It’s the first day of school in our neck of the woods. Time to get back to the basics. Claxon’s 1,2,3, Marketing Tree gives you the basic steps for your organization to inspire action and engagement (i.e. market itself) in a way that’s simple, effective and fun. Yep, yep! Find out how in this quick video.
1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree from Claxon Marketing on Vimeo.
Free and abundant, humor can be a great way to connect people with your cause. Hear two funny examples of using humor to advance your mission.
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/33286518[/vimeo]
Connect through Humor from Claxon Marketing on Vimeo.
Anny Fahey over at Sightline Institute is a communications ninja. Recently, she did a post on her messaging pet peeves for the Sightline Daily. It was so awesome, I asked her if she’d be willing to share it here. Cuz she’s so nice, she agreed. And as a bonus, she added one more. Enjoy!
I can tell you from personal experience that even seasoned communicators slip into a bad habit or two.
So, I’m setting out to tackle some of my top messaging pet peeves one by one, starting with four small-scale missteps that are easy to avoid. (I recently wrote about three of these for one of my messaging Flashcards at Sightline Institute). I call these little mistakes “pets” because they’re some of my own worst habits—and they’re easy to fix! (Apologies for a pretty terrible pun!)
The fact is that experts in all kind of fields (take my policy wonk colleagues, for example) tend to use far too many acronyms—it saves time and maybe we think it sounds cool too. Wrong! We also overuse the passive voice. And we often forget to swap lackluster articles for more powerful pronouns. Finally, if you’re like me, you cringe every time you read about “an activist” doing something in the news. It’s like activists are some kind of separate species. It’s easy to forget that they’re people! Better to call them concerned citizens, moms, dads, neighbors, community members, Washingtonians, Oregonians…anything but activists—even though they’re active.
I’m not claiming that words are magic. Even when we use all the right ones we can’t solve all the world’s problems—obviously. But words do matter; and even the littlest ones can help your message hit home.
Here’s my cheat sheet:
Acronyms. Stop using them. Even the most familiar ones—like the EPA—risk alienating. Polls show that the full name—Environmental Protection Agency—yields a bump in support.
Weed out the passive. You wield the power to name (and blame) bad guys or give heroes due credit—but only if you use active sentence construction. Think: Who did what to whom? (The climate is warming vs. We are warming our climate.)
Get possessive with pronouns. Instead of “the government” or “the climate,” try “our government” and “our climate.” Switch to pronouns like our, we, us, you, and your to make concepts less abstract and paint people into the picture.
Talk about people! Terms like activist, or even environmentalist, can alienate anybody who doesn’t self-identify as such. Activists aren’t from another planet—they’re parents, neighbors, citizens, Seattleites, etc. Local people! So, especially when you’re talking to (or writing for) the press, always refer to those familiar and broadly shared identities that make them human!
What are your messaging pet peeves?
Anna Fahey is senior communications strategist at Sightline Institute—a public policy think tank focused on policy solutions for a fair and thriving green economy. Anna oversees opinion research and distills best practices in messaging. You’ll find her writing on how to communicate about tricky issues like climate change, taxes, and government. Anna has an MA in political communication from the University of Washington. Email: anna (at) sightline.org
Sightline Flashcards are messaging memos designed as short, scannable tools for sharing effective communications strategies. Our strategic communications team digests piles of public opinion research, transcripts from speeches, expert advice, and academic studies—from cognitive linguistics and neuroscience to political science, sociology, and psychology—distilling best practices in messaging. Flashcards often focus on values-based communication: strategies for talking about important policies or issue solutions in terms of our shared values. Want to receive Flashcards by email? Sign up.
Earlier this week, I was invited to give a workshop for 501 Commons volunteers. My advice to get off message raised a few eyebrows. Don’t we want everyone ‘on message’?! Nope, you want them ‘on belief’. Here’s what I mean.
You aren’t successful if every single person in your organization answers the question: “What does your organization do?” in the exact same way.
You’re successful if everyone answers that question using your 3 key words in a way that reinforces what you want to be known for with passion, energy and conviction.
Supporters want to engage with an organization that has a compelling way of addressing a cause they care about.
Word-for-word ends up being robotic. Robotic isn’t compelling.
Worry less about being “on message” and more about attracting staff and board who are “on belief”–you’ll go further, faster and with less effort.
(Here’s guidance on how to help your organization find its 3 key words.)
“What’s the difference between a tagline and a slogan?” This comes up at every workshop, talk or presentation I give.
Periodically, I do research on the topic to see if anything new has been written or revealed. It is at these times when I am reminded that pretty much everyone is confused by these terms.
Let’s take a quick, yet big, step back: why do we care so much about defining these terms anyway?
Because there’s a sense that if you know what they are, and you have one of each, donors will flock to you. Your Facebook page will be like-erific; you will be swatting volunteers away like mosquitos on a hot night on the Bayou; etc, etc, etc.
Sorry, folks. None are a silver bullet. Most organizations benefit from having a tagline and sometimes a slogan can be useful. Another short, pithy, useful phrase is a mantra (which, as you’ll see below, is for internal use) and can be uber-helpful in avoiding mission drift.
All of these are windows into your organization’s story. Think of them like itsy bitsy parts of your story. They work with other parts–like your name, logo, website, etc–to tell a larger story–the story of why you’re doing the work you do in the way that you’re doing it.
