All About Marketing

Written by Max | Edited by Rory Hart

Last updated on Sep 04, 2023

Sections of this topic

Guidelines for developing, marketing, and evaluating nonprofit programs are
included in the book Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing, and Evaluation. The vast
majority of the guidelines apply to for-profit marketing as well.

Sections of This Topic Include

Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Marketing

In addition to the articles on this current page, also see the following blogs
that have posts related to Marketing. Scan down the blog’s page to see various
posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of
the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.
The blog also links to numerous free related resources.

Library’s
Marketing Blog
Library’s
Public and Media Relations Blog

Basics — and Misunderstandings — About Marketing

What is Marketing?

Before you learn more about marketing in the many links later on below topic,
you should first understand what marketing is, because the topic is so often
misunderstood. Marketing is the wide range of activities involved in making
sure that you’re continuing to meet the needs of your customers and are getting
appropriate value in return.

How Marketing is So Misunderstood

Far too often, organizations try to develop a product to meet customers’
needs without ever really verifying what the customers wanted in the first place.
Instead, those organizations make a strenuous effort to “sell” the
product through rigorous, ongoing advertising, promotions and publicity — through
“outbound” marketing. These organizations may have built a beautiful
ladder – but it may be entirely on the wrong roof! Far too often, that
lesson comes from painful experience.

Experienced organizations have learned that it is not their opinion that matters
most regarding whether their product is needed or not. The opinion that matters
most is that of the customers. These organizations have learned that they might
not know what they don’t know about their customers. That precious knowledge
about the customers comes from “inbound” marketing — through market
research to clarify customers’ needs and what they are willing to do to get
those needs met. If the inbound marketing is done well, the outbound marketing
is particularly easy — and effective.

Inbound Marketing Includes Market Research to Find Out:

What specific groups of potential customers/clients (markets) might have
which specific needs (nonprofits often already have a very clear community
need in mind when starting out with a new program — however, the emerging
practice of nonprofit business development, or earned income development,
often starts by researching a broad group of clients to identify new opportunities
for programs)
How those needs might be met for each group (or target market), which suggests
how a product might be designed to meet the need (nonprofits might think in
terms of outcomes, or changes, to accomplish among the groups of clients in
order to meet the needs)
How each of the target markets might choose to access the product, etc.
(its “packaging”)
How much the customers/clients might be willing pay and how (pricing analysis)
Who the competitors are (competitor analysis)
How to design and describe the product such that customers/clients will
buy from the organization, rather than from its competitors (its unique value
proposition)
How the product should be identified — its personality — to be most identifiable
(its naming and branding)

Outbound Marketing Includes:

Advertising and promotions (focused on the product)
Sales
Public and media relations (focused on the entire organization)
Customer service
Customer satisfaction

(Return to Table of Contents above)

Additional Perspectives on the Basics of Marketing

What’s
“Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and
Sales?”
Makin’
the Marketing Strategy Happen!
Numerous free
online resources
Top
6 Marketing Consultants Share Their Secrets
Get
Everyone on Your Marketing Team — 3 Steps
10 Marketing Musts
Marketing Basics for the Small Business
Small Business Marketing Strategy
Rules
of Marketing: Old vs. New
10 Things
They Don’t Teach You About Marketing in College
How
to Create a Powerful Marketing Message
What Are Some Marketing Mistakes That Companies Make?
Survey
of Marketing Executives’ Priorities
Marketing Can Do Better
Marketing’s
the Engine of a Growing Company
Four
Strategies for Marketing a Grand Opening
Reasons
Not to Combine Fundraising and Marketing Committees

General Resources About Marketing

Good Marketing
Ideas: a collection of marketing ideas and articles aimed at a variety of marketing
forms and business types. Includes offline and internet marketing as well as
non-profit marketing ideas.
Marketing Resource
Center
List
of useful articles
Industry Standard
Marketing Plan Do-It-Yourself Step by Step
Marketing Internet Library

20
Powerful Marketing Tips
Best
Practices and Marketing Case Studies
Question Marketing

For the Category of Marketing:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may
want to review some related topics, available from the link below.
Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been
selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Max

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All About Marketing

Sections of This Topic Include

Basics and Planning

Inbound Marketing

Outbound Marketing

Protecting Ownership of Your Products/Services

Evaluating Your Marketing Efforts

Marketing On Telephone and/or Online

General Resources