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How Do You Say That in Nonprofit? The “Buying Cycle”, Heads, and Hearts

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People decide to buy products from companies.  People–maybe the same people–decide to give money to organizations.  What can nonprofits learn from the business “buying cycle” that will help us to create loyal supporters?

According to Catherine Sherlock, one thing we can learn is when to appeal to people’s hearts and when to their heads.

Catherine Sherlock

Catherine Sherlock

She says, “The idea that people buy solely on emotion is old-school selling… Under old-school selling, people felt manipulated—which is why they started turning to the Internet and to friends for answers rather than engaging with salespeople.”

Nonprofits don’t want to manipulate people into supporting us.  We do want people to know what we do, and love it, and give money to keep us doing it.  In other words, we want their hearts and their heads at the same time.  How do we appeal to both?

 

Content Marketing: Giving Nonprofit Donors What They Want

Content marketing is a buzzword right now, but if you’re like many nonprofit organizations, you may have a hazy idea what it means.  You may think of it as just “publication.”  Unless you’re publishing anonymously, though, what you write, or post, or video will shape the perception of your organization.  Content marketing means putting content out strategically in ways that benefit the audience and help them get to know and love your agency.

Now, when people see your content, they may have just heard of you for the first time, or they may know you quite well.  If you ran into a longtime donor or volunteer on the street, wouldn’t you greet them very differently from someone you just met?  You also need different messages–different information and different emotional tone–when you’re “meeting” people through your writing or social media.

Catherine Sherlock tells us that when businesses build relationships with customers, they go through a set of stages, a “buying cycle.”  Nonprofits go through a similar set of stages with our supporters.

buying cy

Catherine Sherlock explains the buying cycle (marketingprofs.com)

    • Awareness: They don’t know who you are.  You have to give them a reason to pay attention and find out.  Short, emotional content works best.  “Funny, weird, and inspirational are what tends to get shared on social media.”
    • Interest: They’re beginning to recognize a need for your services.  They want to know who you are.  This is a great time to tell stories that show your organization’s personality and your values in action.  Remember, though, your purpose is not to brag: it’s to deepen their interest and begin to build trust.
    • Evaluation: They’re seriously considering your program or service—and comparing you with your competition.   “At this stage, provide people with good, solid materials that enable people to substantiate their early feelings of security and trust.”
    • Purchase:  For nonprofits, this is the moment when the donor clicks the “donate” button or mails the check.  “People’s fears about making a wrong decision often re-emerge at the point of taking action and handing over money. So, reinforce the feelings that you used to gain their attention in the Awareness stage, and ensure the actual purchase process is painless.”   (That means you make it easy for the donor to give, and thank them and remind them what a difference they are making both during and after the donation.)
  • Loyalty:  In the nonprofit world, we sometimes talk of donor “retention,” and the “stewardship” it takes to keep our donors’ support over the long haul.  Businesses talk about loyalty, instead.  I prefer that, because it makes it clear that their continued attention and support is a further gift our donors give to us.  We can and should work to deserve their loyalty, and that means appealing both to emotion and to reason.  We can “maintain that sense of safety and trust that [we] established in earlier stages” and “provide information that proves” we are worthy of their trust.

The Right Audience at the Right Time

Now that you understand the cycle,  you can see that appeals to reason and emotion go hand in hand.   You will want to stress one more than the other at different stages, but mostly you will find the best way to combine them.  This raises the question: how can nonprofits catch their supporters at the right time in the relationship to send them the message that will fit them?

First off, you have to know your audience.

Then, if your nonprofit is big enough (or has a big enough communications budget), you may be able to do a lot of research and to capture the results in a constituent relationship management (CRM) database, so that you can send different messages to supporters at each stage of the cycle.

If you’re smaller, or if time or money are tight, you can still segment your list.  At a minimum, target different messages to new prospects, first-time givers, and established supporters.

Finally, think about what that audience wants to hear.  At this stage of the relationship, do they want you to grab their attention, or to help them trust you, or to reassure them that their trust is justified?  Are they ready for you to convince them or to touch their hearts, and how?

Arts Organizations: To Get Gifts, Tell Stories!

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ImprovAll you fundraisers who work for human service organizations, you have these heartwarming stories to tell–about children learning to read, or families getting food to eat.

But I raise money for a theater company. Can I use storytelling in my fundraising too?

I heard this question last week when I presented a Nonprofit Academy webinar called Where’s the Story? Discovering Stories that Drive Donations. But it wasn’t the first time I’d heard it. And every time I hear it, it makes me want to cry.

If your nonprofit is an arts organization, storytelling is in your organizational DNA. It’s in the drama you put on stage, or the moment you capture in paint, or the music you present to a live audience. You take the randomness of everyday events and shape it, so people will stop, look, listen, and wonder. That’s what a good story does too.

