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This blog is all about do-it-yourself nonprofit communications and marketing. I love helping small and medium-sized nonprofits communicate more effectively with their members, donors, volunteers and other supporters, so that together, we can all make the world a better place. I do that as a blogger, trainer, coach and consultant.
I believe that even the smallest nonprofit staffs with the most modest budgets can achieve tremendous results through savvy marketing and communications. I hope this blog and my online marketing training and other resources encourage you to do just that, while helping you grow personally as a nonprofit marketer and communications professional.
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This week’s Carnival of Nonprofit Consultants is back at its birthplace here at Nonprofit Communications. Our topic this week is Nonprofit Newsletters and we have lots of opinions to share about what works and what doesn’t. If you are responsible for your newsletter, read on. If someone else in the office does it, forward this to them.
Katya Andresen at Katya’s Non-Profit Marketing Blog offers three ways to a better newsletter (or none at all). Katya says nonprofits spend a whole lot of time on newsletters, and guess what: no one cares. I write newsletters for nonprofits and guess what: I agree with her. Most of the newsletters I see are ineffective and don’t follow Katya’s suggestions. After you read Katya’s post, you can come back here for more on not writing for the general public.
Nancy Schwartz at Getting Attention shows you how to get to know your audience via your e-news welcome email. This is such a great idea that I’m going to work with a couple of clients this week to improve the way they do it. As a bonus, be sure to take a peek at some of Nancy’s articles on e-newsletters and other nonprofit marketing topics.
Marc Sirken at npMarketing Blog recently found great marketing in the oddest of places. Find out where Marc picked up a copy of a print newsletter and why he loved it.
Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog tells you why your newsletter matters and how to make it more donor-centric. (Jeff has a new hipster blog design that’s worth a gander too.)
Roger Craver and Tom Belford at The Agitator say “It’s the Headline, Stupid” and explain why you might need two headlines for the same article if you use it in print and online.
Heather Carpenter at Aspiration Tech tells us about three nonprofit newsletters she reads and why she likes them. I sensed a theme: they provide her with useful information that she can use, not a lot of information about the organization itself.
Matthew Monberg at Beyond Giving likes how the magazine Runner’s World is using technology to connect people and raise money. It’s an interesting case with some intriguing possibilities for others. How can you connect your publications like your print or email newsletters with other technologies people use (GPS in this case)?
The bonus host post this week is my tips on how to write personal profiles. You can find more of my newsletter tips at www.nonprofitnewsletters.net.
Matthew at Beyond Giving is our host for next week. He is seeking posts on the theme of “Nonprofit Excellence.” Get them in to Matthew by Friday night if you want to contribute.
Don’t forget, you can get weekly email reminders about submitting to the Carnival by signing up here. And if you aren’t subscribed to the Carnival feed yet, why not? You know it’s good stuff! Subscribe on this page, in the right-hand sidebar, below the BlogCarnival editions listing. Or you can subscribe to this blog and you’ll automatically get the Carnival too.
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Including personal profiles in your newsletter is great way to tell an important story about your organization, while also recognizing the contributions of a single person. I write a lot of donor profiles, for example, that tell nice stories about the individuals and acknowledge their generosity, while highlighting the organization’s accomplishments — i.e. “Jane Donor made The Nonprofit the sole beneficiary of her estate because we did Some Great Thing.”
Here are five tips for writing a better personal profile:
1) Ask open-ended questions. Whether you interview the person on email, over the phone, or in person, ask lots of open-ended questions that are impossible to answer in one or two words. You want to generate answers that you can work with and build a story around.
2) Ask enough questions to generate more material than you need. For a 500-word profile, I’ll ask 7-10 questions and if the person is replying over email, I’ll ask them to shoot for 50-100 words per answer. That will usually give me enough background, facts, and quotes to pull together a good first draft, after adding in the organizational info.
3) Don’t use everything you get. I rarely use everything a profile subject says or writes, because half of it ends up being irrelevant to the particular story angle. Use the details and quotes that support the story you are telling about this person and the connection to your organization.
4) Keep the biographical stats to a minimum. A profile isn’t a biography. Include enough personal details so we can get a general sense of who this person is, but don’t let it drag out into a whole life story. Let us know if we are reading about a man or woman (if the name doesn’t give it away), give us clues about the person’s age if you don’t say it outright, and be clear about their connection to the organization (volunteer, donor, client, etc.).
