Welcome to my personal blog on Robin Hood Marketing—the concept of stealing corporate savvy to sell just causes—and my life as a marketer, from Washington DC to Madagascar to points in between.
How to make advocacy sticky
Posted by katya on Thu, June 05, 2008
Imagine you had to mobilize an audience of working moms to advocate for paid sick days - something that too few receive.
You could talk about the importance of paid sick days for the working mom. Yawn.
Or you could use humor and interactivity to relate to how moms experience this issue - which is by living in fear of getting ill and avoiding sick people like the plague.
I pick door #2.
So did RisingMoms. This is the first RisingMoms email (and they send too many) I’ve really liked - because it makes the issue sticky and VIRAL!
My donations are down, my heart is heavy, and my job is on the line. Worse, I think I’m coming down with something. Paging Dr. Dollars!
-Sick in Syracuse
Dear Sick,
I don’t need a stethoscope to diagnose these ailments. You’re suffering from one or all of the three most common diseases in the nonprofit world. Sadly, they are at epidemic proportions. We’ve got to stop their spread!
#1: “Field of Dreams” syndrome. Those who have this disease believe that, “If you build it, they will come.” By “they,” I mean a big team of generous donors. For example, if you have FODS, you think that if you build a website and stick a DonateNow button on it, donors will arrive and click. This disease also manifests itself as an assumption that uttering your mission statement will inspire people to give. If you find yourself saying, “If people only knew, they would…,” then you have FODS. Declaring your existence is not a fundraising campaign. It is a symptom of FODS.
The cure? You need to reach out to people and build relationships with them. Then maybe they’ll want to support you.
#2: “It’s all about us” disease. Nonprofits suffering from this disease are easy to spot—their home pages, emails and all of their correspondence reads like an “About Us” page. Sometimes, this ailment is called “Nonprofit Narcissism.” Mission statements, the history of your organization and other related details should not be found everywhere and do not constitute a strong message.
The cure? Make it about your donor, not you. Why should they care? What can they accomplish? How have they changed the world with their support?
#3: “Call to inaction” problem. In order to generate donations and increase your donor base, you need to have a clear call to action. It’s not enough to state who you are, what you do and what’s new. You need to clearly state what you are asking and appeal to prospective donors to take that action. “Save the earth” is not a call to action. Nor is “support us.”
The cure? Be specific. As in, “Click this button and give us $10 for a bed net so a child will be saved from malaria.”
Be well,
Maven
Dear Marketing Maven,
Our image is not what I want, so I’m thinking of rebranding with a new logo. Thoughts?
-Making Over in Hanover
Dear Makeover,
Bad idea. Branding is not about logos, it’s about how people perceive you. That’s got a lot more to do with how you treat them, how you conduct your programs, and how you communicate your achievements than it has to do with your logo. Don’t spend a cent on a new logo until you dig deeper into these aspects of your brand. Without that level of makeover, a new logo or color palette is about as effective as slapping lipstick on a pig. I don’t think it’s worth spending money on a logo change unless you conclude after fixing everything else that your logo is in direct violation of the brand you’ve built.
Happy makeover,
Maven
Dear Marketing Maven,
Why did you not open my last eNewsletter?
--Hurt in Halifax
Dear Hurt,
I get about 20 email newsletters a week. I read about two. I must have somehow overlooked yours – I’m sure it was worth a read, unlike the other 18. For what it’s worth, here are some thoughts on newsletters:
1. Maybe you don’t need one.
People are inundated with newsletters. I’m not the exception – we all get too many. Yawn. Why not put your time and energy into something truly exceptional? Like the packet a friend just got from DonorsChoose to thank him for buying a carpet for a classroom. He got a picture of the kids on the carpet – along with the students’ little handwritten notes and pictures. Wow. Not feasible, you say? How about simply sending out something useful to your audience? At Network for Good, we send out weekly free fundraising tips rather than a newsletter about us. Our nonprofits love it! If you’re an organization focused on diabetes, how about weekly tips for managing diabetes?
2. If you do an enewsletter, don’t forget the “e.”
You can’t just slap your print newsletter into a PDF, email it, and consider yourself the editor of an “enewsletter.” Write to the medium. Online communications need to be shorter and formatted for the web. People skim online. They don’t read. Don’t make them download a PDF and turn pages on your computer. Grab attention with photos, short text and good stories.
3. Make it about the donors and not you.
Don’t manifest “All about us” disease in your newsletter. Your newsletter should not be about how great you are. It should be about how great your donor is! Make your donor feel like the center of attention. No one can resist reading about themselves – or about what they accomplished.
Write on,
Maven
Stay tuned… more on email newsletters in next month’s column!