So yes, arts organizations, you can tell stories to your donors. In fact, they are the perfect audience for them! But it’s up to you to find and craft those stories. Here’s how.

Stories are about people

The first thing to do is figure out the protagonist of your story. Who is the story about?

I think that’s what was puzzling the webinar participant who worked for the theater company, the one who asked me that question. She was probably thinking about things like the schedule of plays this season, or the artistic choices involved in the direction and staging, or the great reviews the production has already received, and asking herself, “What’s the story here?”

And she was right. Those are not stories–because they have no protagonist, no central character to follow.

You can turn statements into stories

Focus on a protagonist with a problem, and you can transform dry facts into dramatic stories. For example, you could take a list of titles of plays and turn it into this message from your Artistic Director:

Antigone-613X463“As 2016 goes on, I have been dreading each day’s news. One act of mass violence has followed another around the globe. I look to political leaders, hoping for solace and wisdom, and instead I see them spreading fear and hatred.”

“Here in our theater, I shudder…and I wonder, what can we do as a theater to bring us back to our a sense of our shared humanity? The 2017 season is our answer. We begin with Antigone, a story of a woman caught on the losing side of a civil war who refuses to put loyalty to nation over loyalty to family…”

Notice! Instead of a list, now you have:

  • a person (your Artistic Director)
  • facing a challenge (how do I stop feeling overwhelmed and make a contribution to a more peaceful world?)
  • and overcoming it (through this year’s program)

That’s classic narrative. You’ve turned a statement into a story. And your donors are going to notice, too.

Stories speak to an arts audience

The thing is, unless your Artistic Director is really well-known and loved, it’s not her or his story your donors want to hear.

As fundraising expert Tom Ahern puts it, donors are only really interested in two things. “What did you do with the money I gave you?” and “What difference did it make?”

And the difference they want to hear about is probably not that it made the AD feel worthwhile, or even that it gave jobs to dozens of actors and set painters.

What difference do the arts make to the audience?

Your donors are interested in the experience of the arts. They know what it’s like for them to walk around a Rodin and look at it from all sides, or hear unexpected music in the subway, or go to a play. They want you to make sure others share that experience.

Raisin in the Sun

Raisin in the Sun

Can you find audience members who will tell any of these stories?

  1. “I never liked Shakespeare. When they tried to teach it to me forty years ago in high school, I tuned it out. But then my wife dragged me to your production of King Lear, and I wept for a man looking back at the ruin of his life. Now the words make sense, and they make me think about my own life.”

2. “I thought my family was the only one where parents and children fought about how to stand up proud against people who want to put us down. Now that I’ve seen Raisin in the Sun, I will never look at my parents the same way again.

3. “My mind was whirling. My heart was downcast. Your production of Stomp was better than medicine. I am going back tomorrow!”

If I gave money to your organization and heard these stories, I would rejoice. And give again.

What’s another story you can tell that would move your arts supporters to give?

 

How Do You Say “Marketing” In Nonprofit?

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Marketing.  It sounds so commercial, doesn’t it?  But don’t be put off by the term.  Your nonprofit organization can steal marketing secrets and use them for a good cause.

Handheld translatorMarketing  is business-speak for “communications with a purpose.”  Your purpose may be to improve public health, enhance democracy, end hunger or homelessness, or enhance people’s lives through the arts.  Whatever it is, s long as you tailor your communications to a purpose, you’re doing marketing, and you can look for ways to do it better.

Strategy means keeping your purpose in mind and letting it direct your activities and the way you use your time.  It means knowing how you will approach your goal and not making it all up on the fly.

So what is marketing strategy? For businesses, the term means:

An organization’s strategy that combines all of its marketing goals into one comprehensive plan. A good marketing strategy should be drawn from market research and focus on the right product mix in order to achieve the maximum profit potential and sustain the business.

How do we say that in nonprofit?

  • Market research for nonprofits is however you get to know and love your audience. Depending on your organization. your research could be hiring an outside professional to conduct surveys and focus groups–or going through your files and asking your staff and Board members what they know.
  • Product mix is the services and benefits you offer.  When you know and love your audience, you figure out what they need.
  • Instead of profit, you aim to maximize good outcomes for the people you serve.  You can only do that if they know about your services and use them.
  • But you still need to sustain the business.  And unlike a for-profit business, you can’t count on the people who use your services to pay for them.  So, “sustaining the business” means raising funds from donors, foundations, corporations, and government, or through events or sales, to pay for what you really are “in business” to do: your mission.

Let’s put it all together.  When you develop a marketing strategy, you are making a commitment.  You are promising that everyone inside your organization will know whom you are trying to serve, what will help them, how you are providing that help, and what difference it makes.  The people who use your services and the people and institutions that pay for them will know that too.  All your communications will help you convey that message, and your programs will help you make it reality.

Make that commitment and keep to it.  That’s how you say “marketing” in nonprofit.

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