Branding should be an important element of any organisation.  No organisation is too small to promote themselves professionally.  Sure the community and the volunteer sector i.e. the 3rd sector is not the same as the commercial sector and most people are attracted by our values and not our corporate looks, but that does not mean we should not make a good impression.  

Branding can be attached to high budget and expensive marketing , but in this wave of social media and inter-connectivity all of this is done away.  There are many examples of small start-ups that have bootstrapped and made massive successes by making sure the branding and marketing is sound.  

I am currently using 5 volunteers to build a brand, the initial stages are focusing on Twitter and Facebook.  Within about 30 days each one of those facebook accounts will have approx’ 2000 friends each and the target for the Twitter account is 10,000 followers.  Each and everyone of these followers are selected from the demograpic’s of the target niche, it is very much so about quantity but quality is essential. 

For your marketing material it is the logo that defines your brand and it is your logo that people people will catch as they glance by for the 3 seconds of concentration that they give to any material before they make the decision to stop and look!

Anna who runs the T3SC health network designed 3 logo’s herself and sent them out to one of her networks to see which one they like the most, one of them came down as a hands on winner; but this simple method of asking your network, tribe, followers, client, or whatever you want to call them to vote is an effective method to get them to connect with your brand.

Here is a strategy that you can apply that not only gets you a logo design at a cost effective price but will also strenghten your brand to those who matter most to your organisation and potentially develop an increase to more loyal followers.  

99designs.com is a design service with a twist. 99designs gathers graphic designers and web designers to this one platform and they enter into a contest.  These contests basically ask designers to submit their work in response to specifications given by companies or individuals. These companies then award prizes to the winner. Those who want designs but have limited budgets could get great work to suit their budget requirements.  

The advantage you have is that you are a not for profit organisation and that in these contests you will receive at least 3-4 designs. 

You should take advantage of your situation.  

Express that this is for a not for profit organisation and that is why you have a tight budget {I suggest $100/£50} and the selected winner will receive credentials on the website and a link to their portfolio.  On average when a contest is approx’ $200 it can get results of 4/5 logo’s but since you may be on a tight budget you would express that you are a not for profit org’ and appeal to peoples good nature.  

Once you have got a selection of logo designs redirect your co-workers, clients, followers, etc to this page to make a vote for one of these.  Get onto facebook, twitter and other social networks to get others to vote.  In fact find the websites and bloggers that are in the same niche and send them an email or a comment about voting on a logo, having bloggers championing your cause can do wonders to get more exposure for your org’.

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