5) Include several quotes. Let the profile subject talk about how great your organization is and the wonderful work you are doing in his or her own words. They’ll mean a lot more coming from the person than if you said them yourself. I always ask donors, for example, “Why did you first get involved with The Nonprofit?” and “Why do you continue to support the work they are doing now?” Both questions usually produce a great quote to include in a profile.
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When I teach newsletter classes, I always like to show examples of good newsletters as well as examples of ones that have big problems. The most glaring errors, because they are so easy to see, are those involving photos. Here are a few newsletter photo horrors you’ll want to avoid.
Photos at the wrong resolution. Print newsletters need photos with at least 300 dpi at the correct size. Online newsletters need photos at 72 ppi at the correct size. That’s a big difference and it means you can’t use the same file for both print and online newsletters. If you put an online version into a print newsletter, it will look pixelated (you can see the little boxes in the photo) or blurry. If you put a print version into an e-newsletter, it will be way too big or take too long to download, depending on how the photo is rendered by the program reading your newsletter.
The Solution: If I am using a photo for both a print and email newsletter, I’ll end up with three versions of the file: the original, which I always keep as is; a print version that I have resized when set to 300 dpi; and an online version that I have resized when set at 72 ppi.
Photos that make people look bad. Unless you are specifically trying to humiliate someone, you want to make sure that the photos you include in your newsletter make the people in them look good.
In my pile of bad examples is a newsletter by an organization that works with disabled adults. It includes a photo of a disfigured woman. This is not bad in and of itself. What’s horrible is that the photo is clearly vertically skewed, so the woman’s face is much more long and narrow than it should be, making her look really bad. I suspect the person who designed the newsletter was trying to fill up some space and dragged the corner of the photo down without also dragging it across horizontally.
The Solution: Make sure you keep your ratio of horizontal to vertical constant. Depending on the program you are using, you’ll usually want to hold down the shift or control key when resizing photos.
Photos that are the wrong color. You also want to avoid printing your newsletter in certain colors if you use lots of people photos. People pictures generally look horrible when printed in bright pink, yellow, orange, or red for example.
The Solution: If you print your newsletter in one or two colors only, pick a color that will make people photos look good. These are generally darker colors, like dark blue or purple, for example, that produce a look that is closer to the black and white we are all used to.
If you are interested in more common newsletter mistakes involving more than just photos, sign up for my free 5-day e-course, “Avoid These Five Newsletter Blunders.”
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To get the folks on your mailing list to read your newsletters, you need to provide them with something of value. Just updating them on what you’ve been doing isn’t enough. One way to do that is to help them solve problems they face. You can do that with several different types of newsletters articles:
How-to articles. Explain how your readers can do something that helps you accomplish your mission.
- “How to Talk to Your Friends and Family About HIV/AIDS”
- “Seven Qualities of a Great Volunteer”
- “How to Baby-Proof Your Home”
Advice columns. These can be serious or funny. You can ask readers to send in questions (put up a simple form on your website) or you can make up questions that allow you to provide answers that contain the information you want to get out to your readers that month.
FAQs. What questions do you get over the phone and via email? Chances are that other people have those same questions. Periodically, pull them all together for a newsletter article.
First-person anecdotes. Have someone related to your organization write a first-person account of how they solved a problem related to your mission.
- “How I Cut My Family’s Energy Bill in Half”
- “How I Helped My Child Deal with the Loss of a Pet”
- “How I Convinced My Husband to Get a Check-up”
Success stories. These articles can be similar to the first-person anecdote examples, but they are written in the third-person instead.
Try including at least one of these types of articles in each edition of your email or print newsletter. Your readers will thank you.
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Earlier this week I taught “Strategies for Successful Nonprofit Newsletters” for the Duke University Certificate Program in Nonprofit Management. During the course, several students expressed their frustrations about working with their executive directors on various newsletter issues. Here are three questions they asked and how I answered.
Q: We always have to print the “letter from the director” on the cover and it’s always boring and awful. What do we do?
A: I recommend dropping the letter entirely. More often than not, they are stream of consciousness ramblings that add little value to the newsletter. Many executive directors dread writing them, and it shows. Every article in the newsletter should be written for the readers, not for the director’s ego.
If you must keep the letter or you believe it does provide value to the readers, then treat it like you would any other article in the newsletter. Pick a topic and stick to it. Write an interesting headline (not just “Letter from the Director,” which is fine as a kicker — a subhead that appears above the main headline). Write an engaging lead paragraph.
Q: My boss is a terrible writer, but she insists on writing articles.
