![Messages
"Comprehensive community
building naturally lends itself to a
return-on-investment rationale
that can be modeled, drawing on
existing practice," it begins, going
on to argue that "[a] factor
constraining the flow of
resources to CCIs is that funders
must often resort to targeting or
categorical requirements in grant
making to ensure accountability."](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/proedmarketing2014-141104130356-conversion-gate02/85/Get-Your-Marketing-Message-Right-78-320.jpg)
Get Your Marketing Message Right
- 1. Getting Your Marketing Message Right ProEd 549 November 4, 2014 Sara Brueck Nichols
- 2. Introductions • Who are you? • Where are you from? • What do you want out of class today?
- 4. STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
- 5. “We are a species of ideas. And the ideas that spread, win. And marketing is just the art of getting ideas to spread. Sure, selling bathroom deodorant via daytime TV commercials is marketing. But so was Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech. So was The Declaration Of Independence.” -Hugh MacLeod
- 6. 2014 Content Marketing Benchmarks
- 7. 2014 Content Marketing Benchmarks • Are you utilizing content marketing? >90% of Non Profits say yes
- 8. 2014 Content Marketing Benchmarks • Are you effective at content marketing? 74% of Non Profits say “not very”
- 9. Getting Attention Survey 2012 • Do your organization’s messages connect with your target audience?
- 10. Getting Attention Survey 2012 • Are your messages speaking to audience wants & needs? 70% of Non Profits say their message spur a “so what?” instead of an “AHA” • Is your message sufficiently clear? 26% of Non Profits describe their messages as confusing
- 11. Getting Attention Survey 2012 • Does your message inspire action? Only 16% of Non Profits describe their message as powerful • What part of your message is least impactful? 71% of Marketers & Fundraisers say their tagline is the least impactful message
- 12. Getting Attention Survey 2012 • Are your messages used consistently across channels? <50% of Non Profits say yes • Are your messages developed cross-organizationally? Marketers, Fundraisers & Executive Directors all have message-driven positions
- 13. Messaging & Loyalty • Sustained loyalty comes from providing true value in marketing campaigns, rather than simply promoting goods and services • Customers are likely to act after receiving a “timely message that was relevant, helpful and consistent with their expectations.”
- 14. Messaging & Loyalty • Audience is more likely to take action on a scale of 1 to 10 when they received a marketing message that: – Matched brand expectations – 8.7 – Matched past interactions – 8.6 – Relevant to audience needs – 8.6 – Received at the right time – 8.4 – Helpful or useful in aiding decision to act – 8.4
- 15. Messaging & Loyalty • Loyal members are – 4x more likely to spend significantly more – Higher per interaction spend – 3x more likely to have frequent interaction • Half reported last engagement with a brand was prompted by email communication
- 16. WHAT GOES WRONG
- 17. What Goes Wrong? • “Always about us, not about the people we’re communicating with.” • “Too long and filled with jargon.” • “Superficially inspiring. People respond strongly the first time they hear them, but not over time.” • “Lack clarity, because we have too many cooks in the message kitchen.” • “Good for each program but weak or nonexistent for the org as a whole.”
- 18. What Goes Wrong
- 19. What Goes Wrong
- 23. What Goes Wrong
- 25. “Help us assure the world always has music – invest in a future musician with a scholarship.” “We have more free and low-cost concerts than anyplace else in the City.”
- 26. What Goes Wrong
- 27. What Goes Wrong Inside-Out: Organization Centered VS. Outside-In: Target Centered
- 28. • Who • What • Where • Goal
- 29. What Goes Wrong • Clues you have an Inside-Out message: – You see your organization’s key messages as inherently desirable – Lack of marketing success is blamed on audience ignorance and/or lack of motivation – Little effort put into target audience research – Marketing is used only to promote organization and its needs – one-way conversations
- 30. What Goes Wrong • Clues you have an Inside-Out message: – You have a “silver bullet” marketing strategy, using the same tactic over and over. – Your message differs depending on who/what delivers it – Competition is ignored. Every other message competes with yours!
- 31. CONSIDERATIONS
- 32. Considerations • Some things to remember – Have a strategic messaging team – representatives from across the organization – Clearly articulated positioning statement is a vital precursor to message development – Determine if your desired actions align with your programs – Discuss. Through the discussion your goal should be reach consensus on the desired action. Once you think you’ve obtained consensus, write it down.
- 33. Considerations • Mission vs. Position – Mission • Internally focused • Goals of organization • Only one mission – Position • Externally focused • Based upon the mission, but tailored to the unique goals and motivations of the audience • Persuade people to take action
- 34. Mistake #1 • What we do • What’s in it for me
- 36. What Goes Wrong • Audience determines the rules • If you don’t understand the audience, you can’t create effective messages • Without clear customer profiles, marketing is about luck. The > you understand your customer, the better your chances of success
- 38. Audience • No such thing as “general public” – Who will evangelize? – Who will be most receptive? – Who is most likely to take action?
