21 stupid things that nonprofit marketers can stop doing, including bad attitudes, approaches, strategies, and tactics. Delivered as a live webinar on June 27, 2013 and available as a recording after July 2, 2013 at http://www.NonprofitMarketingGuide.com under "Freebies." Also see the Twitter stream with #npcommstupid and share your ideas there!

1. 21 Stupid Things
Nonprofit
Marketers Can
Stop Doing!
#npcommstupid
Kivi Leroux Miller
Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com
Presented as a live webinar at NonprofitMarketingGuide.com on June 27, 2013

2. Want to Hear the Commentary
That Goes With the List?
Listen to the Recorded Webinar to Get
Kivi’s Commentary and to See Which Stupid
Things Other Nonprofits Admit to Doing.
Visit www.NonprofitMarketingGuide.com
and Look Under “Freebies” in the Menu after
July 2, 2013.
Free registration required.

3. 2- or 3- Year Comm Plans
Who knows what will work best for you by then!
INSTEAD: Plan seriously six months at a time,
and more broadly 18 months at a time.

4. Outreach or
awareness
campaigns to
the general
public
You don’t have that kind
of money to waste!
INSTEAD: Focus on the groups or types of
people likely to lean your way. Create for them.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamescridland/613445810

5. Asking for “help” or “support”
No one knows what you really want them to do!
INSTEAD: Get very specific about your calls to action
and limit them to a few – or just one – at a time.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/b-tal/163450213

6. Listening to
people who
truly don’t
know what
they are
talking about.
Someone’s opinion
should never outrank
your professional
experience and data.
“Facebook is full of
pedophiles. I’m just
saying, we shouldn’t
be associated with
that kind of filth.”
INSTEAD: Politely nod or
change the subject and do
what you know is right.

7. Letting lawyers or
accountants dictate
your marketing.
Your tolerance for risk
should always be higher
than theirs.
INSTEAD: Listen to their advice and then
make a judgment call about the level of risk.

8. Going with what
you, or your ED, or
your board would
respond to.
You are not the kind of people
you are trying to reach!
INSTEAD: Match your marketing to the communities you
are trying to reach, even if it doesn’t look and sound as
clean and pretty as you’d like.

9. Getting too fancy
and heady with
your rebranding.
If you have to explain your
name, tagline and logo before
anyone understands what you
do, your branding sucks.
INSTEAD: Use plain English and easily
understood imagery and metaphors
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ttdesign/2558614528

10. Referring to
your org and
staff in the
third person
It’s too institutional and
formal, therefore
irrelevant and boring.
INSTEAD: Use first (I, We, Our) and second
person (You, Your) as much as possible.

11. Excessive editing
and handwringing
By the time you get it out,
it’s no longer relevant!
INSTEAD: Give everyone a shot at it, then be
happy with Good instead of Perfect.

12. Press releases
You are more likely to get
media attention by being a
real person with an opinion
or a story than an org with
airbrushed talking points.
INSTEAD: Get to know your top ten media outlets
and the people who work there. And blog and
tweet your real news and opinions (& newsjack).

13. Writing articles
that are
waaaaaaay
too long.
They take forever to
produce and then no
one reads them.
INSTEAD: Write appetizers, snack packs, tapas or a salad
bar, not seven course meals with heavy entrees.

14. Focusing more
on acquisition
than on
retention.
Acquisition is a lot
harder and takes
longer to produce
results.
INSTEAD: Make understanding and retaining
your current donors a higher priority.
flickr.com/photos/monti2008/3064988461

15. Mobile apps
You just aren’t that fun or helpful!
INSTEAD: Focus on making your
website and email mobile friendly.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/68453216@N03/6227748188

16. QR codes
They require more steps
than needed and most
people can’t figure out
how to use them
anyway.
INSTEAD: Get a custom url shortener. We use
Shortswitch.com for kivilm.com and npmg.us.
http://www.businessinsider.com/15-of-the-worst-qr-code-fails-of-all-time-2013-3?op=1

17. Paying for
custom
software
It never keeps up with
the open market and
costs ridiculous amounts
of money to maintain!
INSTEAD: You are not THAT special! Go with a
commercial or open-source product and only tinker
around the edges.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mdpettitt/6344405403

18. Saying
anything is
“Dead”
It’s just an excuse not to do
your job, which is now
integrated, multi-channel
marketing.
INSTEAD: Accept that your job will be
complicated and will require lots of juggling.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kkoukopoulos/4397555983

19. Obsessing
about SEO
Google is smarter than
you are!
INSTEAD: Quit worrying so much about optimizing a
page and focus on creating content people will share.
flickr.com/photos/91924031@N08/8356305433

20. Measuring too
many things
The numbers are
meaningless without
analysis and knowing
what triggers action!
INSTEAD: Choose a handful of numbers to
watch and learn what you can from them.

21. Sitting on your butt
waiting for someone
else to do it
They hired YOU and they
think it’s YOUR job!
INSTEAD: Go for it. Make something –
anything! – happen. It’s OK to learn as you go.

22. Trying to do it all at once
You’ll end up doing a lousy job at most
of it.
INSTEAD: Prioritize and focus.

23. Walking on
egg shells
You’ll never get
anywhere if you
don’t step
forward boldly.
INSTEAD: Make educated guesses and then
try. Learn. Be fearless.

24. Kivi Leroux Miller
@kivilm
Fb.com/nonprofitmarketingguide
kivi@ecoscribe.com
Follow @kristinaleroux for live
tweets from Kivi’s webinars