A: It’s time to add “ghostwriter” to your job description. Nonprofit executive directors are all very busy people. They will usually welcome help from staff on time-consuming tasks like writing newsletter articles.
Tell your boss you would like to help her save some time by putting together a first draft of the article and then she can spend her time fine-tuning and polishing it. In most cases, the executive director will read it over quickly, make a few minor changes, and move on to the next emergency on her desk.
Q: Our director never meets his deadlines, because he always waits until the last minute to figure out what his column will be about.
A: Develop an editorial calendar for several issues at a time. You should have a good sense for how many articles you need for each issue and what categories those articles fall into (e.g. a letter from the director, a how-to article, a client success story, a volunteer profile, etc.). Create a grid with the publication dates across the top and the article categories along the left side. Fill in the grid with specifics. Once the director sees what else will be covered in each issue, it should be easier for him to come up with his topics and to plan for them in advance. Be sure to provide reminders about two weeks before the articles are due, and again a few days before the deadline.
These same three questions come up every time I teach a newsletter class. If you are an executive director, please don’t make your newsletter staff suffer in silence. Talk about the best ways for you to work together to create a newsletter your readers will enjoy.
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Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Jun 9, 2006 in
E-Newsletters,
Media Relations,
Print Newsletters If you are looking for some fresh ideas for newsletter articles or press releases, consider these five summer-inspired themes.
1) Summer Heat. How does hot weather impact your services or your clients? Can you offer advice to your newsletter readers or to the public about anything related to summer heat? Humane societies can offer tips for keeping pets cool. Agencies that address children’s issues can remind parents not to leave their kids in cars with the windows rolled up. Groups with members who work outside can provide tips on avoiding heat exhaustion while working outdoors.
2) Vacations. How can your readers integrate your issue into their summer vacation plans? Health organizations can write about ways to eat healthy or exercise while traveling. Education groups can provide tips on brain twister games to keep kids busy on road trips.
3) Fresh Fruits and Vegetables. How does the increase in the variety of fresh or locally grown produce available in the summer impact your readers? Organizations for seniors can talk about the importance of a varied diet and provide easy recipes using fresh produce. Environmental groups can discuss the impact of pesticides used in food production on the planet.
4) Summer Jobs. Whether it’s more chores at home or a part-time job, summer gives just about everyone something new to do. Social service or employment groups can offer tips on how to make the most of a summer job or internship. Art or community beautification groups can suggest projects for families to pursue in their own yards or in their neighborhoods.
5) Bugs! From mosquitoes to fireflies, summer is bug season. How does the increase in the insect population affect your clients or supporters? Wildlife groups can remind people of the role bugs play in the circle of life. Health or environmental groups can provide tips on non-toxic insect repellant.
Enjoy the sun with a cool drink in hand and cook up some summer article ideas of your own. Share them here by submitting a comment on this post.
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Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on May 23, 2006 in
Copywriting,
E-Newsletters,
Nonprofit Communications Magilla Marketing published an article today called Not-So-Obvious Words Trigger Spam Filters, which is based on research by an email marketing firm in the UK. Here are ten of the words that could easily appear in email from nonprofits:
- acceptance
- accordingly
- presently
- maintained
- organization
- percent
- sincerely
- somebody
- statements
- urgent
None of these rise to the same level as “Viagra” or “re-finance,” but if you can avoid them, you might as well. Getting your e-newsletter, fundraising appeal, or call for volunteers through the various spam filters employed today isn’t easy.
An even better strategy, however, is to constantly remind the people your organization emails to add you to their “friends” or “white” list in their spam filters. Give your email readers a specific address you use for mass mailings and ask them on your website and in your print publications to approve that address in their spam filters.
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Posted by Kivi Leroux Miller on Mar 30, 2006 in
E-Newsletters,
Favorite Websites & Blogs,
Reviews If you want to learn how to produce a top-notch email newsletter or ezine, my favorite site, far and above all others, is Ezine-Tips.com. The site isn’t for nonprofits specifically, but many of the lessons shared there can be applied easily to the nonprofit sector. The site covers everything from design and formatting to content creation and list management.
Here are three of my favorite articles, just from the last month or so, with good lessons that apply to the nonprofit sector:
Ezine Content Sources To Help Make Choosing Your Next Email Newsletter Topic a Breeeeeze!
Ezine Readers - Do Your Email Newsletter Members Pay Attention?
How Do I Make Any Money With An Email Newsletter?
Use the search engine on the site to go deep into the archives. If you are new to email newsletter publishing and you’ve got a question, I bet Chris Knight has covered it.
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