- 39. Audience • What kind of people tend to support your organization? • What are their values? • How do they communicate? • How do they spend their time? • What appeals to them? • What do they dislike? • What motivates them to act?
- 40. Audience • Who are your three most important audience groups? – Those who can do the most for your organization – Those who are most likely to do so • Write down everything you can about your three target audiences, so you can focus messages on the right sweet spot
- 42. Audience: Families Families with young children Families with older children Immigrants
- 43. Audience: Families Nibblers: Families with young children. Tend to stay on the periphery of the park and visit for brief periods. Explorers: Families with older children. Explore the complete park, spend more time there. Celebrators: Extended families, usually immigrants. Use the park as a gathering spot.
- 44. Audience • Profile: • Action:
- 46. ASSIGNMENT 2: GOALS & MOTIVATORS
- 48. Messages • The wrong type of messaging is the type that is easy to ignore
- 49. #ShareACoke Messages • You can’t explain people into caring about you.
- 50. Goals & Motivators Not what you want to say What your audience wants to hear
- 51. Goals & Motivators • What are your organization’s goals? Goals
- 52. Goals & Motivators • What are the goals of your 3 audience segments? Goals 2 Goals 1 Goals 3
- 53. Goals & Motivators • Where is the overlap? Organization 3 2 1
- 55. Personas • Be more strategic in how you cater to your audience • Internalize your customer • Relate to them as human beings
- 56. Personas • Multi-dimensional sketches that typify your audience segments • Created using – Organizational goals – Donor/Volunteer/Client demographics – What others say about you
- 57. Personas
- 58. Personas 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Open Rate General Targeted
- 59. Personas
- 60. Personas • Context: – A nonprofit is launching a new community fitness program and needs to promote it to community activists, politicians, and citizens, and to motivate their involvement. The staff needs to know what’s important to these audiences, so it can shape its messages, website and blog (a centerpiece of the campaign), brochures and events accordingly. • Challenge: – This is the first time the organization is proactively communicating to motivate the launch of fit community programs. The campaign will center on a new blog and Web site, but the nonprofit doesn’t know how to design message to most effectively educate its diverse audiences and motivate them to act. The communications team just doesn’t know where to start.
- 61. Personas Frank Cummings, age 64, owns his own home in a moderately-priced area of an industrial-based community in Ohio. He is married, and has two children who now live in neighboring states. Frank took an early-retirement option from the electrical contracting firm where he worked for 19 years. Now he spends a lot of his free time working on his home and yard, and walking in the neighborhood.
- 62. Personas • How person spends His day? – Day at work/home – Habits – Likes/Dislikes – Environment at work/home • Who does this person trust? • Personal and professional goals in relation to your organization’s programs?
- 63. Personas • Who else is encouraging them to “do the right thing” (follow through on your calls to action)? • Where are they in the Stages of Change about doing the right thing? • One persona per audience group
- 65. Personas Annoyed By… One problem Frank has noticed as he walks is that the traffic speeds along his street (a connector between two arterial streets) are often well in excess of the 25MPH posted speed limit. . Frank has made comments about the high speeds to his city council representative, who is, with Frank, a member of the local Lions Club. But the council-person, while sympathetic, hasn’t done anything other than to suggest that Frank should lodge a complaint with someone at the city, or the police. Meanwhile, the speeding cars continue, and Frank feels unsafe as he walks.
- 66. Personas Online Habits Like some in his age group, Frank is a late-comer to computers and the Internet. He needed to learn to use a computer-based service mounted in his truck the last few years he was working, and struggled to keep up with the technology that seemed to come much easier to younger people in the firm. Frank purchased a computer primarily to use e-mail with his children, but he also has used several programs such as QuickBooks and tax-prep software. His connection to the Internet is still through DSL so it’s not the fastest and Frank doesn’t like to wait around to see family videos on YouTube or other Web content.
- 67. Personas • Wants • Slowed-down traffic outside his house to increase walker and biker safety. • His neighborhood to be a safer and more enjoyable place to live.
- 68. Personas Successful community fitness program Slower traffic; neighborhood safety Safety Messaging focused on safe biking and walking, rather than the need to follow traffic safety rules. Citizen campaign recruitment efforts focused on neighbor-to-neighbor messengers, postering and door-to-door flyers. The response was strong.
- 70. Taglines What is your tagline?
- 71. Taglines • Most important message – 8 words or less – Essence of your message – Foundation for “elevator pitch” • Presented from viewpoint of audience • “Sweet spot” – overlap of your wants, your audience’s wants and what makes you different
- 72. Taglines What makes people listen & care?
- 73. Taglines 37 Grams of Saturated Fat VS. + +
- 74. Taglines “Theater Popcorn is a Double Feature of Fat” “Lights, Camera, Cholesterol!”