I have a pretty boring business card, but that’s about to change. Ever since a designer friend handed me a clear plastic business card with a field for inking a personal note, I realized this is a neglected opportunity.
What are you doing to make your card about your cause?
Here’s a great source of inspiration from librarians. Librarians rock. Not only do I love them, I think they are marketing superheroes. Here’s the proof. Is this a fabulous card or what? I share her source of power, by the way: coffee.
I declare this week nonprofit marketing haiku week. Best haiku gets a copy of my book. Submit via comments by Sunday COB:) Here is my rather snarky submission for today.
Donor Haiku aka “Oh Well”
Cyclone drowns Burma
Earthquake follows, so much need
But gas is four bucks
Just wanted to let you know that I’m a guest advisor over at Ideablob this week. You can post your ideas there anytime and receive advice from folks with a lot of business savvy.
Ideablob.com is an online community where small business owners and social entrepreneurs (including nonprofits!) are sharing business ideas in exchange for feedback, advice and votes from the community. Advanta, one of the nation’s largest credit card issuers (through Advanta Bank Corp.) in the small business market, awards a $10,000 monthly prize to the best eligible idea, as determined by the votes of the ideablob community.
Here is today’s fundraising and marketing tip from Network for Good! You can sign up to receive them via email here.
Online fundraising only makes up a portion of your overall marketing plan. It’s not a stand-alone initiative--it’s an integrated part of your communications strategy. Not only is your strategy multi-faceted, but your donors are too!
Below, check out our tips for integrating your offline and online tactics to best reach your donors across all channels in your online plan:
Offline Mailing Tips:
•Ask your donors their preference. No, we’re not talking about pizza toppings or movie genres. Reach out to your donors and find out what communications and donation options they prefer. You may think the majority of your folks are strictly offline (or exclusively online). Don’t assume! Get to know them!
•Send a cultivation mailer to your lapsed donors inviting them to visit your website. Direct them to a special page on your site that makes an appeal for why they should make another gift. Learn how to make this landing page compelling.
•Use email to boost direct mail response. Remember: Your donors hang out in multiple channels, and you want to give them options. You can email your subscribers telling them to watch the mail, or wait for the call. You can also try following up a special appeal with an email, saying, “We hope you read our recent letter, just click here to make your donation online today. It’s convenient and saves us money.” The first renewal effort might be conducted by email, followed by the usual multi-letter series, and eventually a phone call.
•Develop a program to gradually gather the e-mail addresses of direct-mail donors who want to add email to their communications with you. Test asks in the direct mail (P.S., buckslip, reply device, etc.) and track response to find the most effective and least expensive ways to gather e-mail addresses without depressing gift response.
•Follow up with email. Email is the fastest and cheapest way to let your donors know what happened after they donated. If your donation appeal made the situation seem urgent, your donors will be left scratching their heads if they don’t hear anything else from you about it.
•Create complementary content. Entice donors reading your printed communications to visit your website for “exclusive” content. Not sure what to offer? Maybe you have educational tips ("Download 10 tips for managing your diabetes!") or other downloads of content people can’t get from a postcard or letter.
Tips for Other Channels to Consider:
•Events. Having a fundraising walk? Hosting an educational program? Create an email list sign-up sheet to capture in-person email opt-ins.
•Marketing collateral. Craft your call to action on your brochures and handouts--and let that action have an online option! If you’re requesting donations, give potential donors the address/directions to donate online if they so choose. Remember: Include your website on everything you print/produce.
•Business cards. In a previous article we advised building your email list in a variety of ways, including email opt-in information in your email signature. Next time you order business cards, why not include a small call to action? (Ex: Donate online at… Or, Visit our website to learn more...)
•Phone calls. Did you just collect a donation over the phone? Does a donor want some follow up? Try this: After you finish a telemarketing call, tell the donor, “We’d like to send you a receipt to acknowledge your gift. The most efficient way is via e-mail - that way we don’t have to waste paper and postage.” (Thanks to the great Madeline Stanionis for this tip!)
It must be research season - the interesting studies just keep coming! Here is another:
Donors across all generations tend to give roughly the same amount to philanthropic causes, when controlling for other factors such as income, education and frequency of attendance at religious services, according to ”Generational Differences in Charitable Giving and in Motivations for Giving,” a study conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and sponsored by Campbell & Company.
Key Findings
There are some generational difference in giving, mostly between the “Silent” and Great generations and Boomer and later generations. Giving differs mostly by factors other than generation – educational attainment, frequency of religious attendance and income. To the extent that these differ by generation, they explain the observed difference in giving by people of different generations. Motivations do vary by income, race, education, region of the country and religious attendance but vary little by generation after controls for these other factors. Millennial donors are most likely to be motivated by a desire to make the world a better place. They give consistent with their income, education level, frequency of religious attendance and marital status.
