Content Creation Strategies for Nonprofits: Free Webinar on 7/23

Nearly 400 people voted on the topic for our next Nonprofit Marketing Guide free webinar, and 61% of you picked “Content Creation Strategies: Making the Most of Your Writing, Photos, and More.” So that’s what we are offering on July 23 at 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT).

Register now - 249 people already have! It’s free, but you must pre-register.

Even if you can’t join us live, go ahead and register and you’ll get the links to the recordings 48 hours after the live event.

Here’s what we will cover:

• Why an editorial calendar is the lithium for your content creation mania (you’ll get sample templates for several different kinds of editorial calendars)
• Where to get ideas for new content (you’ll be surprised how much you have once you know where to look)
• Setting realistic goals for yourself and prioritizing which content to create first
• Using technology to speed up your content creation and distribution (and watching for tech pitfalls that can slow you down)
• How to recycle what you create into different formats - and for different audiences
• Ways to organize everything so you can find it and reuse it later
• How to recruit other people to generate content for you (and how to be a kind but decisive editor when they do)

Register now to reserve your space (at the pace we are going, I’ll have to close registration before the 23rd).

More Goodies: Get Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Tips E-Newsletter (2-3 times per month)

Online Marketing Strategy & Website Makeover - Example from #09NTC

My favorite session at last week’s Nonprofit Technology Conference was “This is Iron Chef . . .  Battle Nonprofit.”

Three teams made up of consultants from four different agencies (Beaconfire Consulting, Forum One Communications, Free Range Studios, and Firefly Partners) got together on a Sunday for a strategy and design competition. Their challenge was to remake the online presence of Youth Speaks, a nonprofit presenter of Spoken Word performance, education, and youth development programs. They were all given the same information and amount of time to develop their programs.

Each team, comprised of 3-4 of the consulting firm frienemies, then presented their online strategy and home page redesigns for the first time at the conference. Take a few minutes to check out the slides to see what they came up with. You’ll see how some very creative firms go about a project like this, how they define online goals, set priorities and timelines, and use a blend of tactics.

I was tweeting during the session and these were my impressions as I listened:

• team 1 seemed a little too kitchen sink for me
• loving team 2’s real focus, storytelling, bringing in rural areas, building fan base for artists
• loving team 2’s thanks for attending email the day after event to get people to go online to share their impressions.
• team 3’s emphasis on artist’s own pages that they can really customize is nice touch.
• think I like team 3’s home page the best, but team 2’s strategy the best.

What made this session so good?

The Open Sharing. How often do we get to see four leading firms talk openly about how they would approach a real project, in quite a bit of detail? Uh, never. This one session saved Youth Speaks thousands and thousands of dollars, but it also let all of us learn about ways to approach these kinds of projects too. I admit that I feared that the firms wouldn’t want to give too much away and the proposals would be lightweight, but instead they were really packed with substance. Kudos to the four firms for really sharing their best ideas!

The Collaborative Spirit. This could have easily been set up as a firm-against-firm competition. But by blending the teams, it removed the real-world winners and losers element, and made it much more fun and less pressure-filled (at least it felt that way as someone in the audience - not sure how it felt to be on a team!)

No Right Answer. While there was certainly overlap between the three approaches, this session proves that there is no one right way to do online marketing - so don’t believe anyone who tries to convince you otherwise. Yes, when in doubt, follow the conventional wisdom or best practices, but don’t be afraid to try something new or to put your own twist on it. Although the intention was for the audience to vote on the winner, people were apparently having trouble getting a signal in the Hilton basement, so they did a “Make Noise” vote instead and called it a tie. More proof that there is no “right way.”

I would love to see more collaborative makeovers like this in the nonprofit marketing world. It doesn’t have to take on the whole Iron Chef theme. You may recall that Britt Bravo asked Nancy Schwartz, Katya Andresen, Nedra Weinreich, and me to review the Social Actions home page back in October. Here’s what we all said.

That wasn’t structured as a competition, but the outcome was similar - lots of concrete ideas that a real nonprofit can sort through and use, while also letting others learn from the analysis and strategies as well.

By the way, it was fabulous hanging out with Nancy, Katya, and Britt at the conference. (Photo of Britt and me by Nancy Schwartz. Photo of Nancy, Katya, and me by Nice Waiter at Foreign Cinema).

I’m already mulling over ways to pull them into some kind of Iron Chef / Extreme Makeover Something or Another for next year’s conference (Mark your calendars for NTC 2010 in Atlanta, April 8-10). Your ideas for a session? Or something we could do sooner online? Leave a comment.

