I recently surprised a group of foundation donors when I told them they’d been victims of their own overzealous expectations.

Though they hadn’t heard this description before, they’d been here before–like so many others seeking unrealistic outcomes solely from marketing.

These funders had invested in marketing a nonprofit with a large service-delivery footprint. The goal was to inspire people to learn more about their issue, act to support it, and vote for candidates who align with the nonprofit’s and funders’ interests.

Among its key strategies, the investment relied on broadcast media to reach the undecided and unknowledgeable Americans (the “moveable middle”). Specifically, this strategy targeted people who were most inclined to take action but had yet to do so—from a lack of information or opportunities in their communities.

The marketing campaign launched with much fanfare and great broadcast TV spots that resulted in astounding reach and viewership. Nevertheless, the funders felt like nothing much really happened as a result. In their minds, not enough people who heard the message took action, which meant, in their eyes, that the investment in marketing had been just another failed attempt to impact interest and participation.

Enthusiasm does not equal results

I led a Q&A session with these funders and soon introduced the phrase that took them aback: “overzealous expectations.” It was clear to me that the group didn’t know how to measure the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. Specifically, they looked at marketing in isolation, expecting it alone to create the impact they desired. This is a flawed assumption that will never produce the desired results.

Marketing and communications lay a foundation. They spread a primary message designed to increase knowledge, address attitudinal biases, and enhance interest in taking action. Just as a realtor has to work with a home’s assets to sell a house, a marketing/communications campaign can’t “sell” an issue alone. Such efforts must work in concert and partnership with other strategies and efforts in symbiotic relationships.

Marketing and communications establish a narrative framework—an easily understood message that will be reinforced, nudged, and influenced by the organization’s other efforts to create an inflection point that drives action. Against the backdrop of these other efforts substantiating the narrative, trusted messengers (including family and friends) who communicate the key marketing/communication messages they receive via media can become powerful influencers who can, in turn, inspire action.

Hearing the message once in an advertisement, then repeatedly from various touch points, and then witnessing it firsthand within one’s community combine to create a moment of influential persuasion. It’s the confluence of message, exposure, mediums, and frequency over time—not any single one of these influences—that create impact.

Every leader and funder must learn how to maximize marketing and communication efforts to fully realize impact and therefore meet expectations. This requires two pre-campaign elements:

1. Finding your equation

Every campaign and supporting effort should create a knowledge, attitude, and action model of impact. What do we want to teach people, how do we overcome attitudes and biases, and how do we inspire action with a reasonable CTA? On this basis, develop a campaign implementation model incorporating symbiotic efforts by various levels, channels, and experiences, delivering messages via social media, broadcas,t and/or earned media alongside on-the-ground communications efforts such as events, experiences, and localized storytelling by key messengers.

2. Testing and optimizing

Every campaign starts with ideal expectations of optimal performance. This view changes as the campaign produces data; your initial campaign equation, then, will change as various mediums, media approaches, and messengers start to perform. Do not let the campaign run without periodically optimizing your equation and questioning its effectiveness. Allow honest performance assessments to guide updates to your investment strategy. Here’s a hint for funders: Provide an initial set of resources at the outset and then more resources after three months to ensure that impact and optimizations take place.

Every marketing and communications strategy must be driven by goals and sustained by periodic performance assessments, but not in isolation. They must be measured in tandem with other efforts by the organization to accomplish the overarching goal that the marketing/communications strategy supports. You can’t expect marketing and communications alone to make people change their behaviors toward your issue without evidence to support such action.

Derrick Feldmann (@derrickfeldmann) is the founder of the Millennial Impact Project, lead researcher at Cause & Social Influence, and the author of The Corporate Social Mind. See Derrick’s related articles in Philanthropy News Digest, “Nurturing a community for the greatest impact” and “Creating symbiosis between marketing and advocacy.” He also is managing director, Ad Council Research Institute and the Ad Council Edge Strategic Consultancy.