What Does the Future of Marketing Look Like for Charities?

The charity sector is huge, and many non-for-profit organisations have successful marketing campaigns to raise awareness for their specific charity. Although, there are many aspects of marketing that charities need to expand on and think about in the future. The future of charity marketing is exciting, with different types of innovations coming to light, the future looks bright.

Innovation

The future of charity marketing is dependent on the various innovations that happen within the years to come. Technology will play a huge part in the future of marketing; with different technologies and advancements, the world of marketing is an everchanging place. And charity marketing is no exception.

The history of charity marketing can show you the different advancements that have been made over the years to understand the possible innovations of the future. Charity marketing has always used an emotive strategy, which works well. But the different ways these are presented has evolved over time. With the boom of social media over the last ten years, the hashtag (#) has become popular resulting in campaigns based around hashtag tag lines. For example, in 2014 ‘#nomakeupselfie’ went viral, showing people support a no make-up selfie and posting it on social media, donating to charity, and then nominating 3 friends to do the same. The ‘craze’ raised £8m in the first week for Cancer Research UK. This is a perfect example of how innovation changed marketing for charities, and no doubt with more innovations the future will see a variety of different charity marketing techniques.

AI Technology

As artificial intelligence becomes more advanced, charities will start to invest in this technology. The future of charity marketing will include a lot of AI technology services, from chatbots to interactive guidance. Charities have already started to invest in technology with chatbots that are talking to people about childcare, aging and homelessness. Chatbots are currently in their early years, but with big technology companies investing hugely in chatbot services, the technology is undoubtedly going to become more intelligent and advanced in the future.

AI technology may be used for support services in the future for charities. With online support services being available for anyone who may need help at whatever time of day/night. These AI technologies will help to market charities for being reliable and SEO accessible at any time. The reputation of the company will be improved from these future innovations.

Digital Marketing

It is a definite that digital marketing will become more involved in charities marketing strategy in the future. Charities have proven the effectiveness of digital marketing and engagement through strategies that are already being implemented in the charity sector. Charities have implemented strategies across digital platforms and proven that they have been successful, for example, in 2017 WaterAid bought out their digital marketing campaign ‘Untapped’, which used 360 video and storytelling to bring the audience closer to the village and the residents’ struggles in everyday life. The campaign was a huge success and raised £4.2 million, which was matched by the UK Government, and won the best global fundraising and advocacy campaign in 2018.

Integration

The future of charity marketing will see a lot of integration marketing, using different types of marketing to create extra depth to charities marketing campaigns. Petrol pump advertising is a good way for charities to get more awareness of a campaign, for example, a hashtag petrol pump advertisement will create the awareness for people to go home and research more about it. Similarly, with the advertisement of downloading the charities latest app on petrol pumps, people will be given the awareness of the app and are more likely to download it.

The future of marketing for charities looks exciting, innovative and engaging!