Consistency is key for exercise, parenting and, yes, that’s right, messaging.
Yes, consistency is your BFF when it comes to making your messaging stick. Depending on who you listen to, adults have to hear something three to seven times before we remember it.
If you’re switching up your messaging all the time, how’s someone going to fall in love with your organization? They won’t even remember who you are!
This is why consistency will star as our Word of the Week.
How consistent is your messaging? If you’re not sure, do an inventory and find out. (Sounds boring but is quite fascinating!)
Messaging is an important part of differentiating your organization. And your tagline is an important part of your messaging. It lets people know how you’re different-or the same- as other organizations. Often, it clarifies your Why (aka your Belief Proposition).
See if you can match these famous non-profit do-gooders with their taglines. Did they do a good job of using their tagline to stand out from the crowd?
Jean Dujardin differentiated himself by looking dapper in a classic tux. Mon dieux! Photo credit softpedia.com.
For a lesson in differentiation, it doesn’t get much better than the Academy Awards.
When deciding how to stand out on the red carpet, Jennifer Lopez, Jean Dujardin, and Michelle Williams all faced the same challenge mission-driven organizations do: they needed to use their resources wisely to stand out from the crowd.
No matter how famous you are, there are only so many elements to work with. For celebrities, they look at their natural assets and decide how to use dress, jewelry, hair, and make-up to play them up. For organizations, you’ve got a compelling way to make the world a better place and you package it up in your logo, messaging, website, and materials. In both cases, you consider what the competition is doing (or will wear) and if they’re zigging, you zag.
Blending in is fine if you’re an Oscar seat filler. If you’re on a mission to make the world a better place, you’d better make like the stars and differentiate!
When’s the last time you stopped and asked yourself (and your organization):Are we standing out or blending in?
A believer is someone who accepts something as true. Watch this quick video and see if you’re engaging your believers, wooing agnostics, or trying to convert atheists.
Who are your believers? Are you showing them the love?
Valentine’s Day’s reputation has taken a dip in recent years as it has become largely synonymous with schtuff–chocolates, roses, teddy bears, teddies. Schtuff.
Sasha Dichter, the man behind the Generosity Experiment, is on a mission to, in his words, “reboot” Valentine’s Day–to make it about generosity instead of schtuff. If he is successful, Valentine’s Day will become Generosity Day, “one day about sharing love with everyone, of being generous to everyone, and to see how it feels and to practice saying ‘Yes’.”
Both Valentine’s Day and Generosity Day are about love. However, the name you use to refer to February 14 reflects your belief about love.
By re-naming the day, Sasha has re-framed what it stands for.
More than 2500 people have taken the Generosity Day pledge. If you believe Valentine’s Day should be about sharing love far and wide, help Sasha re-name and re-frame. Say ‘yes’ to the Generosity Day pledge.
How are you framing your organization, your mission, your cause? Are you good or is it time for a re-frame?
This is the first in a new series called Word of the Week. Each week, we’ll take a different word or expression and look at how it can help you create better messaging, punchier copy, and more engaging content.
This week’s word is FRAMING.
“Framing” refers to how you structure or present your cause or issue.
We frame things largely through word choices. For instance, “drilling for oil” sounds pretty different than “exploring energy options”. Whether we’re spending “government funds” or the “taxpayers’ money” makes us think about those dollars differently. “Pro-life” and “pro-choice” are two different frames on abortion.
Why should you care about framing?Your frame reflects your beliefs. It communicates where you stand on an issue and that, in turn, lets people decide whether they want to stand with you.
Framing is a strategic choice about where you want people to focus. For instance, in 1996, the Canadian government decided to get rid of “unemployment insurance” and usher in “employment insurance”. The goal was to shift the focus from unemployment to finding employment. (It took awhile for people to embrace “EI” instead of “UI” but change is hard, eh?)
Is your organization framed in a way that clearly communicates what you stand for and what you believe?
Tomorrow, we’ll look at how Valentine’s Day is being re-framed. Bring on the generosity, people! (Yes, that was a hint.)
Just like the Information Diet challenges us to become more conscious consumers of info, I’d like to challenge us to become more conscious users of words.
I mean, let’s get real: We’re awash in words. The question is are we using the very best words to connect and engage? Hmmmm…probably not.
That’s why I am cordially inviting you to join me in the One Less Word Challenge (#onelessword). I did this challenge last year with the word ‘non-profit’. It’s hard. It’s also extremely effective.
Ah the elusive balance between informing and inspiring. How do you compellingly speak to the features of your work and the benefits while keeping it short n’ sweet?
If you’re wrestling with this, the approach we used for this Microsoft cause campaign might be really handy.
Quick background: To celebrate their first 20 years of certification, Microsoft Learning decided they’d rather create a year-long campaign to create better careers and better lives for aspiring IT pros around the world than blow out 20 candles on a big ol’ cake. For the campaign, there are 20 different ways for established IT pros to pay it forward. The ways will be revealed throughout the year. Three are currently active.
Now for the handy tip: Here are the first three Calls to Action (CTAs). Note that each one follows the same pattern: Feature. Benefit.
The advantage of this approach is that you can inform and inspire. You can inform them of the action you want them to take while inspiring them by showing the difference their action will make.
No single approach works in every instance, but if your audience responds well to the inform/inspire approach, give this one a whirl.
Bonus: Saw this ad while out and about earlier this week. (I was stopped when I took the picture, for the record. ) Washington State Lottery used it on their current bus campaign: “When you play, students win.” Same approach: Feature, benefit. (The picture is lousy but you get the point!)
Eye-catching adjectives (and adverbs) can enliven an otherwise ho-hum hunk of copy. But you have to be careful how you use them. If you overuse them, you risk irritating or boring your reader. They are, after all, extra words and each word takes time to read, so you have to make each word worth their while.
To help you avoid adjective awkwardness, here are three Rules of Thumb for effectively using adjectives in mission-driven messaging.
Keep Calls to Action (CTAs) adjective-free: There’s a reason ‘Donate Now’, ‘Sign-up Today’, and other short CTAs work. They get right to the point. Go with it.
No trash: If you can get the point across without the adjective, do it. Otherwise, you risk gunking up your copy. This is especially true for shorter pieces (FB posts, Tweets, etc.) and CTAs (see #1 above). Example: “We helped protect 1,000 acres of precious wetlands.” Knowing they’re precious doesn’t make much of a difference. It mainly makes you wonder what un-precious wetlands are. Make sure it adds value to the point. Otherwise, delete.
Don’t be boring: When an adjective can help you grab someone’s attention–e.g. subject lines–pick something that will stand out. Avoid overused adjectives like thriving, successful and amazing. We expect to see these words so we don’t really see them. It’s wasted space. Pick adjectives that evoke emotion or speak to the reader’s senses. There are approximately 100,000 adjectives in the English language. Find one that adds some zing to your thing!
Consistency is key for exercise, parenting and, yes, that’s right, messaging.
