Marketing Strategy Unpicked

This training series is designed to unpick the crucial elements of a marketing strategy and help charity leaders to work through the process of creating their own. It’s structured to give people a bit of headspace to create their own marketing strategy over time.

Cost: £25 for SCVS member organisations

Trainer: Amy Nicholas - Woman of Words

It starts and finishes with an in-person session, designed to inject enthusiasm, establish peer support, and offer a lively space for exchanging ideas.

The in-person sessions are developed through online coaching in-between. The series runs over several weeks to give people time to reflect on ideas introduced and get feedback from others in their charity between sessions.

Each on-line session focuses on an area of the strategy in more detail, introducing marketing concepts and encouraging participants to apply the thinking to their own organisations.

The final output will be greater clarity around marketing and a first draft of a marketing strategy, the starting point for better marketing and communications going forward.

Trainer: Amy - Woman of Words

Session 1 - Introduction to marketing strategy
The who, what, when & why In-person training over half a day.

A marketing strategy is a rulebook for how you’re going to talk about and
promote what you do. This training session will cover:

• What is marketing?
• The difference a strategic approach to marketing can make to your charity.
• The steps of a marketing strategy – your audiences, what you’re offering, when people need you and why it matters.

Session 2 - Marketing strategy, understanding audiences
Who are you talking to? 2 hours online

Most charities are marketing to multiple groups, who all have different needs, for example – funders, volunteers, trustees, service users, referrers. Together we’ll talk about the top-level audiences we need to work with, before digging deeper into who the ideal people within these groups really are. This training session will cover:

• Who are you talking to?Þ Within these groups, who are the ideal people you want to attract?
• How to prioritise which audiences matter most.

Session 3 - Marketing strategy, nailing your offer!
What are you talking about? 2 hours online

What are you offering each of your ideal audiences and how would you explain this?
Together, we’ll unpick your key audiences and try to understand what’s on offer for each. This training session will cover:

• How to separate what different audiences want.
• The different hats your charity must wear.
• How to prioritise what matters most.

Session 4 - Marketing strategy, timing your marketing
When do people need you? 2 hours online

Being in the right place at the right time is an important part of successful marketing.
If you know when people need you, you can target your marketing accordingly. This training session will cover:

• When people need you.
• How to get in front of them in this moment in time
• What kind of marketing activities could reach people in the moment they need
  you.

Session 5 - Marketing strategy, creating key messages.
Why should your audience care about what you do? 2 hours online

Key messages are concise persuasive statements written in exactly the right way to get your points across. Good sets of key messages become the foundation of everything you do. They populate all your marketing and communications from your website through to presentations. This training session will cover:

• How to structure key messages for maximum impact.
• How to use key messages across different communications.

Session 6 – From marketing strategy to plan
How to put your strategy into action. In-person training over half a day.

A marketing plan is full of activities that put your strategy into action. It prioritises what you’re going to do and when you’ll do it.

This training session will explore some of the more universal marketing activities that most charities include in a marketing plan:

• How to look the part and appeal to the right people.
• How to approach social media … which platforms matter and why?
• How to improve your website.
• How to demonstrate the impact of your work.
• How to prioritise depending on budget.

Click here to visit the Woman of Words website.

Please note that if you fail to attend or you provide less than 2 weeks' cancellation notice you will be charged the full amount. If you find that you are unable to attend, we do allow and encourage you to find someone to take your place on the course.

Back to full Training Programme