by Michael Brooke, Consulting Editor
Most small businesses and nonprofits consider the last quarter of the year as the time to accomplish goals that have yet to be met. While SMBs look to use the last months of the year to meet revenue targets, nonprofits set their sights on achieving fundraising goals. In both cases, an uncertain economy and shifting consumer behaviours pose significant challenges to getting their books to a good place by year’s end.
The latest Small Business Now Report from Constant Contact, a digital marketing and automation platform, looks at how these groups are navigating the economy during this critical time of year. Perhaps unsurprisingly, data from the report shows that the long-tail impacts of inflation are still affecting both businesses and consumers. In fact, 90 per cent of the SMBs surveyed reported being impacted by inflation, while almost 60% of Canadian consumers have reduced spending at small businesses because of economic pressures.
But that doesn’t mean the fourth quarter can’t be a successful one for small businesses and nonprofits alike. By planning early, streamlining marketing efforts, and making adjustments to their marketing strategies, these groups can still make the most of this important time of year. We were able to connect with one nonprofit organization to understand how they benefit from Constant Contact’s powerful marketing tools.
The Circular Innovation Council believes the solution to greater resource efficiency and environmental protection lies in the circular economy. Through their work, the organization engages with many audiences, including governments, schools, businesses, community organizations, and individuals.
Caitlin Perry, the Program Manager of Education and Engagement at the Circular Innovation Council, describes the organization as “small and busy with several programs and projects being delivered at once.” Regardless of their size and time limitations, the organization is committed to educating and engaging stakeholders about the circular economy, and marketing plays a key role in how they do that.
Perry identified the organization’s biggest marketing challenges as a lack of bandwidth and budget to consistently produce new marketing content and pursue paid advertising opportunities. “As a non-profit charity, our budget for content creation and paid advertising is often limited,” she says. However, their use of Constant Contact’s software platform offers them a way to work around those hurdles.
“Email marketing offers us a way to directly engage with our members and stakeholder network. Using Constant Contact, we have developed a series of newsletter templates for different initiatives that allow us to easily produce and send weekly and monthly newsletters to our subscriber lists, ensuring that we’re consistently communicating with our network and keeping them up to date on circular economy-related news, events, pilot projects, educational resources, policy updates, and ways to get involved in the organization.”
Perry says the platform is particularly useful in supporting their year-end education and fundraising efforts. Every October, the organization runs their Circular Economy Month campaign to educate audiences about the circular economy and encourage behavioural change. “We use Constant Contact to deliver weekly newsletters throughout the month of October containing educational information about the circular economy, showcase community initiatives and events, and invite organizations to partner with us.”
But the organization doesn’t stop there. In November, a special edition of their newsletter goes out to say thank you to all campaign participants and supporters, helping to further strengthen relationships with members and lay the foundation for next year’s fundraising. “This continues building the momentum and creates an opportunity to fundraise for 2025 programming and educate our audience about how to continue taking action everyday – especially around the upcoming holiday season where it can be easy to over-consume.”
When analyzing the most impactful initiatives, Perry says that tailored email marketing communications pay off in terms of engagement. “As a multi-stakeholder organization communicating content and promoting initiatives that apply to various audiences, we’ve created a series of different newsletter brands.” Perry says that each newsletter contains content that they feel best applies to a specific stakeholder group. “We believe this has helped make our communications more effective and strengthen relationships with our funders and stakeholders by providing a more personalized experience.”
While Canadian small businesses and nonprofits can face a variety of challenges at any time of year, such as economic factors, resource and budget constraints and time limitations, there are practical steps they can take to improve their year-end performance, mainly through focused marketing efforts.
To learn more about how Constant Contact can help support your non-profit’s marketing goals, visit constantcontact.ca and sign up today for a free trial.
This article was sponsored by Constant Contact. For sponsored content opportunities please reach out to Steve Lloyd, Publisher, at steve@foundationmag.ca