Marketing for Change Makers: Strategies to Overcome Obstacles and Drive Impact

It’s an exciting time to explore marketing for change-makers.

You are the driving force behind innovative ideas, community building and socially responsible initiatives. However, marketing, often seen as a double-edged sword, presents unique challenges for those of you seeking to connect your difference-making initiatives with your audience. As Change-Makers, you understand effective marketing ins’t just about selling products or services; it’s about creating movements, driving impact, and transforming the world. Let’s unpack marketing for Change-Makers, strategies to overcome obstacles and drive impact.

You built it and you expected them to come.

We’re going to skip over how you arrived to creating a solution to a problem and jump right into how you reach your audience. Marketing is an art and a science and serves as one of the bridges between your company and your target audience. You may not have a marketing degree or understand the formulas and lingo used in marketing. In fact, some of you have crossed the five, ten or 15 year threshold without having ever attended a marketing workshop or hiring a marketing team member. You’ve mastered the art of building community, maintaining relationships and letting demand for your services drive growth and this gets you partially there.

But what happens when that well dries up and the digital landscape and increased competition forces you to operate differently?

Or what happens when you’ve gone through an eight week or 12 month accelerator and now you’re trying to do all the things alone or with a small team?

You have three choices: 

Option 1: Hire someone to figure it out and implement it for you.

Option 2: Hire someone to figure it out for you and you implement their plain in-house.

Option 3: Arm yourself with the tools by learning it yourself and doing it yourself.

IT

“It” in the options above refers to your marketing strategy – your product/service, price, placement and promotion. Option 1 is the fastest way with more upfront costs. Option 2 is the second fastest way and may be more cost effective over time (especially if you have a small marketing budget). Option 3 is the most expensive and will take the longest, but isn’t impossible to navigate.

Strategies to Overcome Obstacles and Drive Impact 

Evolving Consumer Behavior: With the advent of technology and social media, consumers are inundated with information, leading to shorter attention spans and heightened expect stations. Keeping up with these evolving trends requires constant adaptation and a deep understanding of your customer’s needs and preferences. This requires you to prioritize market research and invest time and resources in staying updated on your customer’s buying behavior and preferences to make informed marketing decisions.
Actionable Tip: Conduct market research, leverage analytics tools to understand your audience better, and stay in tune with industry trends to anticipate changes in consumer behavior.

Resource Constraints:  You may have limited time, budget, and team members hindering your marketing efforts.
Actionable Tip: While you may experience constraints, you can choose to focus on cost-effective and efficient marketing strategies such as social media marketing, content marketing, and email marketing. Leverage automation tools and consider outsourcing certain marketing tasks to freelancers or agencies.

Lack of Marketing Expertise: As previously mentioned, if formal marketing is not in your zone of genius or zone of excellence, you may struggle with developing effective marketing campaigns, targeting the right audience, or tracking the success of your efforts.
Actionable Tip: Acquire basic marketing knowledge through online courses, webinars, or workshops. Attend industry events to network with marketing professionals and gain insights. Alternatively, consider hiring a marketing strategist or partnering with a marketing agency to tap into their expertise and guidance. Join Felicia Ford & Co.’s email community for a free mini series on Marketing for Change Makers.

Competition in the Digital Space:  Standing out in the market requires clarity, creativity, innovation and a well-executed digital marketing strategy.
Actionable Tip: Develop a strong brand identity and unique value preposition. Clarity eliminates the overwhelm. Get clear on your audience’s needs and preferences, focus on creating engaging and relevant content for them, humanize your brand, and harness the power of the tools you have at your fingertips.

Mindset:  Sometimes, even the best struggle with imposter syndrome. Instead, recognize that your work has value and has a place in the world.
Actionable Tip: Prioritize authenticity and transparency as it relates to your brand. Share your story, values and experiences to create a connection wit your audience.

Stay tuned as I’ll share more about your marketing strategy, sales strategy and other strategic decisions for fourth quarter and beyond.

Comment below and share how you have overcome your marketing obstacles.