Co-Building a Global Marketing Team for an NGO: Strategic Approaches on a Tight Budget
- Johanna Weiermann
- Jul 8, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 17
As Global Marketing Director of 180 Degrees Consulting (180DC), the world's leading provider of consulting services for non-profits and social enterprises, I had the exciting opportunity to help build a global marketing team from scratch. But with 180DC being an NGO, we had to be creative with our marketing approach due to a tight budget, which proved to be an exciting challenge.
The purpose of the marketing department was twofold:
Internal Marketing/Employer Branding
Outbound marketing
For internal marketing/employer branding purposes, we aimed to improve job satisfaction among existing employees, provide infrastructure for effective communication, and promote the organization to potential applicants. One of our most successful initiatives was the Humans of 180 campaign, which shared stories of employees and highlighted the positive work culture. This initiative was also hugely popular among our readers. (To learn more, go to section)
As for outbound marketing, we used social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to create weekly content to promote our services. We also relied on the powerful tool of testimonials to spread the word about our successful partnerships with former clients. And when we saw our newsletter engagement increase, we decided to create branding e-books to help small NGOs define and fine-tune their branding (tread more below). (To learn more, go to section)
One of my favorite projects involved creating an article on 13 productivity tools for nonprofit professionals. I strategically designed a post for each social media channel, catering to each platform's unique features to maximize engagement. Our newsletter also featured the article, which drove traffic to the 180dc.org website. (To learn more, go to section)
Overall, my time at 180DC taught me the importance of being resourceful and creative in strategic marketing, regardless of the budget. The work was always dynamic and exciting, and it was rewarding to see the positive impact of our efforts.
Strategic Internal Marketing/Employer Branding:
For internal marketing purposes, we aimed to
improve job satisfaction among existing employees,
provide infrastructure for effective communication, and
promote the organization to potential applicants.
One of our most successful initiatives was the #humansof180 campaign, which shared stories of employees and highlighted the positive work culture. This initiative was also hugely popular among our readers.
Goals number 1 and 2 were mostly achieved by Facebook activity and email marketing.
Firstly, I established two Facebook groups:
One Facebook group for 180DC executives was for enabling the global leadership team members as well as branch presidents to be informed about daily business as well as get to know each other.
Another Facebook group for branch marketing managers aimed at enabling the marketing executives of our worldwide branches to communicate and get marketing advice from one another as well as us (the global marketing team of 3).
Other than that, there were quarterly executive update newsletters, which I was in charge of putting together, select mailing lists, take care of feedback etc. The quarterly newsletters were a means for the organisation's CEO to communicate strategic matters to all staff.
Furthermore, there was a monthly newsletter, targeted at consultants, which I was leading. It usually consisted of the following sections:
Humans of 180 (will be explained below) was a campaign for introducing one employee at a time, their story and what they like about working at 180DC, which was the story-telling part of the newsletter. This was also the most popular section of monthly newsletters.
An article or case study delivering expert advice on topics around NGOs and consulting. They were written by 180DC employees. If you want to know more, find all thought leadership pieces by clicking this link.
Announcing new (annual) report templates, marketing templates, an advetising video and other resources for employees to use for marketing.
Miscellaneous announcements
Goal number 3, employer branding, targeted at potential employees, was a tough one, as we were unable to incentivise applications by offering a high salary. Again, as an NGO, we had to be creative to make potential applicants aware of 180DC as an employer and foster a tighter network within the organisation.
One example is the #humansof180 campaign which introduces one of the many thousand 180DC employees to their colleagues as well as customers and potential applicants every month.
Furthermore, vacancies were advertised for via newsletter and social media, as we suspected our extremely smart employees to be surrounded by other great people.
Strategic outbound marketing:
One way to create content was to ask seasoned colleagues to volunteer for writing articles in their field of expertise, and adjusting said article to make it relevant for potential clients, potential applicants and other colleagues.
Other than that, we made sure to share testimonials, which are success stories of former clients. Those postings were hugely successful in terms of engagement, as not only the relevant 180dc consultants involved in said project, but also the consulted company, would share these postings.
Moreover, we made sure to spice up our feed with a little bit of story-telling by throwing in some Humans Of 180 posts, which proved not only beneficial from an employer branding stance but also made potential clients aware of our highly skilled consultants offering their services.
At some point, I realised that KPIs of newsletters were going up and up, in other words: I had gotten the hang of it. So we, the global marketing team (now 4 team members), decided to create branding e-books and the likes, which would help small NGOs define and fine-tune their branding. The content was advertised on our social media by giving away a little preview. The rest of the e-book was guarded, meaning that people had to subscribe to our newsletter in order to receive e.g. the e-book.
Sample project:
I produced content and planned and executed distribution it in order to increase traffic to the 180dc.org website as well as the social channels.
Content: Article on 13 productivity tools for nonprofit professionals
Distribution:
In order to reach everyone who would potentially be interested, I designed one post for each of our social media channels, catering to the platform's technical requirements, as well as making best use of the platform's features and targeting each channel's respective 180DC community, which, of course were slightly different on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Instagram:
In order to let our newsletter subscribers know that there is a new piece of expert advice up on the 180dc.org website, I created (designed and built) the following:
If you have any more questions about my work for 180dc.org, get in touch!
