In an era where even Loehmann’s (THE original discount ladies clothing store w/famously-communal dressing rooms, spent many Saturday afternoons there with my mom as a child) has a Facebook page, you know it’s hard to get through to your network of supporters, much less engage them.
But giving folks a chance to go beyond — whether behind the scenes, after the show or standing in the shoes of – is a great way to do just that. Here are two great examples:
==> Behind the scenes: As a long-ago member of New York’s American Museum of Natural History, I was invited to participate in a behind-the-scenes tour of the entomology (bugs) department.
It was incredibly compelling, and gave me a real understanding of what it takes to find, research and exhibit the incredible shows at the museum. The research side of the institution is something the public is largely unaware of, and this was a powerful way to show how an exhibit evolves.
I renewed my membership for several years thereafter.
==> After the show: My husband and I see many experimental performances in the Peak Perfs series at a local university.
The performances frequently raise questions (and consciousness) and are often complemented by a live discussion with performers and/or director directly after the performance, continued online for a month or so.
Those opportunities ensure that we keep thinking about what we saw, and Peak Perfs! We renew our series year over year.
How does your organization open up your “behind the scenes” to your network? Please share your experiences in Comments. Thanks!
Behind the scenes is a proven method of increasing engagement, so if you’re not doing anything along these lines why not experiment with a test program this fall?
P.S. Get more in-depth articles, case studies and guides to nonprofit marketing (and video) success — all featured in the twice-monthly Getting Attention e-update. Subscribe today.
Nancy Schwartz on September 1, 2010 in Strategy, Uncategorized
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2 comments
Tags:donor engagement, membership, Nonprofit Communications, nonprofit marketing
I’m partnering with my friend and colleague, Kivi Leroux Miller, to offer you a special opportunity to find the solutions to your 2011 marketing challenges: The Total Focus Marketing Plan Workshop. Learn more here.
Plan in a day—blueprint forever!
Please join us for this intensive, limited-enrollment planning seminar. You’ll leave with a focused, practical marketing plan that will work for your organization—one that you are fully capable of implementing.
Learn more now—Early-bird registration just opened but seats are filling fast.
Nancy Schwartz on August 19, 2010 in Professional Development, planning
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Two great organizations are seeking nonprofit marketing experts and reached out to me recently, requesting that I spread the word.
I’m taking it as a sign that things are improving, on all fronts! But most importantly, I wanted to share these fantastic opportunities with you:
- HealthRight International – a global health and human rights organization working to build lasting access to health for excluded communities – is seeking a Communications Manager (NY-based) to plan and produce media, online and other marketing strategies.
- EDC – one of the world’s largest R&D organizations that works to address the education, health and economic challenges we face – is seeking a Website Manager.
If your organization is hiring in the nonprofit marketing field, I’m glad to share the opportunity with the Getting Attention community. Just email me!
Nancy Schwartz on August 12, 2010 in Help Wanted
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Tags:Help Wanted, hiring, jobs, Nonprofit Communications, nonprofit marketing
I’m thrilled to tell you that more than 2,700 taglines — of four types from nonprofit organizations in 13 different categories from health to civic benefit — were entered in the 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Awards . That’s:
- 1,544 organizational taglines
- 510 program/service/product taglines
- 393 fundraising campaign taglines
- 385 special event taglines.
Our vetting of the taglines began as soon as entries closed on July 28. First the GettingAttention.org team selected semi-finalists based on these nonprofit tagline effectiveness criteria. Next, our dedicated nonprofit tagline award judges panel selected the 70 finalists from that group.
These finalists are the taglines up for awards! Voting for the 17 winners — one organizational tagline in each of 13 categories; one tagline in each of the fundraising and event types; and two in the program tagline type due to the large number of entries — will open in early September.
I’ll keep you posted on the voting — the more voters, the more accurate the results!
Thanks so much for spreading the word, for entering and to our fantastic judges for their time and effort!
P.S. I have to tell you that although some of the taglines entered work well (roughly 30%), most do not. The reasons why are varied, from “they make no sense” to “they make sense, but don’t make an impact.” Whatever the reason, the end result is a highly-used message that’s not doing its job for your organization.
That’s solvable but a call to action you have to heed. Many of you need to revise your tagline, or develop a new one altogether.The fully-revised 2010 Nonprofit Tagline report and first-time searchable online tagline database will be a great help in making the most of the few words that comprise your tagline .
