Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Time: 3:00-4:00PM EST/12:00-1:00PM PST
Replay: If you can’t make this time, register anyway. All registrants will get the video recording.
Over the last years, American Rivers has conducted in-depth research with a variety of Chesapeake Bay leaders on their understanding of polluted stormwater runoff and potential solutions, and their response to a variety of messages. They do great work.
So I was thrilled to find this clear, well-tested message development worksheet American Rivers developed for organizations advocating for better stormwater solutions. This approach is applicable to your message development around any issue, in any region.
READ MORE
I’ve advised you to piggyback your nonprofit content on headlines and notable days to catch your target audiences in their open-minded moments. It’s an easy and reliable way to connect with your base and increase engagement.
Not surprisingly, the converse is also true. Here’s a dramatic example of how a messaging disconnect alienates the very folks you need to engage to move your mission forward:
READ MORE
Being that I’m a less is more person, I’m continually looking for the right metaphor to integrate in my writing as a short cut to understanding.
That’s what metaphors do — relate something your audiences don’t know or understand to something they are familiar with. It’s one of the most reliable techniques there is (as long as you know your audiences well enough to be confident that they’ll get it — the same criterion goes for using humor in your communications).
Metaphors are a simple and proven way to build connection with your target audiences. And they frequently deliver a bonus — many metaphors are highly-visual and greatly enliven plain vanilla content to make it much more memorable.
Here’s a great metaphor model shared by Mary Beth Lambert, a participant in the recent Total Focus Marketing Plan Workshop held in Seattle. Mary Beth participated on behalf of The WashBoard.org, the program she markets for the Washington Scholarship Coalition.
A program name like that raises so many questions: It is related to clean laundry, highly-developed abs or what? But Mary Beth clarified The WashBoard.org’s focus and impact in a second with this metaphor: “It’s the E-Harmony for scholarship students.”
This metaphor enables us to immediately understand that the program makes matches between students seeking scholarships and scholarship providers. The imagery is still fresh in my mind!
What metaphors have you used that generated an “aha?” And which ones have fallen flat, and why? Please share your metaphor experiences here.
P.S. Learn more on how to strengthen your nonprofit’s marketing impact with the Getting Attention Guide to Nonprofit Marketing Wisdom.
Every marketing task your organization tackles should incorporate a frequent analysis of ROI (return on investment).
It’s the only valid, vital framework for running an effective marketing program especially when resources are limited, as they are for most nonprofit organizations.
I encourage you to apply an ROI analysis to all that you do. Consider this…
For your investment of tuition and effort, you’ll learn how to shape messages that connect. The Tagline Focus Project process and product will lead to:
With a well-researched and tested tagline in hand, you’re ready to go with the essence of your messaging, and can build from that proven foundation each and every time.
We’re starting on July 6 and have just a few seats still open.
So if you’re interested in using this summer to vastly improve your organization’s messaging, I encourage you to go ahead and register today for the Tagline Focus Project.
It would be great to work together!
It takes a team to create great messaging.
As I get ready to launch our first Tagline Focus Project (TFP) program on July 6, many of you have gotten in touch to discuss it with me. And you’ve reminded me how common it is to feel isolated and overwhelmed by the challenge to create messages that connect for our organizations.
It doesn’t have to be that way.
That’s one of the reasons I’m so looking forward to working with a small group of nonprofit communicators (no more than 10) like you this summer, leading them through this immersion program to learn how to develop messages collaboratively—with me, the other program participants, and their colleagues and external audiences.
That’s the only path to effective messaging, and one far more satisfying than trying to go it alone.
This action-oriented program is designed specifically to help you and your colleagues get the job done and do it well. All you need to do is participate actively in the Tagline Focus Project and complete the assignments to develop a tagline that will engage your base and motivate them to act.
We’re starting on July 6, so if you’re interested in using this summer to vastly improve your organization’s messaging, I encourage you to go ahead and register today for the Tagline Focus Project.
We already have a rich mix of participants, communicators that work in organizations as varied as a state agricultural extension agency, a regional affiliate of one of the largest and most active national organizations there is, and a west coast community foundation. Just a few seats remain.
I hope we’ll get the chance to work together on this.