P.S. Webinar Reminders: Successful Nonprofit Websites: Making Your Site Work for You this Wednesday, May 6 and Getting Your Nonprofit Started with Social Media on Tuesday, May 12.

Tags: 09NTC
More Goodies: Get Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Tips E-Newsletter (2-3 times per month)

Try This: Turn One Edition of Your Print Newsletter into Three Postcards

I’ve heard from several nonprofits lately who are only sending their 4-8 page print newsletters to their supporters twice a year. They wish they were sending it more often, but they just can’t make it happen because of time or budget constraints.

My response: What’s the point?

Updating your supporters twice a year on your work is not often enough to keep them engaged in what you do and top of mind when they consider contributing time or money. And each edition of a print newsletter typically costs thousands to print and mail, not including staff time. I really question whether the newsletter is even worth doing at all if you can only do it twice a year.

Instead of spending all that money to contact your supporters just twice, with questionable impact, you might want to try switching over to postcards. Naturally, every situation is different, but in many cases, a full-color postcard will cost about 1/3 of what a typical 4-page color newsletter will cost to print and mail to your list. That means you could contact your supporters six times a year, instead of two, for the same money.

And the best part is that postcards are much more likely to be read, because they fit right in with the way we all sort and read our mail today. In the few seconds we each give a piece of mail in the pile, a postcard can grab our hearts with a great photo (that graphic side is really important), deliver the key point we need to know, and motivate us to take the next step.

What might these six postcards focus on? Here is one possible line-up:

1. Connecting a Donor to a Result. One one side, include a photo of one of your donors — let’s call her Alice — ideally in a setting related to an accomplishment of your organization. On the text side, in three sentences, explain how Alice’s donation helped bring about this great result. Then ask your supporters to join Alice by joining a monthly giving program. Tell them where to find the sign-up page on your website.

2. Encouraging Event Registration. Promote an upcoming event, emphasizing what attendees will get out of it, and tell people how to RSVP. On the front side, include an image that represents your event theme or the good work that will come from the money you raise.

3. Urging Print Supporters to Move Online. Tell them about all the great stuff they are missing if they aren’t going to your website, reading your blog, and subscribing to your e-newsletter. Make your online offerings can’t-miss! On the other side, use a funny cartoon or graphic or a screen capture of something really cool on your website. Or include a photo of your executive director in an “I’m blogging this” t-shirt. Here’s a little more on this from Elizabeth Turnbull.

4. Thanking Your Donors. Reproduce a thank you note from someone your organization has helped on one side and on the other, give us a little bit of the back story on the person. Reinforce that it’s the donors to your organization who really deserve the thanks. Ask supporters to sign up for your monthly giving program or to take some other action in support of your cause.

5. Empowering Your Supporters. What can your supporters do on their own, in their own day to day lives, to further your mission and support your cause? Give them a quick lesson in how to do something on one side, with a picture of someone doing it on the front.

6. Asking Them to Join You and Others. Are you planning a rally? Do you need calls made to legislators or letters sent to editors? State you need them to do, explain the difference it will make, and show your supporters how to join with you and others in making it happen.

Want more? Staying in touch with your supporters regularly is one of the approaches I’ll be discussing during Best Practices in Nonprofit Marketing, a webinar on Tuesday, March 24. I’ll talk more about how to do that cost-effectively next week on Wednesday, March 11 during Nonprofit Marketing on Next to No Budget.  Registration for each webinar is $35 and they are also included with the 12-Week All-Access Pass ($97).

Are you using postcards to market your nonprofit? Share your story by leaving a comment!

More Goodies: Get Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Tips E-Newsletter (2-3 times per month)

Cranking Up Your Email Marketing for Fall Fundraising

Photo by Darwin Bell on Flickr

Earlier this week, I was the guest speaker for Network for Good’s Nonprofit 911 series and the topic was how to launch a successful email marketing campaign or e-newsletter. I explained what I would do if I were plucked out of my office and dropped into a small nonprofit and told to launch a new email marketing program from scratch. 

Here are the six basic steps I covered during the call:

1. Get an email newsletter service provider.

2. Get your current mailing list into shape.

3. Make is really easy for people to join your list and manage their own subscriptions.

4. Create an editorial calendar a few months at a time.

5. Write and design your email messages, always with your readers in mind.

6. Measure the results and track over time. 

Why so much emphasis on the list and process? For as much as I write about constructing good e-newsletters, the reality is that your bottom-line success depends largely on the size and quality of your list. Great content is a must (it will help you build and maintain your list), but the list itself is really key.

You can read my full list of talking points from the call and an abbreviated article that summarizes them. You can also listen to the recording now (mp3). It’s about an hour long.

