Category Archives: Strategic Marketing Planning

One of the first things out of many clients or prospective client’s mouths when we first meet with them is “we’re not into marketing” or “marketing is for business, not us”. Simpy stated, this is hogwash.  If your organization is involved any way, in attracting, servicing and keeping customers or encouraging behaviour change of any kind, like it or not, you’re in the “marketing business”. This is especially true for any organization that relies on earned revenue to sustain their operations such as user / member fees, sponsorship, product sales, fundraising, etc.

The fact is that if you were to replace the word profit with revenue or impact, the key functions of marketing [...]

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I had the pleasure of speaking at the AFP Congress in Toronto last week and the chance to speak with many people about the challenges of implementing a “sponsorship-based” revenue program in what has traditionally been a “donation-based” culture. I think that many organizations realize that the “corporate giving” pool is becoming increasingly competitive over limited funds and that to support or expand their operations, they must look to more commercially-driven sponsorships to diversify their revenue streams. The problem is that generating funds from corporate marketing budgets requires a radically different mindset and set of skills.

The first step is understanding the difference between donations and sponsorships. While corporate donations are [...]

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As my blog title suggests, one of my main focuses will be on driving revenue for your organization, whether it be through sponsorships and other forms of corporate partnerships, advertising, product or service marketing, membership development, events and trade shows or any other revenue generating activity that comes to mind. To set the tone for what’s to come in the following months, the following are 5 Key Principles that I believe  apply to any revenue generating activity. These principles are based on my work with hundreds of organizations and in my opinion, set the foundation for a successful revenue generation strategy.

Principle #1 – “The aim of marketing is to make [...]

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