All the best,
P.S. My aim for this program is to deliver substantial value both to your organization and its messaging, and to you as a professional. Completing the program will vastly enhance your skill set as a nonprofit communications professional.
Thanks to guest blogger Joan Stewart for sharing her timely advice.
What a week for learning about crisis communications! Here are five important lessons that Rep. Anthony Weiner taught nonprofit communicators. You’ve heard them all before but Weiner’s massive missteps clarify how important they really are:
Learn more here about how your organization should respond in a crisis.
P.S. Get more in-depth case studies, templates and tools, and guidance for nonprofit marketing success — all featured in the twice-monthly Getting Attention e-update. Subscribe today.
________________________________________________________
Tips reprinted with permission from “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week” ezine. Subscribe here and receive free the handy cheat sheet “89 Reasons to Write a Press Release.” Follow Joan Stewart on Facebook and on Twitter.
See below for a creative, engaging and mission-driven use of an email auto-responder (what you set up in your email program when you’re away or otherwise unable to reply in a timely manner) as a strategic marketing tactic. Kudos to Molly Thompson, Development and Communications Coordinator with Pillsbury United Communities, for turning what’s usually plain vanilla on its ear!
Thank you for your email. On Sunday, May 22, 2011, an EF1 tornado ripped through the streets of north Minneapolis, damaging homes and businesses. Many of our neighbors were directly impacted by the storm, as was Pillsbury United Communities.
We have responded to this crisis as we always have with time, energy, resources, ingenuity, and community support. Recovering from this tragedy will take both time and effort. For more information on how to help or to make a tax-deductible donation to assist in the recovery efforts, please visit www.puc-mn.org/TornadoReliefEffort.aspx.
What can you do with your org’s auto-responders? That’s a lot of email you could be putting to work!
P.S. Here’s how to use your email signature to engage your network.
I’m thrilled to launch the Tagline Focus Project, designed to demolish a major barrier to your organization’s marketing success — a weak tagline, or the lack of one altogether.
Now you can fix this too-common problem in less than two months, with hands-on guidance from me as I lead you through an 11-step tagline development process — with guaranteed results. I’ve helped organizations like yours to solve this problem dozens of times.
You’ll finish the Tagline Focus Project with a polished, relevant tagline for your organization, plus key insights into your target audiences’ wants and values–so you can connect with them more effectively — and the messaging skills you need to create more strong messages for your organization and programs.
Learn more now. Seats are limited to a maximum of 10, and the program starts July 6.
You know an emotional hook is the best way to engage your target audiences at first, followed by reasoning, asks, etc. The heart leads, with the head following. That’s because all of us can easily relate – emotionally – to human stories and those pull us in and make us more open minded to the information or ask that follows.
But those of you whose organizations deal with difficult and emotionally-weighted issues — such as rape, eating disorders or domestic violence– have a real challenge in crafting that emotional hook. For many, the issues you’re diving into and making better for those who go through them are issues that folks just don’t want to talk about. Eyes wide shut!
The Challenge – Building a Base around a Difficult Issue
Jill Worrall, a nonprofit consultant I met recently — at theMarketing ByAssociation conference where I keynoted in Februrary — posed her huge “difficult challenge” to me and I hope you can help me guide her: Jill works with SAFE (SExual Abuse Family Education), an organization focused on reintegrating sexual offenders (including pedophiles) into society, and she finds it incredibly difficult to engage her target audiences in the cause. The issue makes them squeamish, so how could they possibly support the cause?
My immediate reaction to hearing about sex offenders is revulsion. What’s yours?
My Recommendation – Please Add Yours
My recommendation to Jill is to focus the organization’s messaging on the positive changes in the world our children live in, that will be made by the organization’s work with sexual offenders. That way the lead (and emotional hook) is positive), and the strategy (education, therapy, etc.) comes second. It’s far more likely that folks will get engaged through taking this approach.
In addition, she should:
What guidance can you share with Jill?
Please comment here to ensure she gets it! Thank you.
P.S. Get more in-depth case studies, templates and tools, and guidance for nonprofit marketing success — all featured in the twice-monthly Getting Attention e-update. Subscribe today.
<< Back to Main
