The Direct Marketing Association recently stated that the overall e-mail marketing ROI for 2011 was a staggering $40.56 for every $1 invested. For nonprofit organizations, that investment is money well spent; yet this continues to be a highly underutilized tactic. 

In a survey taken of nearly 1,300 non-profits worldwide, nearly 77% said they utilize their e-mail list at least once each month. However, to generate a presence yet avoid e-mail fatigue, creating a bi-weekly schedule is recommended.

Initially, the bi-weekly schedule may seem overwhelming, but here are
a few recommendations on designing a campaign to reach donors easily and effectively:

Segment your list
It is highly recommended to analyze and segment your list, regardless of its size. Catering messages to the various segments will allow you to customize messages to certain groups, rather than throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.

To illustrate: A university wouldn’t send a mass e-mail requesting $1,000 – $5,000 donations to everyone in its database. Alum and corporate sponsorships may contribute, but current students or recent graduates may take offence and unsubscribe to all future messages. This would result in a valuable segment of the list becoming unusable.

Discover the segments that would be valuable to your organization: from donor level, volunteer activity, gender, geography, income or interest.  Ask your list to update their profile, attracting them with a small “thank you” gifts for their time—like a magnetic photo frame or a sticky note pad that says “thanks."

Test your list by designing two versions of the same e-mail and delivering them to the different segments. You can then track the results to determine the preferences of each segment.

Create highly noticeable calls to action
The call to action is the most important component contained within your e-mail. Be sure to prominently place the CTA (call to action) and phrase it differently and obviously throughout.  Use action verbs to create a sense of urgency: “Help Now! Spring Pledge Drive Ends Saturday!” or “Donate today to receive your welcome package put inside a large tote ($100 value).”

When placing them into the context of the e-mail, don’t oversaturate them with text. Make them colourful or contrasting from the rest of the message. 

Engage your audience with content
In an age of information overload, it is crucial to share relevant content.  Content isn’t limited to written copy, so utilize photos, infographics and videos to convey your message. Show people receiving help, success stories and donors contributions. 

On average, people spend 4.4 hours each week reading e-mails and they are constantly looking for ways to reduce that time, so keep your message simple. Remember that many e-mail systems block images, so ensure the text is visually appealing and concise to make the message easily readable. For example, one disaster relief agency recommends becoming a donor because they provide “warm blankets to cold disaster victims.” This is short, sweet and evokes emotional imagery.

If creating content sounds overwhelming or expensive, consider crowdsourcing in the form of a contest. The guidelines can be specific to your mission and offer a cash prize or swag to attract participation. Participants will generally join to generate exposure for themselves, but depending on the marketing budget, a cash prize, an iPad® with a carry case/sleeve or MP3 player with ear buds, would sweeten the deal.

Multi-faceted campaigns
In an effort to create a stronger reach across all online mediums, invite members of your list to follow you on your social media pages. Woo people to your page(s) by offering small tokens of gratitude to the first 500 people who like, follow or connect to your organization with a mouse pad or a USB Drive.

With a little foresight, e-mail campaigns can be the best tool in your toolbox. Consider San Diego’s Invisible Children, Inc.: Although steeped in controversy, their Kony 2012 campaign did several things correctly according to one blogger. First, their compelling video used a child to tell a simple story about a complex message. Second, the video effectively engaged social media users. And third, their call to action was simple: spread the word—and the people obliged. With proper execution and a solid message, a well-planned campaign could go viral and bring your organization heightened exposure and donations.

Magill, Ken. “e-mail Remains ROI King; Net Marketing Set to Overtake DM, Says DMA” The Magill Report. 4 October 2011. 2 April 2012.

Painter, Harrison. “Nonprofit Communication Trends 2012 (Infographic)” CoffeeWithHarrison.com. 7 February 2012. 2 April 2012.

Hopkins, Lee. “More time spent on social media than e-mail worldwide” Better Communication Results. 4 November 2010. 2 April 2012.

Tunheim. “Kony 2012 Case Study: Three Things You Can Learn From the Viral Video” perspecTive. 23 March 2012. 2 April 2012.

The Center for Exhibition Research recently announced that after three consecutive years of decline, trade shows saw a higher than projected rebound of 2.7% in 2011. While the exciting news has everyone rejoicing, the turnaround can also present a challenge for exhibitors.

In a down economy, competition decreases and it is easier to grab attention with a well-constructed display. But with continued growth projected for 2012, exhibitors have little to no room for error… making it more important than ever to have a comprehensive “gang box”—your go-to kit for the unexpected.

Here are a few suggestions for adding value to your all-encompassing kit, so you’re not left in the lurch or scrambling to find a power strip the last minute:

The right tools
Nearly every trade show veteran can share a horror story about one thing or another falling. Bring a variety of adhesives and fasteners. You may not use the Velcro®, cable ties, glue stick, or artists’ spray mount every time, but it’s pretty much guaranteed to come in handy at some point.

