Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 033015

Attention-grabbing Headlines

As nonprofit and small business marketers, you are obviously tasked to distribute their organizations’ messages, services or products to as many people as possible. You’ve probably devoted a significant amount of time to the “what” of your message. You’ve written a solid message, re-written it, revised it, shared it prior to distribution and then returned to it again until you are convinced 101% that it is impeccable.

But will it be read?

Oftentimes, the effort that you as marketers spend in creating the proper message is wasted because too few people read what you’ve written. If your message has fallen on blind eyes, perhaps the problem could be with your headline. It could be too long or not long enough. Did it address the message or did it miss the point? Was it cute or flippant or was it dry and boring? Or did you omit including a headline or subject altogether?

A great headline gets your audience and stakeholders to stop, read and share your content.

According to content writing coach Heidi Cohen, “Every marketer is looking for ways to get his or her content noticed on social media. This is particularly important for small businesses that lack the budget to support every piece of content with advertising and other paid marketing tactics. To capture your audience’s time and attention, you need a strong headline. As David Ogilvy (advertising executive known as ‘The Father of Advertising’) famously said, “On average, only 1 out of 5 readers gets beyond your headline.”

Cohen pointed out the treacherous social media 90-9-1 participation principle:  90% will lurk, 9% will do something small (such as share) and 1% will create content or participate.

“Because you have such a brief opportunity to gain your audience’s attention, it’s important to have a strong headline that compels visitors to read and share your content,” Cohen observed.

All marketers must search for the strong headline and then capitalize on it by distributing it often as I have emphasized in previous blogs.

You can improve your headlines by heeding these tips:

1. Demonstrate value with numbers (dazzle the with numbers)

2. Find resources for inspiration (see what others have done)

3. Use your customers’ questions (listen to your supporters, customers, advocates, stakeholders)

4. Brainstorm potential headlines for options (ask for a colleague’s opinion)

Finally, don’t give away all of the message in the headline. Leave the gist of the message in the message.

Should Donor Communications be Personalized?

Should you abstain from the personal approach in writing to donors or other stakeholders? Should business communications be personalized?

Fundraising consultant Jay Love opines: “Personalized communication can result in revenue increases ranging from sublime to off-the-charts. But personalization takes a lot of time and effort, and not all organizations have the bandwidth. If you can’t personalize communications to everyone (which is obviously best), there are ways of segmenting out groups to focus on.”

Love suggests the following categories:

* As many as time allows

* All major donors (“major” as defined by the nonprofit)

* All repeat donors

* All first-time donors

* All donors giving above our average gift amount

* As much as our budget allows

However, new fundraisers may have a difficult time deciding who is who among contributors. The 2014 report from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project notes two criteria for helping you make a decision:

12% of the donors provide 88% of the funding

3% of the donors provide 76% of the funding

“So depending on your resources, one could easily argue for performing totally personalized communications on either that specific 3% or 12% and thereby impacting 76% or 88% of your funding.

If such personalized efforts are not already in place, the resulting impact could be dramatic. Either percentage is an excellent starting benchmark for nonprofits looking for a specific game plan to put into use.”

Interesting Statistics about Contacts

37% of nonprofits did not send an email within 30 days of sign up while 44% of nonprofits asked for a donation via email within 90 days of sign-up, according to Online Fundraising Scorecard.

Remember

Tweeting is like fishing. You wouldn’t drop one hook with a worm and hope for a catch.

Tweeting is like fishing. You need to cast and play the fish to catch a good one.

You need to tweet often and regularly to reach as many people as possible.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach