Inflight Briefing: 003

5 min read

Oct 18, 2022 4:45:00 PM

Delivered weekly, the Inflight Briefing is designed as a blueprint for the builder and inspiration for the curious. It's for the purposeful (that's you!) doing marketing for good.

003: Marketing is a journey

I’m not sure how I feel when I hear the phrase, “Life is a journey.” But I’m going to go right out and say it: “Marketing is a journey.” Did I just quote myself? Uhh… Yes.

Purposeful marketers have a destination — or a quantifiable result — in mind, but they also stop to smell the roses. They’re ready to try new things, and they’re comfortable when a campaign doesn’t go the way they anticipated. Because when our expectations aren’t met, listening and learning bloom.

“There’s so much to know. How can I possibly keep up?” Jeff Giddens, president of NextAfter, asks during his recent presentation at NIO. And then he offers the solution, “Hey, I don't have to be an expert anymore. Now, not having all the answers, I get to be an experimenter.”

I sure hope life is more than only a journey, but I also hope your marketing is more than just one number. I hope you have ambitious goals and stay ahead on the latest trends. But even more, I hope that you enjoy the process, trust yourself enough to take risks, and learn from those experiments in a way that makes you the ultimate expert.

Snackable snippets

Designing marketing campaigns that compound

One way of ensuring your marketing efforts compound to greater effect: design omnichannel campaigns. One-offs with their limited scope have limited range. The real magic — and it’s real magic because it isn’t magic at all — happens when campaigns build off each other and add up to something even bigger. It’s all about that synergy!

How optimization can save the world

Jeff Giddens has been doing research on humility and its impact on marketing success for years. In this 2018 TEDx Talk, Giddens focuses on optimization as a way of moving organizations forward.

A crash course in humility-based leadership

Jon and Becky at We Are For Good have produced yet another amazing podcast. Their recent discussion with guest Lola Adedokun, program director for Child Well Being and director for the African Health Initiative at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, highlights the value of humble leadership when working toward making a global impact. It’s well worth the listen.

How to increase email response rates

There are increasing numbers of metrics to follow when analyzing the success of your marketing efforts. While open rates and click through rates offer important insights into your email marketing, increasing response rates may offer the most bang for the buck.

In the news

Small gifts were on the decline during the first half of 2022. However troubling this may be, the one bright spot was that “recaptured donors” — those who had given to an organization, but not in the previous year — grew 6.3%. It sounds like this is the audience to target.

High performance marketers are paying close attention to what separates the Gen Z and Millennial generations. Marketing toward those under 41 is a good start, but these two groups are not identical.

Associations have learned to pivot during the pandemic, focusing on the essentials of relationship building and hybrid solutions. So, with a recession on the horizon, they’re already poised for success no matter the odds.

Something for your inspiration folder

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APWA made over $58k in registrations with a media spend of $297 in Feathr. It doesn’t hurt that their ads look incredible. The colors pop, branding is consistent, and there’s a discount to boot!

If you want a lot of inspiration all at once, Canva has collected 20 nonprofit ad campaigns that will keep you inspired for days!