There is an interesting AP story that just went on the wire stating that numerous disasters in a row - like the Burmese cyclone and the Chinese earthquake - create fatigue and depress giving. But there is more to that story:
1. It’s not simply the numbers of disasters, it’s the numbers themselves. It’s well documented that people can’t grasp huge statistics or fathom masses of people in need. We think in terms of individuals, and so the higher the scale, conversely, we feel the effect less immediately. Says one non-giver:
“If you thought about at this very second the number of people who were suffering and dying, I could dedicate all my resources to that and yet it would be a drop in the bucket.”
2. Donors need to believe they can make a difference. That’s not the case in Burma, where aid is being blocked by the miltary government. It’s more the case in China, where we’ve seen much more giving.
3. Personal ties make a difference - especially in faraway countries, where people may feel less immediately connected.
Interestingly, the story notes the Giving USA Foundation says companies are pledging relief funds for China, perhaps because so many do business there. That last fact is important.
Donordigital has a fascinating new study you can access from their home page. It reveals the results of lots of testing of various donation pages. They learned:
· Size DOES Matter: Bigger donate buttons helped convert more donors
· Color Can Matter Too: Vividly colored donation buttons had varying levels of impact on donation page conversion
· Less Is More: Removing unnecessary fields from personal information forms significantly increased conversion
· Remind people (nicely) why they want to donate: Polite header copy yielded better conversion than a more forceful call-to-action
· Test, Test, Test: Donation page testing can help improve YOUR organization’s online revenue!
Check it out. It’s definitely worth a read if you’re raising money.
We had a great Nonprofit 911 call yesterday at Network for Good on how to redesign your website. I’d like to share my favorite part of Michael Weiss of Imagistic’s presentation, which you can view in full here.
Mike’s Top 10 “Never Do This” List of website redesign
10. Never think this going to take 4 weeks
9. Never think you can do this alone
8. Never skip the information architecture phase
7. Never do this without an RFP
6. Never send the RFP to more than 5 firms
5. Never choose a vendor based on price alone
4. Never ask your IT Manager to manage this process this alone
3. Never start without a budget in mind
2. Never start this process without key stakeholders involved
1. Never hire your boss’s nephew
So I’m back from Mexico, where I went on vacation and hung out with Jimmy Buffett’s brand for several days. We’ve grown tight, because we got a lot of quality time together. Jimmy is in the airport, where you can buy Margaritaville t-shirts or the Perfect Margarita at the Jimmy Buffett restaurant. (I chose the drink over the t-shirt.) He’s singing about his lost shaker of salt on the TV screens in this photo I took in the restaurant in the airport. He’s on the beach, where airborne Cessna’s pull advertisements for a bar called Margaritaville. He’s in hotel bookstore, having apparently penned a bestseller about a pig ("Swine Not?"). In short, he’s ubiquitous, prolific and possessing of serious marketing genius.
He has parlayed a hit song - and its drinking-on-the-beach kind of aesthetic - into a brand empire.
How do I get me some of that?
While sipping on my airport margarita awaiting my flight home, I snapped this photo and contemplated this question. And here’s what I concluded are the three cornerstones of Jimmy’s brilliance.
1. Simplicity: He stands for one thing. To me, that thing is life as a margarita - carefree, hammock-lying, drink-sipping relaxed happiness with a little salt around the edges. From his music (Cheeseburgers in Paradise, anyone?) to his restaurants to his books. Which brings me to his…
2. Consistency: It’s about the margaritas as life, folks. Always. Visit his website. The name? Of course it’s margaritaville.com. Note: excellent lead generation on the page with the email sign-up. Nice touch.
3. Hopeful: The allure of something happy is strong. Remember that when you tell stories. If you go dire in the telling, remember that people want hope and happiness as the punchline.
I can hear you now. You’re thinking, that girl had one too many margaritas in Mexico. I’m saving the world, not slinging drinks. Yes. I know. I am too. But while I know it’s easier to sell margaritas or pigs than it is to promote the end of poverty, the principles remain the same. Stand for something compelling and hopeful. And stand for it over and over, over time. It works.
Do you believe in the power of the web to help nonprofits create social change? Do you know a talented Web strategist or developer interested in coming up with new ways to use the Web for social good? The Case Foundation is sponsoring two $10,000 prizes for Web enthusiasts who do just that.
Network for Good, NetSquared, and the Case Foundation have come together to challenge developers to mash-up the Network for Good online donation processing API with another Web service to either (a) enhance the online donor experience or (b) revolutionize a nonprofit’s ability to fundraise online. As if changing the world was not enough, the two winners will each receive a $10,000 prize.
Posted by katya on Thu, June 05, 2008
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