Thanks to Rebecca, Jono, and Katya at Network for Good for having me!

P.S. If you need some help with your email campaigns or e-newsletters, I’m teaching the Email and Web Writing Webinar on November 12 and the Easy and Effective Ways to Build Your Email List webinar on December 9.

Tags: e-newsletter, email newsletter
More Goodies: Get Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Tips E-Newsletter (2-3 times per month)

Is Web 2.0 Software You Buy from Microsoft?

And Other “Stupid” Questions You Were Too Afraid to Ask!

Photo by B Tal on Flickr

The “Be the Media” project led by the Nonprofit Technology Network and Beth Kanter starts today. The project will ultimately be the “go-to” spot for people who are both learning and teaching about the use of social media in the nonprofit sector.

Beth invited me to participate and I’m looking forward not only to sharing what I know through the project, but also highlighting its growth here for you on this blog and asking for your input on various questions and ideas as Beth leads us through the creation of the various modules.

This week begins with “Why Your Nonprofit Organization Should Be the Media.” Beth kicked off the conversation here.

But before we can get into why social media is so great for nonprofits, let’s back up a step and answer some basic questions that people have asked me quietly under their breath when they were fairly certain no one else was listening, usually after I’d given a talk on online marketing . . .

1) So “Web 2.0″ isn’t software you buy from Microsoft? (Usually said with a slight deer-in-headlights look).

No. Web 2.0 is not a single piece of software, but a whole new way of looking at how we use the Internet. Now anyone, not just the fat cats or tech geeks, can put just about anything online and we can all discuss it, build upon it, and share it with each other. The power of the back-and-forth conversation and the collaboration that comes from that is what’s new and exciting about Web 2.0 over old Web 1.0, which was more about just putting information online. That’s still valuable, but it’s not the same as being able to talk about the information and debate its meaning with others across the street or around the world, all at the same time.

2) Do we really have to have a website? (Usually said by a face sagging from the sheer exhaustion of an already way-too-long to-do list).

You have to have some kind of online home base to work from. It can be a traditional website or a blog, but yes, you do need some kind of page that you can edit at will and where people can find you, without any special membership requirements. In other words, social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are great, but I think every nonprofit should start with a site that anyone can visit without a username and password. If you are completely clueless, start with Wordpress.com or Blogger.

3) Do we have to get on MySpace/Facebook? (Usually said with a profound look of worry about having to venture where all the younguns’ are).

Definitely not right away, and maybe never. It totally depends on who you are trying to reach. If the people you are trying to reach — your target demographic — are on a particular social networking site, then at some point, yes, you should work on being there too. But if the people you need to talk to the most don’t use those sites, then there is no need to make them a high priority. And it’s much more important to have your home-base website or blog in good shape than to start creating additional outlying pages that will be hard for you to keep updated.

4) Why should I be excited about letting some random person we’ve never heard of before raise money for our group? This is a nightmare! (Usually said with a look of great alarm after hearing me talk about online fundraising widgets like those individuals can create on Six Degrees).

This question is usually coming from one of two fears: (1) the person will go way off-message in raising the money and (2) the money will not actually be turned over to the charity.

Think about the best in-person conversation you’ve had in the last year with friends or family. Did you both have a script and did you both follow it exactly? Of course not! To realize the greatest benefits of social media, you have to let the conversation happen naturally, off script. Yes, you have to give up control of the message (which, honestly, you don’t have anyway). But why not embrace these fans and give them a little help, gently correctly any mistakes as you give them loads of praise for helping you? And people who use widgets from the established organizations like Six Degrees don’t actually see the money themselves — it goes through a processing company that cuts the check to the nonprofit directly.

5) I love the idea of using photos on our website or sharing through Flickr, but how do I get the photos off of my digital camera? (Usually said by someone laughing at herself for not being able to figure it out).

Your camera has some kind of memory card in it. That card is like a little hard drive where your pictures are stored and you need to let your main computer see that little hard drive. You can usually do this in one of two ways. First, your camera may have come with a cord that allows you to plug the camera into your computer through a USB or firewire slot. Or you can take the card out and plug it into a card reader that’s already built into your computer or that’s plugged into a USB slot. Your computer will give your memory card a drive letter. Find that, and then you simply copy and paste (or move) your picture files from that drive to your hard drive, just like you move any other file from one folder to another.

OK, with all of that out of the way, let’s have some fun talking about nonprofits and social media!

