local charities, our team are well placed to help support them. You can see more of our work in the Third Sector here.
To get in touch please email info@thephagroup.com.
