November 9, 2007 | Read Time: 1 minute
Charities — just like companies marketing products and services — should never forget that listening is the key to success, writes Katya Andresen in Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog.
Marketers can only get people to do things they believe are in their own best interests, so charities must remember to listen to find out what people think they want and need, Ms. Andresen writes.
She cites five red flags developed by the marketing expert Alan R. Andreasen to help charities determine if they have “drifted too far” from listening in their efforts to promote their causes and get people to support them.
For example, “you’re in trouble if you see your product (or your cause) as inherently desireable. It’s not,” he writes. And “you’re in trouble if you think that marketing is the same thing as communications. If you do, you’ll think that information alone will prompt action. It won’t.”
What do you think? Are there other danger signs that suggest a charity is unlikely to reach its intended audience? What strategies lead to effective listening?
