This week I heard 2 words that will impact fundraising, nonprofit marketing and thought leadership in the next few years. You better have these 2 words on your mind if you plan on being a thought leader in the years ahead.
Sunday afternoon Hoots and I headed to San Diego to attend Social Media Examiner’s Social Media Marketing World. It was a couple of days with the best and busiest in the social and digital world.
Mike Stelzner of Social Media Examiner did a killer job leading their first conference. It was worth every penny to learn from the best in the business, and it was worth it to hear the two words over and over — and more importantly to see the studies and results behind the two words.
The funny thing was, that even though the conference was billed as, “Social Media Marketing World” and Stelzner runs Social Media Examiner, it really wasn’t about social media.
It was about digital marketing, or as we say around Oneicity, the “e” stuff. It was 2 days of how the smartest in the business world are using the digital tools today to build relationships and ring their cash registers. We follow these business leaders closely because they’re ahead of the NPO sector — they have bigger budgets and usually are able to do better R&D. We’ve found that by following these guys, we can figure out our version of these strategies for our clients.
There will be much more to talk about on this topic. But for now, let me give you the two words you have to be thinking about in order to grow your ministry and influence the world.
After 2 days with some of the best and brightest in the business, we’re convinced that you have to figure out how these two words fit into your world.
Ready?
Mobile.
Email.
Stats and more information to follow in the weeks ahead.
Mobile maybe the single biggest change you have to make. And by “mobile” I mean smart phones of any brand and tablets of all kinds. Tablets aren’t as tricky as smart phones. Those little cell phone screens are killers. One of the primary reasons Oneicity is redesigning our website at this moment is to accommodate mobile devices. You can’t delay. Look at all those people whipping out their smart phones . . . sleeping with the smart phones by their beds . . . just look around. The PC is fading. You have to think about how your website looks on mobile devices. But with technology today, you don’t have to go out and create a whole separate website just for mobile. That’s what’s cool. But more on that to come in another blog post.
Email maybe the shocker for you. Maybe you’ve been sold the bill of goods that email is dead or not effective. Ummmm . . . nothing could be farther from the truth. I’ve been telling clients that the inbox delivers unparalleled intimacy and access. Email is where people are reading what they don’t want to miss. That’s where you need to be. Nurture and grow your email list. It’s not as trendy as building an app but I promise results will follow if you do email right. Again, more to come.
Mobile.
Email.
So what do you think? Do you see the power and potential in mobile and email? I’d love to know what you’re thinking.
Steve Thomas
Partner, Oneicity
(photo credit: Steve Thomas)
