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Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Marketing that Loses Points with the Audience

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My dear wife Rona often receives bad marketing pitches, but this one takes the cake. Firebox.com advertises lights in the form of Scrabble tiles, and here’s how it describes them:

  • “Way less boring than the board game”
  • “Includes 60 reusable letter stickers. That’s roughly 5 swear words worth”
  • “Will fool people into thinking you’re a bonafide [sic] wordsmith”
Scrabble lights

Negative points for insulting Scrabble!

Rona and I take this personally! We met over a game of Scrabble. (She beat me by 120 points, but I’ve learned her secrets since then.)

We don’t find the board game boring. We host a neighborhood Scrabble game every month.

We don’t have to “fool people.” We are bona fide wordsmiths–the kind who know that “bona fide” is two words, and what it means!

Okay, I get it: this company wants to be edgy. They advertise themselves as “not for everyone.” They may not be for me. But what’s the point of insulting the  people who are most likely to buy your product?

You Can Do Better Than That!

You can learn from bad marketers. You can learn how to do better. Whether you are marketing a product or a service (and whether you’re commercial or nonprofit), take another look at the message you’re sending.

This time, forget what you like. Think about your audience.

If they find it insulting–or even just puzzling–it doesn’t matter how clever or creative you thought you were being. You’re losing points with the people whose opinions matter. Keep your audience in mind, and you can play to win.

 

Valentine’s Day is for Suckers

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My wife and I decided years ago that Valentine’s Day is for suckers. No Valentine's Day

Think about it. This week, candy and flowers will cost more than they do any other time of the year. Restaurants will push special meals with more food than you can eat and more expensive wine than you would choose.

Businesses make big bucks because people think putting out a lot of money one time a year is the way to show their love.

Rona and I are romantic, but we are not suckers. The ways we show our love all year round count more than what we do one day a year. And we do not let Hallmark tell us when to say “I love you.”

But what about your nonprofit?

The calendar may be playing you for a sucker, too.

  • Are you ignoring your donors all year round until the day you send them an “annual appeal”?
  • Are you then expecting them to show you the love on December 31, just because in the U.S. that’s the last day to get a tax deduction for the year?

Lots of nonprofits work hard on making that appeal letter just right, as if it were a Valentine’s Day bouquet. But you can't neglect your donors all year and expect one romantic gesture to make it all right. Share on X You have to show some donor love all year long.

Here’s a plan to make your donors love you in just one year. No, it’s not candy and flowers! Good relationships take good communications.  I’ll help you figure out where you can spend your nonprofit time and money that will matter most to the donor.

Because that’s what you want, right? Not to do the same tired things the same time of year. You want every day to be Valentine’s Day for your donors and you.

(P.S. Chocolates will go on sale February 15. Just wait.)

How NOT to Survey Your Readers

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Enough about me, what do you think of meIt’s a good idea to get to know the people who read you. But there are ways of doing it that make them feel welcomed…and ways that make them feel used.

Here’s an example of the wrong way.

My dear wife Rona Fischman received an email that said:

“Rona,

When I started ___ 3 years ago, I couldn’t have imagined how much we would achieve together. ____has grown from a small community to a global one of over 5.5 million members, in nearly every country in the world. It’s hard to believe we’ve come so far, so fast.”

“But what’s next for ___? What will the next few years look like? As we start to think about those questions as a community, it’s critical to hear from as many voices as possible. It’s important to know what we think about what our community does, how we can be better and what we should work on together.”

“Our surveys are put together by a crack team of survey expurrts [picture of  cat at keyboard] and they don’t take very long to fill out. We’d love to find out what you think.”

Here’s what Rona thinks:

I don’t know who you are, and you want to trick me into doing your marketing for you??? Share on X

Here’s the right way:

If you want to know what people think, start out by listening. Continue by giving them something they’ll consider valuable. Get them to know, like, and trust you.

Only then will they be willing to answer your surveys. And only then will the information they give you be valuable to you.

 

 

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