In this episode of Build Momentum: PR Made Easy for Education Organizations, we explore the concept of achieving a mission with a margin and why it is so critical to the impact your organization can make in the world today.

Tom Stein, a veteran marketing leader, shares his advice for generating revenue and margin and how this idea has the potential to unlock your ability to achieve impact at scale and to have a mission that makes a true, meaningful difference.  

Tom believes that embracing a mission with a margin is not only possible, but it’s mandatory. And he has some advice for our podcast listeners to help us achieve both.  

1) Increase your visibility. Tell the world what you do and why you do it and the urgency of the need that you meet. You can’t assume that people understand why it’s important they invest in your organization or your mission right now. Inspire involvement and don’t assume this will happen magically.  

2) Think commercially. How can you tap into the resources, constituencies, and partnerships to create margin. Whether you know it or not, you have a brand, and you are competing in a very noisy world. If you aren’t thinking about story telling in every way you can, you won’t be able to cut through that noise and compete for attention.

3) Be clear about your purpose. Be clear about your why. Everyone in your organization – both internally and externally – should understand your why and your purpose. Don’t assume that people just know it.

4) Be clear about your positioning and your differentiation. Is everyone on the same page? Having clarity around this is very useful internal, to prevent you from getting distracted, but it can also help you to articulate your value proposition to all of your stakeholders. The more succinct and focused this value propositions is, the better off you’re going to be at sharing this message.  

5) Have an entrepreneurial mindset. This should include focus, discipline, accountability, and vision throughout the organization. This will enable you to achieve great things together.

6) Know your data. Do you know what works and what doesn’t work? Can you track your results and get better because of these results?

7) Build brand awareness. Make sure you are building brnad awarenss, engagement and story telling through digital channels in the form of content and blogs. Make the time to do it! If you do it, the time you spend will pay off in dividends.

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