Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

The Only Way to Make Sure They Read Your Posts

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There are 8 million stories: why yours?

There are 8 million stories: why yours?

An old TV show used to close with the line, “There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them.”

Today, the Internet is the naked city–and there are way more than eight million stories out there. When you write a blog, post a post, tweet a tweet, that’s just one of them.

How can you be sure anybody reads what you write?

The only way is to make yourself useful to your readers.

The Question You Need to Answer

The reader you’re trying to reach will look at your post for three seconds before deciding to delete it or read it.  In three seconds, they will ask the WIIFM question: “What’s In It For Me?” You need to give them the answer.  Are you:

  • Telling them something new that they would hate to miss?
  • Answering a burning question that’s already on their minds?
  • Giving them an online tool that will help them solve a problem?
  • Making them feel smart?
  • Entertaining them better than a cute cat video?

These are ways to make yourself useful to your readers. They are also the ways to get read.

It’s Not About You

Please understand: no one, not even your best friend, has to read what you write.  It’s their choice–and they have many other choices.  So, what you want them to read doesn’t matter.  What you think they ought to want to read doesn’t matter.

All that matters is making yourself useful to your readers. Or else you won’t have any.

 

The Ideal Appeal Letter Begins With You

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November kicks off the annual scramble for donations in the U.S.  Your mailbox fills up with appeal letters from groups you support (and some you don’t). But do any of them look like this?

Next StepNext Step appeal letter filled their letter to my wife Rona with signs they care about her.

  • Calling her by name.  (I’m amazed how many groups still use the salutation “Dear Friend.”)
  • Creating visual appeal.  The photo catches the eye.
  • Using a real story.  It’s not just a photo: it’s a person, looking you in the eye, telling his story.
  • Adding a hand-written note.  It’s actually on an orange sticky note, and the content is personalized to Rona.
  • Directing her clearly how to give.

All of these elements make the letter vivid, attractive, and appealing.  But the most important thing that Next Step did was starting the letter with “You.” 

Next Step understands that donors will give if they feel that their donation is doing the good work.  As Seth Godin recently wrote, the donor is the hero of the story.  That’s why they give.

Now, your letter doesn’t literally have to start with “You.”  It would be boring if every letter did!  But when you wrote your organization’s annual appeal letter, did you start with the donor?  Did you do everything you could do to make them feel the letter was personally written for them?  And did you place the donor at the center of the story?

Your Volunteers ARE Your Reputation

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It’s Election Day in Massachusetts. Please remember to vote today–and to train your volunteers all the time!

campaign volunteer

What do your volunteers say about who you are?

My dear wife Rona Fischman is constantly shaking her head at what passes for communication.

I told you before about the phone solicitor who lied to her, the email marketer who never told her the truth, and the bank that failed to earn her interest.

Here’s the story of the campaign volunteer who nearly lost her vote–in one phone call.

On the Saturday before Election Day, Rona got a live call to her business phone from an Alderman at Large candidate’s organization. (An Alderman is like a city councilor.) The volunteer asked Rona if this candidate could count on her vote.

Rona said something like this, “I have four votes. Two are spoken for. The other two are up for grabs. Tell me why your candidate should get one of them.”

The guy on the phone was gobsmacked. He could not tell her why she should vote for his candidate. After a short silence, he said “____ will work tirelessly for the good of the people of Somerville,” and hung up.

Rona went on Facebook and asked all her friends, “Should this candidate lose my vote because his calling staff don’t have a clue why he’s right for the city?”

That’s not the kind of question a candidate wants voters to ask.  It’s not the kind of question your nonprofit organization wants its donors to ask, either.

Please, please, please train your volunteers.  At the moment they interact the public, they are your organization.  What they do and say is what you stand for–at least to the person interacting with them.  And when you ask for donations, you will need that person to vote yes.

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