Make sure you’re in the first wave to get these 2010 tagline resources by downloading the 2009 report now. It’ll give you a great head start and you’ll be at the top of the email list come November!
The 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Awards program is made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of Blackbaud, Event360, Eventbrite and See3 Communications.
P. S. Follow the tagline award news on Twitter via the hashtag #taggies
Nancy Schwartz on August 11, 2010 in Awards, Taglines
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Tags:#Taggies, branding, message development, messaging, nonprofit marketing, nonprofit tagline awards, nonprofit tagline report
I’m fascinated by the Russian spy ring’s attempt to extract U.S. secrets. They counted on their ability to burrow deep into typical American life to develop their understanding of the U.S. government’s goals and strategies.
One of their primary strategies in doing so - knowing their “audience,” the neighbors and other folks who had to believe they were just “regular folks” – is the key to advancing your nonprofit’s marketing impact. In your case, it’s an absolute must for strengthening the relationships with your current and prospective donors, advocates, volunteers and more that are the foundation of effective nonprofit marketing.
The goal
To understand your audiences well, in order to find the intersection of their wants and needs and those of your organization. That intersection is where connection happens, followed by engagement.
The spies had their audience down cold
“A neighbor of the Murphy family described them as “suburbia personified. Richard Murphy mowed the lawn; Cynthia Murphy came home from work…with daffodils and French bread in her hands.
“Relatives, friends, classmates, neighbors and co-workers of the three couples expressed shock at the arrests, and they searched their memories for signs that something was amiss, but mostly came up blank,” according to a story in today’s New York Times.
Clearly, the spies and their colleagues back at Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service had thoroughly studied these communities for the spies to embed themselves so successfully there.
Read the full article to learn how to get to know your audience without putting espionage to work
Trench coat, anyone?
P.S. Learn more about personas here: Create Personas to Bridge the Gap with Target Audiences
Nancy Schwartz on August 5, 2010 in Audience Research, planning
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0 comments
Tags:Audience Research, nonprofit marketing strategy, personas
As a Jersey Girl , I was thrilled to hear that the New Jersey State Library was recently honored for outstanding marketing of its Tell Us Your Story advocacy campaign with a 2010 John Cotton Dana Award.
Here’s how the campaign worked:
- Campaign organizers mobilized staff members in 240 libraries across the state to ask their communities to Tell Us Your Story.
- Countless Jersey-ites who rely on public libraries for computers to aid in job searches, free summer programs for kids, books, DVDs and films stepped up to share their stories here.
- The organizers used these terrific stories (you can read some of them here) locally and in a statewide media campaign.
There’s lots to learn from the way the Library designed and marketed this campaign. Here are the campaign’s main success factors:
1. Mobilizing and training first-line messengers – library staff – as campaign advocates
This fantastic campaign harnessed on-the-ground staff to solicit patron stories. But organizers didn’t just expect that library staff would know what to do or would spend the time to figure it out.
Instead the organizers trained library staff (a.k.a. messengers) via a marketing toolkit supplemented by a library communication network linking more than 500 users.
2. Motivating the second-line messengers – Library users to library champions
Campaign organizers knew that NJ library users had a lot of good stories to tell. And that their favorite library staffers could motivate to do it.
But they made involvement more compelling by naming it. Become a Library Champion is a far more powerful invitation than Share Your Story. It tells library users that their story will help sustain the library and gives them a name easy to remember and repeat.
3. Putting the stories to work in an all-state media campaign
The campaign generated powerful stories on how libraries have helped users in areas as varied as job searches to providing audio and braille books for blind users. But it didn’t stop there.
It used NJ library users’ stories as the core of a strategic media campaign that reached millions of people, including elected officials, through stories, commercials, outreach and the website.
4. Building a core of citizen advocates – From sharing a story to fighting for library funding
It’s likely that many of those who shared their stories would never have stood up to fight for library funding if asked directly. But sharing their stories engaged them.
And now, the Library has compiled a database of library champions (you can become one here) to update them on urgent legislative issues as they arise.
Due, at least in part to this campaign, the 2011 cut in library funding was reduced to 42% of the 2010 budget, from the 74% slashing initially proposed.