- 75. Taglines • Consistency – “You’re not in business to entertain yourself; you’re in business to change the world. To change the world, your message has to stick. For your message to stick, it must remain consistent.” • Organizational & programmatic taglines must relate
- 76. Taglines • Is your tagline solid, reliable, well-recognized & concise? – How do you convey it to your personas? • Is your tagline weak, not well-known, inconsistent? – How do you improve impact? • Do you have a tagline?
- 78. Messages "Comprehensive community building naturally lends itself to a return-on-investment rationale that can be modeled, drawing on existing practice," it begins, going on to argue that "[a] factor constraining the flow of resources to CCIs is that funders must often resort to targeting or categorical requirements in grant making to ensure accountability."
- 79. Messages Which one do you remember? Which one is more compelling? Which one is most likely to drive action or awareness?
- 80. About Us The Long Beach Nonprofit Partnership was formed in 1993 by a small group of professionals who believed in the importance of a strong, well-supported nonprofit community in Long Beach. They put into place a series of high-quality, low-cost programs to provide training, promote collaborative opportunities, enhance resource development and aid in capacity-building for the full range of nonprofit organizations. Today, the Partnership is a vital and growing resource for over 3,000 community-based organizations in the greater Long Beach area. We offer information, referral and consulting services, networking opportunities, a prized Philanthropy and Research Library, and a full schedule of year-round, educational seminars and workshops. It is through your generous support that we are able to provide service to the nonprofit community.
- 81. Who We Are. And What We Do. Join Over 3 Million Young People DoSomething.org makes the world suck less. One of the largest orgs for young people and social change, our 3 million members tackle campaigns that impact every cause, from poverty to violence to the environment to literally everything else. Any cause, anytime, anywhere.
- 82. Messages • How do you design a message that is sticky and drives action, awareness or change? • Made to Stick – 6 rules of message development
- 83. Messages Do unto others as you would have done to you..
- 84. Messages
- 85. Messages
- 87. Messages
- 88. Messages
- 89. Messages • Tell us why we should care, and how we can address the problem • Relevant – always write from the audience view point, not the organization’s perspective • Avoid jargon • Keep it short • Be consistent
- 90. Messages • Evaluate effectiveness – sometimes audiences change, along with messaging • Give everyone in organization simple, compelling and memorable words they can use to connect with a variety of audiences – get them excited about the organization is doing
- 91. Messages • Do not just make lists • Do not overwhelm with information • Bad communication talks about HOW an organization does the work. Good communication shows WHY an organization is needed and WHAT happens in the world as a result of its work.
- 92. “We help the homeless” vs “You can change a life”
- 93. Two Ways to Say It Our service makes your life easier. Here’s how it works. You can join here.
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- 95. Messages • Using your mission, audience groups, goals & motivators, personas & tagline construct an audience-focused message framework for a program
- 98. Delivery & Tools Tappers vs. Listeners
- 99. Delivery & Tools • Tappers hear the song in their head • Listeners hear only a disconnected series of taps • Curse of Knowledge. – Once we know something, we find it hard to imagine what it was like not to know it. It becomes difficult for us to share our knowledge with others, because we can't readily re-create our listeners' state of mind.
- 100. Delivery & Tools • “Maximize Shareholder Value” – Simple? – Unexpected? – Concrete? – Credible? – Emotional? – Story?
- 101. Delivery & Tools • “Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategically targeted aerospace initiatives.” – Simple? – Unexpected? – Concrete? – Credible? – Emotional? – Story?
- 102. Delivery & Tools • “The challenge for companies (of any size) is to find a way to build sustainable, relationship-minded business processes that account for the new buying methods of an educated, mobile, personalization-minded buying market. Some of what online tools do well is address all of this. But that’s like saying a great pen will help you write better. It’s not about the tools. It’s about a choice to understand how to stand out as a provider of value above-and-beyond-the-sale to one’s customer base...The fact that technology makes our voice easier to hear, does not mean people will listen.” –Chris Brogan
- 103. Delivery & Tools • Lead with what you do, and the benefits this offers, not who you are. • Listen to what you’re hearing online. • Focus on improving credibility • Evolve your voice to one who is warmer & more conversational
- 104. Delivery & Tools • Where are your personas online?
- 105. Delivery & Tools • Message type – Informal • Twitter • Blog • Tumblr • Cocktail/Elevator Pitch – Medium • Facebook • Direct Mail • Website and/or blog • Instagram
- 106. Delivery & Tools • Message type – Formal • News release • Board communication • Website • Direct mail
- 107. Delivery & Tools • Look at your personas – Select potential tools/technologies • Modify your message for – Informal platform – Medium platform – Formal platform
- 109. REVIEW
- 110. Review • Next steps? • Roadblocks? • Concerns? • Questions?