With space in the booth an ever-present issue, it is wise to pack a variety of multi-purpose tools, such as a Phillips/flathead screwdriver or a level/ruler for mounting graphic displays. Alternatively, include a compact, pre-assembled tool set in the gang box so a quick visual inventory can be conducted between shows. Have these and your other gang box components imprinted to ensure they are less likely to “walk away” accidentally on the trade show floor.

The lay of the land
Some people have an intrinsic sense of direction while others rely heavily on GPS; either way, it’s crucial to be knowledgeable on the immediate area surrounding the convention centre and the host city. Send the sales team information pertaining to the nearest FedEx Office® or Home Depot® for emergencies, and bars or restaurants for impromptu happy hours.

The technology curse
When travelling, it’s especially easy to leave things behind. To ensure that all equipment will work properly, keep spare chargers, HDMI cables and adapters on hand. Don’t forget surge protectors and extension cords. Don’t negate working technology coupled with corrupt presentations: Bring an additional copy of sales presentations on USB drives for yourself and to hand out as promotional items.

Taking care of the sales team
Running around at the last minute can leave staff with a not-so-presentable feeling, so it’s important to provide the right items for staff to refresh themselves. Supply the team with combs, breath mints, deodorant or even shoe inserts to cushion their tired feet. These back-ups are especially helpful if the airline loses luggage and the breath mints can be used as giveaways—killing two birds with one stone!

It is just as important to care for the well-being of the sales team. Standing, smiling and networking all day can take its toll on the overall psyche of even the best employees. Keep a cache of ibuprofen, acetaminophen and other supplies readily available in a pocket first aid kit.

Draw notice from the positive aspects of your display, not from being ill-equipped for Murphy’s Law. A fully loaded gang box will reduce unneeded stresses and restore focus to the reason for coming to the show: gaining new business.

Online tutoring has been growing by leaps and bounds, and not without reason. In today’s day and age, schedules are too demanding to squeeze in individual, in-person tutoring sessions. Online tutoring allows for instant access to help, and provides answers to questions, whenever and wherever it’s needed. Plus, students never need to scramble to find transportation to tutoring appointments—access to the Internet is all they need.

Competition is fierce in education today and online tutoring prepares students for success. Whether they are struggling with a certain class subject, need help writing an essay or are preparing for a test, online tutoring can help.

How online tutoring works
Online tutoring works in a couple of different ways. Through Web-based communication, users log in to their virtual classroom and an exchange takes place between tutor and student. This can occur in either a chat room setting or with educational discussion-board software such as BlackboardSM or WhiteboardSM. These platforms allow for tutors to post their materials online and for students to communicate with tutors as though they were there in-person. Many online tutoring companies also offer mobile apps that allow students to connect to tutors, store documents and browse resources right from their smart phones or tablets.

Online tutoring as an educational alternative
Online tutoring works best for the self-motivated student. It can be easy to procrastinate or forget to login, but as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. With a little hard work and dedication, online tutoring can become habitual just as if it were any other part of a required school schedule.

Some may argue that online tutoring could tend to further isolate the shy student, but on the contrary, today’s virtual tutors utilize social media and other Web 2.0 platforms to instill a virtual community and a collaborative environment. With online tutoring, even the most introverted student can ask questions without the social anxieties one may feel in a typical classroom setting. This is a wonderful result that educators and administrators can use to promote the program to parents and students. Consider offering monitor cleaners attached with a letter home to begin to explain the benefits of online tutoring.

Getting started with online tutoring
All that is needed to get started with online tutoring is a computer and a high-speed Internet connection. Students with this access at home are many, but not every student is so fortunate. Ensure that you can provide either a computer lab or local access for all students to benefit from this valuable resource.

Communicate the program
Once the decision has been made to promote online tutoring within your institution, bolster the cause with banners, imprinted mouse pads and pens. Encourage participation by providing enrollees with ear buds to tune in to their online tutor in peace and quiet.

Connect with parents to help them understand the program and the safety measures your organization has put into place to protect your students and their welfare. Discuss the precautions you’ve taken and consider handing out magnets imprinted with information on who to call should an unlikely incident occur.

Online tutoring is a sure way to help students succeed. It is here to stay, so why not jump on board. Help students learn in a manner conducive to them in a cost-efficient, convenient and easy-to-use way.

The rapid pace of technology seems to produce new applications on a weekly basis. No area is exploding faster than location-based services, powered by Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Multiple points of data are integrated to provide sophisticated webs of information that can be searched, monitored, classified, categorized and reported in an unlimited number of ways. It all sounds futuristic, but the future is now. Location technology offers applications useful to government agencies as well as individuals and businesses.

• Resource management: Location-based systems can track employee location relative to work needs, allowing efficient and timely response to events and emergencies. Critical utility failures or disasters, for example, can be addressed by the closest responders. Make sure responders can get through crowds by outfitting them with agency-branded shirts. Managers can easily direct employees to sites and provide directions from employees’ current locations instantly.

• Public safety: Location technology offers the ability to provide exact and timely information to citizens in the event of an emergency. Disaster kits (filled with flashlights, water, whistles and more) can be customized with phone numbers and websites that homeowners should contact in the event of an emergency situation. Individuals in a danger zone can be notified to evacuate, directed to the best route from their current location, and provided with directions to the nearest emergency shelter or health care service. Location-based apps also aid crews conducting search and rescue operations.

• Collaboration: Government plays a crucial role in the development of location-based technology by making the wealth of information collected by agencies available to developers. Street closures, business names, public transportation, and other bits of data are goldmines for entrepreneurs and app creators. Some local governments sponsor meet-ups to connect the people who have data with the people who need it, as well as discussing the future of location technology and how it can be used to benefit the community. Hand out notepads and pens with your agency’s contact info to ensure that busy, creative developers can find you again.

• Mapping: “A density map lets you measure the number of features using a uniform areal unit so you can clearly see the distribution,” notes GIS.com. “This is especially useful when mapping areas, such as census tracts or counties, which vary greatly in size.” Use GIS maps in city planning. Mapping also has law enforcement applications. A Crown Attorney might monitor drug-related arrests to find out how close an arrest is to a school, as the location has implications for the penalty range.

Need a real life example? Australia’s Parramatta City Council has worked to engage the community in creating useful location-based services. One project tracks the locations of the city’s shuttle buses. Another directs drivers to available parking spaces. That’s a technological boon we could all get behind. Keep up with their groundbreaking work at Parraconnect or remind your constituents about the location-based services your agency offers in a memorable way, like a customized magnet.

Looking for a change to the routines at your residential facility or clinic? Pet therapy has entered the mainstream as a care service and may have great benefits for your patients and clientele.

Pet therapy began its life in clinical work in 1961, although some claim it dates as far back as Sigmund Freud, notes Janet Eggiman, RN, MS, LMFT of Medscape® Today.

Today, it’s become more and more available and accepted as a treatment. Research cited by the CBC shows that psychological trauma survivors and the emotionally withdrawn are prone to opening up more in the presence of companion animals. Patients with injuries or limited range-of-motion syndromes show marked improvement in their motion therapy when working with animals. In addition, symptoms of loneliness are notably improved after spending time with companion animals. As more and more insurance providers and networks begin to value and compensate for therapies that recognize the mind-body connection, there may be a greater place for pet therapy in your clinic or residential facility.

How does a health care organization begin an Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) program? For starters, you may consult an online listing like The Natural Connection to see what trained, certified AAT organizations are available in your area. These organizations exist to help you begin and facilitate a program, and their leaders are eager to work with health care providers. For reasons from safety to liability, it is of the utmost importance to use a certified, experienced AAT organization’s resources.

Early steps to starting the program include developing documents toward clearly written policies and procedures; staff education about the proposed program; a plan for recruitment of volunteers and training; a plan for testing and training of potential therapy animals and a plan for implementing the program.

Generally, AAT organizations charge nothing to come to your facility and work with your residents. You may have your in-house practitioners establish goals for each participant, or you may run a more free-form scenario, often referred to as Pet Visitation.

Structuring decisions need to be made at the local level, but some recommendations include:

1. Weekly pet visitation day, where residents/patients spend time talking with and touching companion animals, which may be commemorated with bone-shaped pen.
2. More intensive, planned therapy with both a physical therapist and an AAT handler may be scheduled as a four-to-twelve week regimen, culminating with the takeaway memento of mug with your logo and paw prints on it, or a photo of the participant with a therapy animal in a dog lover pet frame.
3. A monthly AAT workshop for outpatient clients may be scheduled and reminded with the use of bone magnets. 
4. Other one-day special AAT events or visitations can be held during open houses or other community events and promoted with totes, or animal paw bag clips.

Pet therapy has shown proven results and may be just the next offering your facility or organization can easily add to assist in patient care. Besides who doesn’t want unconditional love and attention?!

medscape.com

cbc.ca

Petfinder.com

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and in the modern world of social media, the old saying is truer than ever. Your followers and supporters want to know what’s going on with your organization, but they don’t want to spend a lot of time finding out. Well-chosen photos maximize the impact of your message by forming an instant impression and telling a story in a brief glance.

Fortunately, the ever-changing technology offers new ways to take, keep, organize and share the pictures that show the world who you are and what you do.