NJ State Library’s campaign design and process of engagement is a definite success, and a fantastic model for your organization. Of course the celebrity champions didn’t hurt – but they alone wouldn’t have had the same impact.
What are you doing to mobilize your colleagues and base as messengers? Please share your story here.
P.S. Get more in-depth articles, case studies and guides to nonprofit marketing (and video) success — all featured in the twice-monthly Getting Attention e-update. Subscribe today.
Nancy Schwartz on July 28, 2010 in Advocacy, Case Studies
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1 comment
Tags:John Cotton Dana Award, library marketing
Update – July 29 – Nonprofit Tagline Award entries are now closed. Please enter next year!
Your nonprofit could be a 2010 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Award winner! But only if you enter your organizational, fundraising campaign, program/service and/or special event taglines by midnight tonight.
And, even if you don’t win this time round, all entrants will be invited to join me this fall in a game-changing webinar: How to Build Leadership Support for Critical Marketing Projects.
Take 3 minutes now to enter your nonprofit taglines today. Here’s more information on the tagline awards program.
You’ve been fantastically enthusiastic about this year’s award program. For those of you who have already entered, your organizational, fundraising, program and/or special event taglines are of astounding quality.
I thank you for your interest, and for spreading the word.
Let me also thank you for your contribution to strengthening the nonprofit communications field! All taglines entered will be integrated into the Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Database (will be online for the first time) and the updated 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Report.
Don’t miss this opportunity to enter. Today, until midnight, is your last chance to enter your taglines.
All tagline entrants get a free copy of the report and access to the database when they are published in late fall! If you’d like a copy too, but you don’t want to enter your tagline, simply subscribe to the free Getting Attention e-update. That’ll ensure you’re on the list!
Enter your taglines today – or forever (till 2011) hold your peace!
Nancy Schwartz on July 28, 2010 in Awards, Taglines
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0 comments
Tags:branding, message development, nonprofit tagline awards, nonprofit tagline report
Subject: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Visits HealthRight in Vietnam
Healthright-nonprofit-marketing
I was thrilled last Thursday to receive this timely e-news alert from HealthRight International. It’s nonprofit marketing at it’s finest.
This scrappy organization doing fantastic grassroots public health work worldwide had learned just a week prior that it had a fantastic marketing opportunity on its hands: Hillary Clinton had selected its Smile of the Sun center in Hanoi (a model for providing support and advocacy services for children and families living with HIV) as the stage for her signing of a five- year agreement with the Vietnamese government to fight HIV/AIDS.
Healthright’s executive director Mila Rosenthal (in photo in white shirt) is a close friend who happened to be visiting us a few days before Clinton’s visit. She couldn’t leave her Blackberry alone for a minute – not like her – and when I asked why, she shared the news as she continued to work on visa issues.
Mila knew that:
- Nothing’s more powerful than connecting your nonprofit with a major news event. Clinton had already done that. It was HRI’s job to make the most of it.
- Clinton’s visit was the biggest media/marketing opportunity HRI had ever had, especially since her team had vetted many programs before selecting HRI’s program as the “set.”
- This was a priceless moment for HRI to a) build awareness of its work and impact with existing supporters, and to b) engage many others as supporters, or at least pique their interest.
- Mila better be there, on the scene, herself.
Despite visa delays, Mila did make the signing. Then she and the HRI team capitalized on it. They:
- Captured as many photos as possible, with Mila included when possible (the visual connection between Mila and Hillary is worth a million dollars).
- Distributed two press releases, one each the day before and the day of the visit, including one featuring the photos.
- Sent out this e-news immediately.
- Featuring the story on the HealthRight’s homepage
The only additional suggestion I have for HealthRight is that they continue the story across online and offline channels, including the blog (nothing there yet on Clinton’s visit).
Remember that engagement is fleeting: Once your organization does engage a new or re-engage an existing audience, make sure to keep in close touch with related content (in this case, more about the trip, the center and HealthRight’s work in Vietnam and other countries. It’s much harder to re-engage them, than to keep the conversation going.
Please share your stories – in the comments box – of connecting your organization’s work and impact with a major news story. Don’t forget to mention the results. Thanks!
P.S. Get more in-depth articles, case studies and guides to nonprofit marketing (and video) success — all featured in the twice-monthly Getting Attention e-update. Subscribe today.
Nancy Schwartz on July 26, 2010 in Case Studies, Strategy
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0 comments
Tags:HealthRight International, media relations, Mila Rosenthal, nonprofit branding, Nonprofit Communications
Welcome to guest blogger Allison Van Diest. Allison, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Blackbaud, prides herself on being not only a marketing “artist” but a marketing “scientist” able to measure the marketing impact. She has some terrific guidance to share with you on shaping a tagline that works…
What has less than 140 characters and tells the world what you’re up to?
Yes, Twitter does. But how do you think the Twitter folks got the idea that a short, punchy phrase or two can be among the best ways to communicate? Decades ago, taglines showed the world that a few well-chosen words can mean more to a reader than pages of advertising copy.
The purpose of a tagline is to create an impression that is meaningful and moving, as succinctly as possible. And in today’s landscape of light speed communication, with constraints on readers’ time and attention, a well-written tagline is critical.
It is your best tool in capturing the imagination of a prospective supporter and also arms them with the perfect message to send to their network (through Twitter, perhaps!).
Sold on the idea of taglines, but not sure yours is prize-worthy? Enter the Nonprofit Tagline Awards program anyway, there’s nothing to lose. And every entrant will be invited to join me in a special free webinar on building leadership support for critical marketing projects. But back to taglines…
If you’re not satisfied with your tagline, consider sending it through a quick positioning refresh to make sure it truly captures your spirit. As a reminder, a strong positioning statement answers these questions:
- Who (what group) does your organization serve?
- What does the group you serve hope to accomplish?
- What does your organization provide to the group you serve?
- What is the outcome if the group you serve accomplishes its goal?
Consider how how this information is conveyed by TexasNonprofits, a 2009 Nonprofit Tagline Award winner: “Building community deep in the hearts of Texans”
- Who (what group) does your organization serve? Texas nonprofits
- What does the group you serve hope to accomplish? To encourage higher levels of giving so they can do more good in Texas
- What does your organization provide to the group you serve? Resources and support to aid the nonprofit community
- What is the end state if the group you serve accomplishes its goal? Texans are even more philanthropic and nonprofit impact goes even further
With its tagline, TexasNonprofits conveys mission and impact in a clever and memorable way. This year’s Taggies will once again celebrate well-crafted taglines and – hopefully – inspire other nonprofits to follow suit, so please enter yours today (deadline is July 28).
We can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to!
The 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Awards program is made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of Blackbaud, Event360, Eventbrite and See3 Communications.
P. P. S. Follow the tagline award news on Twitter via the hashtag #taggies
Guest Blogger on July 21, 2010 in Awards, Taglines
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0 comments
Tags:Allison Van Diest, Blackbaud, message development, nonprofit branding, nonprofit tagline awards, positioning
I have some exciting news to share -
I’ll be holding a special, free webinar for all organizations that enter the 2010 Nonprofit Tagline Awards Program.
Here’s why: You’ve told me time and time again how much marketing work you want and need to do to advance your organization’s mission. But frequently meet a roadblock in convincing your leadership (and sometimes colleagues too) of the value (a.k.a. ROI) of investing in key marketing projects.
Building understanding is first step to building support and this webinar will walk you through, step-by-step, how to build leadership understanding and support.
You’ll leave with a clear sense of what it takes, examples of what works and doesn’t work and a comprehensive checklist to work from in your initial “building awareness and support” campaign and on an ongoing basis.
Trust me. When your leadership feels like part of your marketing team – rather than like outsiders – you’ll be much more likely to get the support and budget you need to execute the marketing campaigns you know will make the greatest impact. You’re the marketing expert but leadership support is a key to success.
So, don’t waste a minute. Enter today - The 2010 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards (a.k.a. The Taggies) close on July 28! Please enter today. And this year, for the first time, you can submit your organization’s program, fundraising campaign and/or and special event taglines, in addition to your organizational tagline.
When you do, your name will be placed on the invite list for the webinar, to be held mid-fall.
P.S. Learn more about building leadership support for critical nonprofit marketing projects:
Building Internal Support for Communications
How to Defend Your Marketing Budget, Even in Tough Times
Why Communications Advocacy Should Remain #1 on Your To-Do List
Nancy Schwartz on July 19, 2010 in Leadership, Taglines
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0 comments
Tags:Awards, branding, Leadership, nonprofit branding, nonprofit tagline awards
