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Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Your Volunteers ARE Your Reputation

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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.

Can Your Nonprofit Learn from Coca-Cola?

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Running a nonprofit is harder than running a business.  Still, nonprofits can learn lessons for free that corporations have spent a lot of money to learn.

Coca-Cola ad

Coke can give your nonprofit ideas

Take Coca-Cola, for example.  If your nonprofit were as widely known as Coke, you’d have a lot easier time attracting “customers” (clients, donors, and funders). How do they do it, and can you do the same?

Things Go Better with Content Marketing

Jeff Bullas reports that Coke now sees content marketing as the key to its outreach.  Content marketing means you don’t push your message out so much as attract your audience in.  Give people information that matters to them and you will draw supporters closer to your cause.

Coke is betting the farm that they can

develop content that makes a commitment to making the world a better place and to develop value and significance in people’s lives…while at the same time driving business objectives for Coca-Cola.

If Coke can do well by doing good, why not you?

Content Marketing Lessons You Can Bottle

Here are five lessons we can learn from Coke.  Jeff Bullas listed, and I translated them into nonprofit.

  1. Create “liquid content.”  No, you’re not going into the soft drink business!  “Liquid content” means stuff that people love and can’t wait to share.  Whether you create an article, a video, a graphic, or an online game, make people glad they saw it.  (That means you have to know your audience.)
  2. Ensure your content is linked to your mission, goals, and values.  It’s not enough that they love it.  It has to fit what you do as an organization.  People may love that cat video, but what does it have to do with your homeless shelter?
  3. Create conversations.  Don’t just publish. Interact with your audience. They’re asking questions online: do you have answers? They’re commenting on a topic you care about too. Reply.  And let what they say give you ideas for more content.
  4. Move on to dynamic storytelling.  This means you allow the story to evolve as you interact with your supporters. If you are truly engaged with them, they will care more about you.
  5. Be brave and creative with your content creation.  Sure, 70% of what you put out may be tried and true.  20% of it may be new but based on what has already worked.  But 10% of your time, experiment.  Try a new form–video or radio instead of writing–or a new medium–what is this thing called Google+–or an idea that’s a little off the wall.

Be prepared to fail sometimes.  Remember New Coke?  Not that many people do.  If you try something that doesn’t work, people will forget…and you will learn.  And you will come up with the real thing.

Nonprofits Can Do Better with Content Marketing

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Give people information that matters to them and you will draw them closer to your cause.content marketing

This is the basic principle of content marketing.  It’s a natural approach for nonprofits to take.  Many of us know a lot about the issues we work on and the communities we serve.  We have stories to tell.  We have news people can use.  And it feels more respectful to us to engage our communities rather than to “sell” our programs.

So why are a lot of nonprofits who are trying this approach feeling stuck?

Three Stages on the Journey

In her excellent new book Content Marketing for Nonprofits, Kivi Leroux Miller says organizations typically go through three stages before they get content marketing right: Doing, Questioning, and Integrating.

Doing: We know we should be putting the word out, but we’re constantly scrambling to find things to say, or pictures to share.  It gets done at the last minute.  Nobody is in charge, so it feels like extra work to the people who do it–or one person is in charge, but he or she has to beg program staff for content to use.  We know how much we’re doing but not whether it makes a difference.

Questioning: We realize that it’s not about us–it’s about our participants and supporters.  We have started trying to find out what they want to hear/see/read, and to give them what they want.  We have a plan and a publication calendar.  We’re looking for more resources and training to do communications in a way that makes people want to support our agency.

Integrating: We listen to our community as much as we talk.  We bring what we know about our community back into every discussion about program, marketing, and fundraising.  We fund and staff communications, not only for short-term goals like the next event or fundraising appeal but for the long-term health of the organization.  We find the right message for the right audience at the right time.  People want to hear from us and engage us in conversations online and in person.

What It Takes to Move Forward

Which stage best describes your nonprofit organization?  Kivi thinks most of us are in the Questioning stage.  From my own experience, I’d say many smaller nonprofits are in the phase of “just do it” and only just beginning to recognize that there must be a better way.  The good news: yes, there is!

If you are interested in “engaging your community, becoming a favorite cause, and raising more money” (the subtitle of the book), then here are some steps I think you might want to take.

  1. Bring together the people within your organization who “get it.”  It doesn’t matter what department they’re in or what title they have.  As long as they can see things from the point of view of your key constituencies, they can help you reach those participants and supporters (and help them reach you!).
  2. Find a champion.  Someone whom everybody respects has to make content marketing a priority.
  3. Spend time.  Free staff from some of their other duties so they are getting paid to do this work.
  4. Seek funding.  Ask a foundation for a capacity-building grant, or ask a major donor or business to invest in your communications effort.
  5. Acquire expertise.  An outside consultant may be just the guide you need to move to the next stage.  If you are in a position to hire a Director of Communications, he or she can lead the organization.  Not do it all, but lead you in the right direction, so you don’t feel stuck any more.

 

Are you ready to move forward?  Can I help you?  Then please email me for an initial consultation: dennis@twofisch.com.

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