Tags: bethemedia, social media, Social Networking
More Goodies: Get Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Tips E-Newsletter (2-3 times per month)

How Nonprofits Can Use Slideshare.net

My recent presentation on “Message & Media: Marketing for Small Community-Based Nonprofits” is featured on the homepage of Slideshare.net today. It’s the same presentation that I shared with you in a post on Monday.

I’ve been meaning to talk a little bit about the value of Slideshare to nonprofit communicators, so this is a good chance to return the love.

Just like LinkedIn Answers, Slideshare.net has become a really good source of current thinking on various issues, including nonprofit marketing and especially social media. While you certainly can’t get a speaker’s complete message from her slides alone, you can usually get the gist of it, allowing you to follow up with the speaker directly if you want more detail on her point of view. And Slideshare does allow you to add audio to your slides, although I haven’t done that yet.

When I’m researching something new, whether for a client, a blog post, or a webinar, I’ve added a search on Slideshare to my must-check list. Googling is usually the first thing I do, but I quickly move on to other favorite sources now like Slideshare. I highly recommend that you do the same when doing online research for your nonprofit.

The presentations posted by Beth Kanter (queen of all that is social media for nonprofits) and Jonathon Coleman (Nature Conservancy social media genius) alone are worth your time. Beth has also blogged about how nonprofits can use Slideshare for advocacy so I won’t repeat her points here - go read them on her blog.

Are you using Slideshare in any capacity? Share what you are doing with it and your Slideshare link by leaving a comment. You can find all of my presentations at slideshare.net/kivilm.

Tags: powerpoint, research, slideshare
More Goodies: Get Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Tips E-Newsletter (2-3 times per month)

Writing a “Quick and Dirty” Marketing Strategy

Every time you launch a new campaign or implement a new program, I am sure you give yourself ample time to sit down and think through the very best marketing strategies and communications tactics. I have no doubt that you have ample funding to do market research, to hire the most creative talent, to always follow best practices, to test your marketing, and to launch your campaigns with great fanfare.

YEAH, RIGHT!

OK, here’s the real world. You have what is supposed to be a major fundraiser next week and you are just now thinking about a press release. You received a little grant for a new program that you think will really help your community, but it doesn’t include a line item to market the program to the people who need it. Your board is sick of that other group down the street getting all the attention and they expect you to do something about it.

NOW WHAT?

Take a deep breath. Grab a sheet of paper (or a napkin) and a pen (type if you want, but I personally find sketching these out much easier). We are going to do a “back of the napkin, quick and dirty” marketing strategy. I’ll explain this concept in much more detail with real examples during the “How to Write a Quick and Dirty Marketing Strategy” webinar on Wednesday, June 11, 2008. Details here.

1) What are you trying to accomplish? What’s the goal?

Trying to get a certain number of people to an event? Need to let a particular group of people know about a new program? What do you want to happen and whom do you need to engage to make it happen?

2) Why should they care? What’s in it for them?

Yes, this is important to you, but why should it be important to these people you want to communicate with? What do they get out of it? How are they going to be better off as a result of listening to you and acting on what you say?

3) What’s the easiest, most direct way to get information to them?

What are they already reading? Where are they already going? Who are they already talking to? Take the answers to #2, draft some marketing copy, and get it out there.

Yes, this is a really oversimplified, bare bones approach to nonprofit marketing. But if you can quickly work through these three questions before you start throwing pixels and print out there, you’ll be much better off.

Join us on Wednesday and you’ll see how this works in the real world and what other questions you should ask if you have a little more time.

Tags: Nonprofit Marketing Strategy, nonprofit-marketing
More Goodies: Get Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Tips E-Newsletter (2-3 times per month)

Applying the Hot Marketing Trends to Your Newsletters

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking at the National Capital Gift Planning Council’s Annual “Planned Giving Days” conference in Washington DC. Planned giving refers to philanthropy in estate planning, like leaving money to a charity in your will or setting up a charitable gift annuity.

My friend Rob Blizard, who was coordinating the Marketing Track, asked me to speak about improving the newsletters that planned giving departments send out. And boy do most of them need some improvement! So, I took three hot trends in nonprofit marketing and applied them specifically to these kinds of newsletters. The presentation was very well received — thanks to everyone in the room for participating in the exercises and asking lots of great questions.

Since these trends can be applied to any nonprofit newsletter, I thought you might be interested in the slides:

| View | Upload your own

(Go to the blog if you don’t see the slideshare window.)

I’d also like to give a special shout-out to J. Erik Potter, who I met at the conference. He reads this blog and writes his own called A Blog on Giving. Thanks for introducing yourself!

Tags: marketing trends, newsletter writing, nonprofit-marketing, trends
More Goodies: Get Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Tips E-Newsletter (2-3 times per month)