Just Text Giving

This week I am mostly thinking ways to implement Just Text Giving – a new service launched by Vodafone and JustGiving which allows people, on any phone network, to donate up to £10 to their chosen charity by using a unique code.

Not only will this allow donors to give ‘on the move’, but the donation itself is collected via the donors mobile phone bill – meaning minimal hassle.  According to The Guardian, 89% of adults in the UK own a mobile phone, so the fundraising potential for charities is enourmous, plus 100% of any donation made via Just Text Giving will be given to the charity.

So far the team have added our unique code to fundraising posters, surveys, and email footers, as well as sharing with our networks on Twitter and Facebook, and I’ll be interested on seeing in the coming months how many people use the service…

In the meantime, if you would like to donate to Community Links Just text COML11 to 70070 and include the donation amount i.e COML11 £10.  Thanks!!

*Photo: Creative Commons via veesees

The Litmus Test

Interesting new newspaper concept stumbled across today….the Litmus Test is an online newspaper that features ‘leading thinkers from across the political spectrum’ who address six key questions facing Britain today.

In the spirit of evidence-based discourse, leading blogs from across the political spectrum – Left Foot Forward,ConservativeHome, and Lib Dem Voice – have collaborated to put together this special, limited edition publication looking at the key issues facing Britain today, including an infographic of the UK’s political landscape.

Hard copies will be given out at each Party conference, but free copies are available to download from the website.  The only premise is that in order to download you must tweet about the publication or add a link to your facebook wall.

A savvy way of ensuring that readers spread the word!

Featured in this publication are:

• Economy – how can the tax system get us out of this economic mess
• Immigration – is Britain full?
• Climate Change – should Britain lead the world in tackling climate change?
• Social Justice – will the Big Society defeat poverty
• Electoral Reform – will Electoral and Lords reform change anything
• Technology – will technology kill bureaucracy?

Find out more on the website

Email Marketing on a Budget

Today I stumbled upon an email marketing platform called MailChimp, which allows users to send up to 3,000 emails per month to up to 500 contacts for free.  Forever.  This is just perfect for a smaller organisation with a limited communications budget.  

So why would you bother using an email marketing campaign manager rather than just sending a bog standard email from outlook, hotmail, yahoo etc?  

Here’s why:

It’s pretty
You can create attractive HTML emails (with pictures and links) alongside plain text alternative versions.  Creating an attractive email campaign is usually done in a WYSIWYG editor, so it means that you don’t have to know lots of fiddly html code either.

It’s personal
You can personalise your email campaign – for example, addressing it as “Dear Laura” rather than “Dear Colleague” (effectively a mail merge online).  With an email you can opt-in and opt-out functions, and functions whereby your reader can forward to a friend or update their details. 

Measurable Results
Sending an email campaign means that you can monitor who opens your emails and which links they click.  It also helps you to manage your contacts by reporting on the number of  “soft bounces” (i.e. out of office replies) or “hard bounces” (i.e. email address no longer in use) that you receive.  You can also compare reports and effectiveness of archived campaigns.

Time Effective
Email communication is quick to set up and is instant in its delivery (no postal strikes!) – plus you can usually time your campaign to send at a specific time / day.  Email is global and it’s 24 hour.

Cost Effective
Sending an e-marketing campaign is also very cost effective.  As with the example of MailChimp – there are free offers out there (although sending options can be limited), but there are also many other platforms that offer a variety of different pricing options.  

Of course there other things to take into consideration as well. Such as;

The high “noise to action” ratio of email communications (people receive a lot of email during the course of a day – much of which gets forgotten about / ignored)

Data protection – make sure you aren’t spamming people! (read the Email Marketing Council’s best practice guidelines here)

You won’t be able to communicate with people who have no access to the internet

As mentioned previously, the MailChimp system caught my eye as it seemed quite a generous free offering.  However, there are many organisations that can help with email marketing, as you can see from this extensive list from the Direct Marketing Association

Outline Marketing Plan for an Event

I was recently asked for an outline marketing plan for an event by an associate, so in the interest of sharing – it’s here too!

1. Summary / Introduction
Details about the organisation / project. For example, clearly state the mission, values etc, and details such as turnover, number of staff etc.

2. Situation Analysis

2.1) Market Summary
Identify your target market(s). For example, who is your event aimed at in terms of attendees, supporters etc. i.e. if your event is a healthcare conference, your target audience may be NHS workers, Mental Health workers, Social Care professionals etc. You may seek sponsorship from pharmacuetical companies, sector press etc.

i) Market demographics – What are your market demographics? Male / female? Age? Geographics i.e. where are your target market based and typical behaviours i.e. are they people training in a certain specialism? Are they a business looking at expansion ?
ii) Market needs – What does your target market need? i.e. competitively priced events? Or education events? Professionalism?
iii) Market trends – What are the trends for your market?
iv) Market Growth What is the forecasted growth of your market? Is it a growing market? Is there a growing need for your type of event?

2.2) SWOT Analysis
i) Strengths
ii) Weaknesses
iii) Opportunities
iv) Threat

2.3) Competition
Are there any other organisations running similar events to meet the needs of the target market? What do they do? What are you doing differently?

2.4) Services
What services are you supplying? Is it just an event…or something more? For example – does your event form part of ongoing CPD training? Or perhaps your additional services online networking before and after the event?

2.5) Keys to success
What needs to happen to identify your event as a success? For example – are your outcomes something like ‘we need X number of people to attend’ or ‘X amount of income’ or ‘X amount of press coverage’ or ‘X feedback’

3. Marketing Strategy

3.1) Mission
What is the mission statement of your organisation

3.2) Marketing Objectives
What are your key objectives – why are you running this event? For example, is an object to increase awareness of your organisation / brand? Whatever the object, ensure they are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timed)

3.3) Financial Objectives
What are the financial objectives of the event? Is it to generate a certain amount of income? Or are you just looking to break even? What are your funding needs? What is your available budget?

3.4) Target Markets
List your target markets…i.e ‘young people’ or ‘businesses’ etc.

3.5) Positioning
How will this event be positioned? Is it the only event of its kind? What makes it different?

3.6) Marketing Mix

i) Product
This relates to your brand. What is it that you are offering?
ii) Price
What are the costs?
iii) Place
This relates to the physcial place (where will the event take place), and also the distribution channels
iv) Promotion
How will you promote the event? What is your strategy? What PR will you do? How and where will you advertise? Do you have a website?

3.7) Marketing Research
What research have you done? Where did the idea for the event come from? (i.e. feedback from contacts or from previous events)

3.8) Strategic Alliances
Is there anyone that you could work with to help with the event? i.e volunteers from local uni? Are there any organisations that could help you promote your event? Is the event in partnership with anyone else?

4. Financials

4.1) Breakeven analysis
How much income is needed in order to break even?

4.2) Sales Forecast
How many tickets do you think you’ll sell to your event? If it is a free event, how much sponsorship do you plan to get? How are you costing your tickets – i.e. will you offer an early bird rate?

4.3) Expense Forecast
What is the expenditure? How much do you think event will cost?

5. Controls

What needs to be monitored to ensure success…and when? For example, how many tickets need to be sold by date / monthy registrations etc.

5.1) Implementation
The key milestones. For example: “The website needs to be complete by XXX date” and ”The brochure needs to be complete by XXX date” etc

5.2) Marketing Organisation
Who are the team? What are their responsibilities?

5.3) Contingency Planning
What are the forecast difficulties or risks? What will you do in a worst case scerio? What is your contingency plan? i.e. what will need to happen if the event cannot cover its own costs etc