• Flickr™ has been around long enough to be known by nearly everyone traipsing about the Internet. Sign up for a free account and start uploading your pics. You can sort and categorize them to suit your needs, and you maintain control over which ones can be viewed publicly. Once online, the photos stored on Flickr can easily be grabbed or linked to illustrate other social media efforts, like blogs and Facebook™ updates. Perhaps the greatest advantage to storing your organization’s photos on Flickr is that they are then accessible to multiple staff members from any location. 

If you need more storage, a pro account on Flickr™ is affordable. Or, check with TechSoup Canada for giveaway Flickr™ accounts. Encourage all of your staff members and volunteers to document events by providing portable camera cases that display your agency name and logo.

• The trip from real life to online image has never been quicker, thanks to the mobile app Instagram™. Just snap a pic with your iPhone, apply one of Instagram’s filters to make it perfect, and instantly upload it to your Flickr™, Facebook™ or Twitter™ account. Keep your organization’s friends in the know with up-to-the-minute photo updates. Don’t forget your universal charger to make sure you never miss a shot.

• Pinterest™, a relative newcomer in the social media world, offers free accounts and the ability to “pin” your photos (linked from a storage site like Flickr) to a “board,” which displays a themed array. Pinterest photos can be viewed by anyone visiting the site, and those so inspired can “re-pin” your photos to showcase them further. A clever way to let your supporters know about Pinterest: Send each one a photo of your agency’s work in a logo’d frame. Choose pictures that pack an emotional punch for Pinterest viewers and use silicone lens cloths to make sure your lens is clean prior to taking the shot.

• High-quality prints of your photos are just a click away on Shutterfly™, which acts as a photo storage site and a source for low-cost prints in multiple sizes. You can even create greeting cards and calendars with your photos—always a fundraising boon. After you’ve taken pictures, transfer the images from your camera to a computer using a compact multi-card reader.

• With just a little tech savvy and a flip cam in the hands of each staff member, your organization is ready to set up a YouTube channel and display your work in video. Considered a must-have by social marketing gurus, your YouTube videos can also easily be shared on Facebook™, Tumblr™, and other social sites where your followers congregate.

On the blog that accompanies the indispensable book, Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits, author Heather Mansfield emphasizes the importance of YouTube and Flickr for building a strong social media presence. Your photos and videos share the important work you do with your closest friends and like-minded others from across the globe. Make every picture count.

“Each year, outdoor trade shows become more and more common. Why be cooped up in a crowded exhibit hall when you could be enjoying a warm, sunny day? Outdoor trade shows are usually set in beautiful locations, with stable and predictable climates, which allow exhibitors to prepare for the weather in advance. More and more trade shows are moving outdoors, and these trade shows are statistically more profitable for exhibitors and attendees than indoor trade shows.”—Andy Keeler, Trade Show Marketing Blog

Whether yours is a company that sells “outdoor lifestyle” products, items in support of sporting activities or food and beverage-related items, you may have been invited to participate in an outdoor trade show. If you haven’t … you are in for a treat!

Outdoor trade shows evolved from music festivals and art fairs, while importing the serious sophistication of traditional indoor trade shows. They are often a best-practices forum for outdoor sporting equipment and lifestyle support products. They are not, however, low-key granola affairs that you can afford to dismiss.

As with any trade show, preparation is of the utmost importance. 

1. Regardless of location, your market, brand, target and message must have strategic alignment so you can set, monitor and achieve measurable goals. 
2. Target the location. Ideas that may have been too “big” for the exhibit hall may well fly here due to less vertical space restrictions. For example, construction equipment trade shows feature the actual trucks, hoes, etc. used in that industry and are often available for demonstration.
3. Consider your staffing carefully. As Mike Thimmish of Skyline Tradeshow Tips reminds us, while it’s important at all trade shows, in this milieu, you really need to staff employees who match the image you are trying to sell with your product—an exterior trade show has a different vibe than an interior one. In addition, weather is now a critical consideration. Ensure staff is properly prepared for the climate, including apparel like fleece jackets or windbreakers.
4. Offer leave-behinds, incentives and promotional items also conducive to the outdoors theme, such as rugged stainless steel water bottles or lip balm your company logo on it.
5. Ultimately, make sure that your displays are up to the demands of the weather. You need materials that will take the sun as well as withstand wind or rain. A general must-have is a sturdy canopy. You’ll also need appropriately strong outdoor banners.

Once you’re prepared, don’t shy away from other events for using outdoor trade show displays: community festivals, footraces, outdoor sporting events and even indoor trade shows where you are targeting the more outdoorsy demographic. Remember to have fun with it and let your product or service shine!

http://blog.moddisplays.com/2008/02/26/outdoor-trade-shows/

http://www.skylinetradeshowtips.com/dont-be-that-guy-at-trade-shows/