If you’ve listened to our webinars or some of our other posts, we’ve spoken about this before but quite simply a brand manifesto is a document which summarises the core elements of your organisation. It sounds like an overly simple suggestion, but sometimes your team get lost in the busyness of your organisation and sometimes need a boost (as we all do!), so reminding them of why you’re doing what you’re doing not only equips them with renewed passion but makes sure everyone is on the same page and moving in the same direction. From a marketing perspective, it can also focus key messages and strategies that you may want to deploy throughout the year. That’s the power of clarifying your brand verbally.
With our clients we’d usually like to answer these questions as a minimum:
- What do you do and how do you do it?
- Who are you here for?
- Why are you different to others?
- What are your values?
- What is your purpose?
- What is your personality?
- Where are you now and where do you want to be?
You can obviously go into more detail, but you’ll be surprised how many organisations and businesses don’t communicate (or sometimes even know) the answers to these questions. Don’t feel like these conversations have to stay within management either. Everyone is helping to build your brand. If you’d like a template for a brand manifesto document then email me and I’ll happily send you one. Getting everyone on the same page at the beginning of the year is the best way to ensure it’s a successful one.
It’s always worth mentioning the quote from Henry Ford when he started manufacturing cars when we’re talking about the topic of gaining feedback; “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”. It’s true in some ways, if we always asked what people wanted we would never get anything done. But from a Charity perspective, as so much of the income generated is based on the support of individual donors (as well as the services we provide to the community, of course) it helps to gauge what people think about your organisation and charity brand as a whole.
You may already track a lot of data and do a lot of PR management, meaning you should be in a good place, but if it’s something you haven’t thought about before then why not gauge people’s thoughts by creating a survey using Google forms or Survey Monkey? It can easily be distributed on social media, or you can conduct the research based on just simply asking your stakeholders and beneficiaries. It’s very likely feedback will be positive, but if there are areas to improve which you haven’t already tracked, you’ll know by conducting this research and you can work to rectify it! Over time, it will mean your organisation is in a stronger place each year.
If you’re a long term subscriber to our newsletter (hint, hint), or have been following our social media for a while, you’ll know we bang on about celebrating your differences and tapping into that with your brand strategy. We’re going to do so again today!! After creating a brand manifesto, it’s always good to check where you’re at with selling your services to funders, potential donors or local authority.
When you’re communicating the key elements of your organisation clearly, it’s very unlikely you won’t see an uptick in donors or interest at least at some level.
Clarifying your value proposition can be a challenge, but here are some questions to help pinpoint the gold that you should communicate to others:
- Why are we different?
- What does that difference mean for those you’re seeking to serve?
- How does what you provide mean better results for everyone?
- How does your previous work help show your competence?
- Is anyone else doing what you’re doing?
- How are you being creative with running your organisation?
- Why does what you do matter?
Steve Allman has a great LinkedIn post about how you can do this using the Words “so that” and telling people the WHY rather than the what, and how.
There’s also a great interview with the UK Director of Tony’s Chocolonely that recently came out. If you want to find out how to master the art of creating an impact organisation and using your brand to tell a story, give it a listen.
For many of us, it’s really easy to get lost in the language of our sector and lose perspective on whether people outside the sector can understand it or not. So in 2022, we’re calling on everyone to make sure you use language that your target audience will understand and resonate with.
Not only does this help from an accessibility standpoint but it also means that you’re more likely to connect with those who can help you make an impact. It’s a simple change, but just taking a step back and being aware of the type of audience that will be engaging with your communication is a good way to check everything makes sense!
If you’re doing this on your own, you can also use a family member, partner or an app like Grammarly who could help check your writing. We get it, it’s difficult because you’re in that world, but small changes like these can lead to great results.
What does this year look like for your organisation? Does it look like just keeping going and doing all you can? More than likely… We’re not here to tell you how to run your organisation as we know things can be tough in the sector at the moment. Between the ongoing impact of CV19 and the increased demand for services, it can sometimes feel like you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. A strategy helps you to keep going even if the light is only flickering.
If you haven’t got a strategy for the coming years, why not try and find someone to help you create one? When you have a strategy you can make sure you and your team can move towards those goals, and you can also celebrate achieving those goals when you have achieved them. Without a strategy, things can become a bit more challenging day to day and it may feel like everything rests on you. We want to try and help you avoid those sleepless nights!
So if you can this year, find someone who can help you create a strategy. How can you tackle the challenges you may face, and most importantly, how you can continue to serve those who need you the most and make significant change in the communities you operate in? Once that’s done, you can look at your marketing strategy, brand strategy and communication strategy – but best to take it step by step for now!! We’re suckers for strategy…
We believe in you!
As always, if you want to chat through any ideas, give us a shout.
See you next month.