This table explains what each is so you can decide which ones will be useful to you. It also gives examples so you can, hopefully, see the difference as the waters can get pretty muddy.
|
What it is |
Example |
|
| Tagline | A short written statement that speaks to what you do and, ideally, why you do it. It should last a long time and works in conjunction with your name. It is read, not said. | A mind is a terrible thing to waste. (United Negro College Fund)What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. (City of Las Vegas)Got milk? (Originally a slogan for an ad campaign created by the California Milk Processor Board that got ‘promoted’ to tagline status based on its success) |
| Slogan | A short statement—sometimes said, but mostly read—that describes what is awesome about a product, service, campaign or event. | Keep calm and carry on.(Ad campaign in U.K. at beginning of WWII.)A little dab’ll do ya.(Ad campaign for Brylcreem.)Where’s the beef? (Ad campaign for Wendy’s.) |
| Mantra | 2-3 words that are used internally to guide decision-making. | Do no harm.Think different.Be brave and generous. |
In all instances, these short ditties should support a broader story–the story of why your organization is compelling enough to learn more about, donate to, volunteer with, tell someone else about…you get the point.
Room to Read believes world change starts with educated children. Their focus? Literacy and gender equality in education.
In a stellar example of show don’t tell, they posted this tweet:
Hwat wdulo hte lrodw kolo lkei fi ouy ocldu otn erda? Noigmeths kile stih. #RTforLiteracy (Each RT=$1 to @RoomtoRead) bit.ly/ILD2011
Translation: “What would the world look like if you could not read? Something like this. (Each RT=$1 to @RoomtoRead) bit.ly/ILD2011”.
140 characters of awesome, that’s what that is. They showed you how confusing and disorienting it is when you can’t read something–a feeling you can’t easily describe.
Words are valuable. Using them to show rather than tell? Priceless.
Say what?! You don’t have a MAP? You’re playing with fire, my friend. Fire.
Resources are too tight and your vision too big and awesome to not know how you will use marketing to specifically and strategically help you out.
That’s why I created a Marketing Action Plan (MAP) for do-gooders–people who work at nonprofits, foundations, associations and other institutions of good repute.
The MAP has specific questions, explanations and a checklist to keep you on track. It is simple, straight-forward and requires very little time to make very big progress.
Download it and see for yourself. It’s free. What’ve you got to lose? (Aside from your way, of course.)
I am often accused of being uptight when it comes to word choice. In France, the quest for “le bon mot“ is a national sport. But I realize I don’t live in France and should lighten up a bit.
The thing is human beings make most decisions in 7 seconds or less. What you do in those 7 seconds, including the words you use, matters.
In 2009, there were 1,928,158 non profits in the United States alone. You have one shot to make a great first impression and to stand out from the sea of organizations, and chatter, and craziness of life.
Could I loosen up a bit about word choice? Well, yeah, personally I could probably stand to do that. But this isn’t about moi and it wouldn’t change the fact that time spent finding words that resonate with the people who matter most to your organization is imperative to your success. That’s not going to change.
Be uptight about–or at least mindful of–your words. Find the right ones. It’s important.
New supporters are often your loudest supporters. This makes them really super duper important. They are like new converts–singing the gospel of awesome at the top of their lungs. For a brief period of time, you are that gospel of awesome.
Do you motivate new supporters to sing your praises by making a fantastic first impression? Do you make them feel like VIPs?
Most organizations miss the boat on this. New donors often start out at the bottom of the proverbial pyramid. Smaller donors tend to get less organizational adoration. If you’re looking at short-term ROI, this makes some sense. If you take a longer view and/or are looking at both your cash AND beyond cash goals (as Peter Drury helps you do with his Beyond Cash Fundraising Dashboard), it makes no sense. Zip.
Acquisition is WAY more expensive than retention. One of the lowest cost ways to keep someone happy (and singing your praises) is to shower them with luv early and often–that first volunteer gig, donation, trip to the capital is a key happy-making-shower-them-with-luv moment. And yet many non profits let this opportunity pass them by.
Shanon Doolittle, brains behind the ‘Do good. Feel better.’ blog and generator of 22 Delightful Ways to Say Thank You is possibly The Best Thank You’er Ever. She is a Gratitude Goddess.
What did Shanon do to garner these coveted accolades?
She’s creative, consistent and lightening-fast with her gratitude goodness. She spreads gratitude up and down the donor pyramid…and is especially generous with newly minted supporters. She makes you feel grateful you had a chance to give to whatever cause you just gave to. (In addition to her day job at Group Health Foundation, Shanon raises money for many other causes in her spare time…she’s that kind of gal).
We should all channel our inner Shanon when it comes to making a fabulous, gratitude-infused first impression.
Are you making a fab-tastic first impression? Or are you a (gulp) first impression flop?
photo credit: SnoShuu via photo pin cc
A few weeks ago, Harvard Business Review blogger Kyle Wiens wrote a post about why he won’t hire people who use poor grammar. The comment section became a veritable grammar smack-down, with over 1,400 people weighing in.
As a non profit focused follow-up to Wiens’ post, I did one on why I wouldn’t give to non profits that use poor grammar. Based on how much traffic that post got, it’s clear this grammar stuff gets people all hot and bothered.
Why would posts about things as mundane as commas, semi-colons and apostrophes unleash such a fervor?
Because in people’s minds, sloppy grammar amounts to sloppy work. And few people want to support a sloppy org, let’s be honest.
Grammar isn’t the only small thing that turns out to be a big turn-off. Here’s a list of the Top 5 Small but Deadly Mistakes to Avoid (if you want happy supporters):
Some of these traps can be handled with process improvement, some are a question of culture and values and others are a matter of carving out time to get your house in order. Can’t tackle all five? Prioritize them from most egregious to least and, over time, work your way through the list.
Here’s to sweating the small stuff!