We will establish your personal and campaign goals, create a plan for achieving these goals, and begin identifying opportunities in your network and community for making these goals a reality. You will learn the basics of how to be an effective leader and will begin designing work systems for your team members.

What is a Marketing and Communication Plan?

Your marketing plan and communication plan work in tandem. Both are crucial elements for defining your campaign's messaging and effectively delivering it to your target audience(s). 

The SLA Marketing and Communication Plan is a two-pronged plan that utilizes a multi-layered approach to sending outreach and engaging your community.

Your Strategic Plan

Use the to develop your campaign's messaging and plan for reaching your target audiences.

Key Steps For Developing Your SLA Marketing & Communication Plan:

• Set Goals & Metrics to Measure Success & Track Progress

• Identify Your & Your Team's Target Audience(s) 

• Identify the Value Proposition of Your Campaign

• Craft Your Messaging & Tailor for Each Target Audience

• Determine the Cadence of Your Messaging & Assign Leads

• Develop Your Outreach List with Prospects & Contact Information

Step 1 - Determine Goals and Track your Progress 

"What Marketing & Communication Goals will lead to achieving campaign goals?"

Review the goals you set in your Strategic Planning Workbook—what marketing and communication efforts and outreach will help you to achieve these goals?

• How many prospects do you want to reach out to overall?

• How many people do you want to reach out to individually each week?

• How many communities do you hope to reach? Through what platforms?

• How many people are your team members reaching out to?

• How frequently is your team sending outreach and to how many people?

• What percentage of your pipelines do you want to connect individually with?

Look at the marketing and communication goals you set, and determine your Indicators—or how you will break down your goals into measurable benchmarks that allow you to measure and track progress.

Sample Indicators 

• How many people on your list do you want to reach out to each week?

• How many high-impact meetings should your team members have each week?

• How many new donors do you want to secure each week?

• How many new audiences or groups do you want to engage with each week?

Step 2 -  Identifying Your Team's Target Audience

"Who do you want to reach through your efforts?"

"What groups of people are in your network?"

"What do you know about each target audience?"

"What unique characteristics, values, motivations, and needs drive each group?"

A target audience is a group of people that you strategically want to reach to secure their buy-in and support. Every person on your team will have their own set of target audiences. 

In the SLA program, you will be tapping into several target audiences—the more specific you are when defining them, the more effective and targeted your marketing campaign will be.

Each target audience has its unique profile with its own set of characteristics, motivations, values, and needs that differentiate them from each other.

You will modify your campaign's positioning (or the framing of your messaging) depending on the specific profile of a given target audience.

Step 3 - Identify the Value Proposition of Your Campaign

"What makes your campaign unique?"

"Why should someone feel moved to support your campaign?"

A Value Proposition is a short statement that concisely explains the benefits you get from using a particular product or service. It explains to the reader what your campaign is, why they should care about it, and demonstrates and convinces them to support you. 

Your Value Proposition is the core of your competitive advantage—it clearly articulates why your community should support your team instead of a competitor or another charity. 

In SLA, the core of your value proposition will likely be your mission statement (how this has impacted you in your life), but it may vary depending on your target audience.

How to Determine Your Value Proposition

1) Identify a specific problem or issue that the audience deals with or cares about

2) Articulate how your campaign is working to solve or address this problem

3) Communicate both the intangible and quantifiable benefits of your solution

3 Elements of a Successful Value Proposition

1) Relevancy - How well it aligns with the needs and values of the prospective supporter

2) Benefit - The positive outcome your campaign has on the audience/supporter

3) Distinction - What differentiates you from the rest

Step 4 - Tailor Your Messaging for Each Target Audience 

"What unique characteristics, values, motivations, and needs drive each group?"

"What is the messaging that will reach this specific audience?”

“What information or call to action will this communication contain?”

The key to developing a persuasive narrative is to understand the networks that you are moving through (i.e., the unique characteristics, needs, and motivations of each audience) and modify your messaging and approach so that it successfully reaches and appeals to them.

Determine the key values and motivations for each group, and then adjust your messaging and positioning to match:

• Businesses & Corporate Sponsors typically value leadership development—this is an important opportunity for you to get experience, as well as the marketing benefits

• Prospective team members typically value the program's incentives and opportunities for growth

• Your general community typically values the opportunity to give back and have a positive impact on their community members

Step 5 - Determine the Cadence of Your Messaging & Assign Leads

“Where will you share this communication?”

“When and how often will you deliver this communication?”

“Who is in charge of this communication?”

Now that you know what you want to say and to whom, you can map out your plan for delivering your messaging.

Consider your target audience and their communication preferences. Match your outreach to their preferences and the cadence used by that channel.

• What is the best way to reach them? 

• Are they frequently using a specific social media channel? 

• Are they always checking their email? 

• Are they a fan of phone calls? 

The frequency of communication will vary depending on your goals, audience, and medium.

Determine who is responsible for delivering what message to which audience(s) and when.

• Whoever is most closely tied to a specific contact/audience should lead that outreach—people are more likely to open their emails if they recognize the name

Step 6 - Develop Your Outreach List with Prospects & Contact Information

As a minimum, candidates are required to have at least 150 contacts on their P2P list, and team members need to have a minimum of 30 contacts on their P2P list.

It is recommended that you take 30 min - 1 hour each week to chip away at building your communication plan and pipelines

• End of Week 2 – 20 - 40% done (30 - 60 people) 

• End of Week 3 – 60% done (90 people) 

• End of Week 4 – 80% done (120 people) 

• End of Week 5 – 100% done (150 people)