by Dan Kennedy, Kumveka Executive Director
I have talked with hundreds of leaders of ministries and Christian nonprofits on the topic of brand and marketing. No two questions I’ve asked have been more pivotal—especially in times of change—than these:
1. How are you measuring success?
2. What are the needs of your audience?
Let’s unpack each and why they’re important to consider right now.
Every leader is responsible for seeing the Vision and Mission of their organization come closer to reality. Every resource should be stewarded towards that end. But how do you know if you are making wise choices about how to invest your resources? We use Key Metrics as a quantifiable way to measure this progress. Correctly identifying those metrics is critical to building out a strategic plan (including marketing).
We break out Key Metrics based on your Ministry Model (measurable progress toward your Mission) and your Financial Model (measurable progress toward sustainability). Examples of these include:
Ministry Model: number of people served, number of resources downloaded, number of appointments made (think pregnancy resource centers)
Financial Model: number of donor leads, number of new applications (think K-12 school, seminary, college)
Not only do Key Metrics provide focus for ministries, but they also declare intent to steward your resources wisely. Your marketing resources (budget and people) should be aligned to deliver these clearly-defined Key Metrics.
At its core, communication rests on understanding the person you are speaking to (and that’s essential to any relationship!). Marketing and branding efforts that pursue your Key Metric but do not connect with the needs of your audience not only lack compassion but are simply not effective. If you are speaking to needs your audience doesn’t have or issues they are not passionate about, your communication will not accomplish your desired goals.
To solve for this, we use a best-practice tool called the Audience Persona. An Audience Persona is a description of a single representative person in the audience segment that most drives your Key Metric (usually from the Financial Model). For ministries, these segments are often donors, prospective members, prospective families (for schools), or prospective missionaries (for sending agencies).
An Audience Persona describes the needs, motivations, and perceptions of your audience—the very elements being upended during times like this. Given that context, unchallenged assumptions are especially dangerous right now. What was important six months ago has been impacted, if not changed entirely, by the hardships we have faced.
When discussing any attribute of your audience I always ask, “That’s great, but how do you know this to be true?” More specifically, when was the last time qualitative or quantitative research was conducted to truly understand your audiences and verify your working assumptions?
Answering these two strategic questions is essential to not just surviving in a time of change but leading our organizations through to a healthier place. And we’re here to help. You can download a PDF of a recent presentation from an Accord Network webinar, co-facilitated with Jen McHugh, VP of Partnerships at Communication at Water Mission. It covers Question #1 to help your organization better understand your key metrics and you’ll see how Water Mission approaches this work. We’ll share the second session when it becomes available.
If your organization lacks the expertise or capacity to answer these questions, please reach out. I can either point you to more resources or we can find out together if Kumveka might be a good fit to serve your ministry.
Learn More
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1 sure-fire way to learn what your audience needs
A focus on audience needs helped this ministry align around a new name and brand [case study]