There are ways to increase your funding for marketing. The Center for Independent Living I work for didn’t have a full-fledged marketing department for 21 years of its existence. The impetus for getting the funding for my department was that a board member saw the need for marketing and encouraged the funding for it. Even our CEO wasn’t fully convinced of the need for marketing until a year after I had proven the benefits of marketing in our community.
To get to this place, it took our CIL a bit of influence, a bit of marketing talent, and a bit of time to see our marketing goals realized. It’s running a marathon, not a sprint.
A bit of influence
To fund new marketing projects, someone in a position of leadership must understand the need for marketing. In our case, it was a board member. In yours, it might be a staff member asking his boss to fund the creation of a professional flyer for peer support groups. Or, it could be the Executive Director who needs funding for a new website.
To get the funding for each project, the staff member and ED need to be able to communicate:
- The problem that exists without marketing;
- How marketing will solve the problem, and;
- The benefits to the CIL and consumer.
I suggest building your marketing funding by having one successful project at a time. More on that later.
If the ED can’t influence the BOD to have the oodles of money it costs to create a new website, and the staff member can’t influence his supervisor, they must first discover any other barriers that the BOD and supervisor are facing. The ED and staff member can also find someone who has influence with those opposing the funding. This person of influence could be internally or externally, like another employee, community member or partner, or another CIL. By addressing the barriers with the person of influence, the ED and staff member could request a second consideration of their projects. If even this fails, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Find another project and pitch that. Over time, you will be given your chance.
A bit of marketing talent
Once you have funding for your marketing project, you need to find the right person to make sure the project is seen to completion. This person should have an interest and/or aptitude in marketing and the bandwidth to fit this project into her schedule. You can either get the flyer or website done by consulting with an agency or freelancer, or you can produce it in-house. If in-house, and this person doesn’t have the marketing knowledge to do the job, it’s recommended to send them to training so the end product is an effective one. Success on the first several marketing projects is essential to ensure further and/or continued funding.
By training your staff to complete marketing projects themselves, you can create in-house marketing talent over time. This allows you to not be as reliant on the high cost of paying marketing agencies or freelancers to do the job for you. You can spread the load by having one person trained to implement your social media plan. Another maintains your website. And another handles all print publications. They could be cross-trained on each other’s marketing responsibilities and form a marketing committee to make sure the right hand knows what the left is doing. This is another model to consider if you anticipate never being able to hire at least one marketing employee.
A bit of time
Another thing that’ll ensure further funding for marketing is to pick projects that are “low hanging fruit,” meaning projects that require the lowest use of resources (time, talent, and money) AND produce the biggest bang for your buck, has visible impact, and/or relieves the greatest pain points. Once you have a victory underneath your belt, you can find the next project that’s likely to have similar success. Build upon your successes in this way and funding will be much more likely to come by. It will take time to complete the marketing projects you need but they will get done in a bit of time.
As you can see, this truly is a marathon, not a sprint when you can’t get funding to hire an experienced marketing leader. That’s why Aprosae started our trainings. It’s an affordable way for you to complete your projects professionally while growing marketing knowledge in-house.
If this blog post brings ideas to your mind, we offer a free 30 minute consultation so you can process your thoughts with someone who understands CILs and marketing.