How you say something is as important as what you say. Paralanguage is the non-verbal communications we send out as we use verbal communication. Is it affecting what you’re saying?
Paralanguage: The power of non-verbal communication from Claxon Marketing on Vimeo.
Last week, I did a guest blog post over on NPower NW’s blog. It gives you a specific approach for keeping all your communications channels aligned called the “Hub and Spoke Model.”
We tend to think about one channel at a time. When updating Facebook, we think about Facebook. When posting on Pinterest, we’re all about Pinterest. And when we’re prepping the next newsletters, that newsletter rules our life—who cares about those other channels?! If you don’t take time to align them, they quickly get out of alignment and, just like you’re car, everything goes wonky.
Read the NPower post to learn how to get and keep your channels in sync—donors, supporters, volunteers and fans like well-aligned channels so it’s worth it.
If you want to see what a lean, mean non-profit channel machine looks like, check out these organizations’ well-aligned channels (oh la la!):
Event season is upon us, and many non-profits are planning events from breakfasts to art auctions in order to get noticed—and get funded.
It’s always fun to learn from the best. That’s why we turned to Shanon Doolittle (@sldoolittle) for some insight and inspiration.
Shanon is in charge of Group Health Foundation’s Gift of Health Gala, one of the Northwest’s most successful fundraising events. The name of the event is always the Gift of Health Gala, but she changes up the theme each year.
In 2010, it was ‘Journey to the Emerald City’.
In 2011, it was ’10! A Disco Inferno’.
In 2012, you’ll have to wait for it. But it’ll be just as awesome. Fresh and fun…yet still the Gift of Health Gala.
Shanon’s wisdom:
“Approach your event as its own brand. You can’t build equity or supporter loyalty if you confuse supporters each year with a name change or a completely different event experience. The name of the game is making it easy for your donors to identify your event and cause. A consistent name does that. And if you really want to get strategic-licious, hold the event on the same day every year (second Saturday of October for example). Donors will then know to save the date way before you send it.”
Our Recommendations:
What suggestions do you have for successful events?
Being consistently compelling is key when it comes to creating a lasting connection with your supporters. It’s what makes good brands great. It helps you stand out from the crowd and keep you at the forefront of people’s minds. It’s also really hard—especially when you have so many audiences and channels to juggle!
That’s why we wanted to interview Marsha Savery, Director of Marketing for the Seattle Aquarium. Whether it’s a billboard on the side of the road or an octopus in a glass tank, the Seattle Aquarium is consistently compelling no matter the setting. We were lucky enough to get Marsha’s tips on how they work their magic.
“I think non-profits should find someone they trust who can give them advice on how to present themselves in a polished manner. It’s so important to look like you’ve got your act together so somebody may help fund you. And graphics can do that.”
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?
The general public is not a target audience! Learn how to avoid this pitfall and focus your message to the people who matter most to your cause.
Believers, Agnostics & Atheists from Claxon Marketing on Vimeo.
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/34927265[/vimeo]
Why plan?
Why create a marketing plan? It takes time, energy and usually isn’t all that fun. Plus, you have your plan in your head so you should be all set, right?
Wrong.
According to Kivi’s 2012 Trends Report, only 24% of organizations have a written plan that has been approved by leadership. And yet, writing down your goals has been proven to up your odds of achieving them.
With no written plan, you are at risk of falling prey to shiny object syndrome. You will hear about a new social media tool that sounds fab and decide everyone else is using it and you must use it, too. Or a board member will suggest you do a big PR push and off you’ll go, in full pursuit of the latest shiny object.
This is the tail wagging the dog. Maybe these are great ideas, maybe they’re not. It depends on your goals. Twitter, Facebook, PR, websites, blogs, newsletters, annual reports—these are all simply a means to an end. Planning makes sure you achieve your goals in the most effective and efficient way possible.
How to plan?
Now that you’re convinced you should have a written marketing plan, the question is how do you develop one given limited time, money and, let’s be honest, enthusiasm for the task at hand?
Enter the 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree, a tool I developed to make it simple for you—the mission-motivate of the world—to get laser-focused on your marketing goals and how you’ll achieve them.
The 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree demystifies marketing and reveals the three questions you really have to ask and answer in order to reach your goals.
Ready to get started? Download a free version of the Tree or buy the poster-size version (featured in the video above so you can see it ‘live’) and get planning!
Last Friday, I found myself surrounded by 35+ of Portland’s most impressive do-gooders in the board room of the United Way of Columbia-Willamette. And they are doing some serious good, let me tell ya!
I was there thanks to an invite from WVDO and Creative Cares. We covered a lot of territory in our 7 hours together (here’s the Prezi so you can see what I mean) and this group gave me lots to think about. Here are a few of those thoughts:
If you were at the training, what are your thoughts? If you couldn’t make it, do any of these points hit home or do they miss the mark for you?
April’s theme is elevator pitches–the good, the bad and the ugly. So when we gathered for our monthly Meet-Up, we talked about just that. What to say, how, when, tone of voice, words, meaning. We covered all that. But when you get right down to it, what we talked about was being human.
Here’s what I mean.
We spend so much time crafting pithy, punchy responses to the question, “What do you do?” that they end up feeling contrived. Robotic automatons are not engaging. No offense to C3Po, but robots aren’t generally inspiring. They don’t make us want to ask follow-up questions. If they inspire anything, it is efficiency, i.e. how quickly can I get through this conversation and move on. You’re human. Play to your strengths!
Here are some tips we covered for being more human when you’re getting a conversation started:
What’s your compelling why? Do you make it specific, relative and human?