How to Develop a Successful PR Strategy for Your Nonprofit
The focus of your nonprofit is to solve a complex problem within your community, and oftentimes an issue for many organizations is how to best represent yourselves in media relations. When your goal is less about headlines and more about driving change, your PR strategy may be non-existent. However, the media still remains an important tool for driving awareness about your nonprofit and reaching your audience to build awareness.
What is Modern Public Relations?
Although your target audience may not necessarily be eager to grab that last issue of today’s paper, the media is still alive and as vibrant as ever. It just operates with a bit of a digital twist. 53% of the world’s population consumes their news on their computer while websites remain the number one source of content. How does this play into public relations? Businesses, including non-profits, are building strategies where they can find their audience, and most of them are on social media.
One of the many good things about this new digital era of PR is that you can communicate with your audience instantly, gather real analytical data on your interactions, and you’re going to have a much more cost-effective experience.
How Can My Non-Profit Develop a Successful PR Strategy?
Determine your one true goal, how that goal provides value to your audience, and find the media outlets that can communicate that goal to your audience.
Whether you’re providing business clothes to underprivileged women or building wells in Africa, you need to outline your goal in a form that your audience will relate to. In other words, break it down into a few simple and valuable sentences. Valuable? Yes - how does your goal of providing business clothes give value to your audience. Well, for the women you’re helping, it’s giving them confidence and the physical clothes to succeed, and for the rest of your audience who may be able to help, they’re building the economy of the community by preparing women for much-needed jobs.
Now, determine who your target audience is for your PR or at least for the message. It’s important to understand that while you have one mission, you may have specific messages to different targets that each support your mission. Your message to donors needs to be about why they should support you, whereas your message to the people you are supporting is different.
Next reach out to journalists, social media influencers, publishing websites, and anyone who can quickly reach your identified audience for your message. If you’re unsure of where to turn, start by asking members of your audience how they consume their news and which forms of PR they would best engage with. Do your research and define a list of reputable sources that will provide your best chance of reaching your audience.
In the end. Public Relations will always be about communication.
If you’re not communicating effectively, even with the media outlets with whom you want to partner with, then you won’t reach your main PR goals, and you won’t engage with your audience. If you’re not sure how you want your audience to respond, then how can you believe they’ll know what to do either?
Interested in strategically developing an effective PR strategy for your non-profit organization, we can help. Reach out for a conversation today by emailing us at info@nmblstrategies.com.
