Confucius was a wise man. He summed up work life perfectly centuries ago – “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” My friends, I love the direct marketing industry. The way it allows you to be creative and work with amazing graphic designers and copy writers, as well as analytical. Mining a database or doing a custom analysis of a client’s customer file and finding a new trend is an amazing feeling!!! The industry also gives us the opportunity to work with clients in multiple verticals – financial, insurance, retail and catalogers to name a few.
Like any parent will tell you, they don’t have a favorite child – most marketers will say they like all the verticals the same. But my favorite vertical to work with is the Non-Profit sector. In many ways, they are the heart of the marketing industry. Their goals for marketing campaigns is not to maximize profit, but to raise awareness and money to assist worthy causes, like cancer research, animal rights, environmental conservancy and human right issues. The goal has a butterfly effect that makes the world we live in a better place.
As marketers, we are in a unique position to develop and execute marketing strategies that assist in making the world a better place. It’s almost like paying it forward by using our skills to maximize the results for Non-Profit marketers.
I recall one campaign for an animal rescue client I worked on that made me feel inspired about my job. If you haven’t guessed, the sub-segment of animal rescue and fighting animal cruelty is near and dear to my heart. This client was looking to find prospects and targeting a relatively high average gift for this campaign. Through analysis of their donor file, I was able to target selects that looked like their best donors. The mailing was successful and garnered three $1,000+ gifts. To say, I wasn’t proud or felt fulfilled knowing that thru my work – a few animals were going to be rescued and have a better existence – is a giant understatement.
Other examples of Non-Profits, we’ve worked on include managing the social media marketing of events for childhood cancer research, as well as one that focused in on providing our brave First Responders counseling and spiritual care.
Marketing Professionals do make a difference in the world and one of the best way is our work with the Heart of Marketing – Non-Profits.
Bedford Street Marketing Insights 