Can Storytelling and Good Online Writing Mix?

Online Writing: Dos and Don’ts of Writing for the Web and Email Webinar This Wednesday, November 12, 2008 1:00 pm Eastern (10:00 am Pacific) Learn More and Register

Maybe not, if you believe what Jakob Nielsen says about writing styles for print versus the web.

Neilsen (whose Alertbox e-newsletter is a must-read) writes:

In print, you can spice up linear narrative with anecdotes and individual examples that support a storytelling approach to exposition. On the Web, such content often feels like filler; it slows down users and stands in the way of their getting to the point.

Web content must be brief and get to the point quickly, because users are likely to be on a specific mission. In many cases, they’ve pulled up the page through search. Web users want actionable content; they don’t want to fritter away their time on (otherwise enjoyable) stories that are tangential to their current goals.

Instead of a predefined narrative, websites must support the user’s personal story by condensing and combining vast stores of information into something that specifically meets the user’s immediate needs. Thus, instead of an author-driven narrative, Web content becomes a user-driven narrative.

In my webinars and workshops on nonprofit websites, I talk about organizing your site around the answers to the top three questions visitors will have and the top three actions they’ll want to take. But in that same course, I also talk about the importance of telling stories on your homepage as a way to give people solid examples of exactly what it is you do.

So if we believe what Nielsen says (and I almost always do), how can good online writing and storytelling co-exist?

I believe the answer is through good page layout. Instead of throwing a story into the middle of an article that is otherwise very how-to oriented or full of bullets, put that story in its own column or box. Let the story support the fact-based article and vice versa, but don’t meld them into one.

What do you think? How do you blend the web user’s need for speed with emotional storytelling? Leave a comment to add your perspective.

Want more? Attend Wednesday’s webinar on how to write for the web and email.

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What’s Your Story? Nonprofits Need “Founding” Story

I’m teaching Nonprofit Storytelling: How to Write Your Nonprofit’s Best Stories this Wednesday, September 10, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern (10:00 a.m. Pacific). Join the webinar for just $35.

Every nonprofit has great stories to tell, although it’s not always clear exactly how and when you should tell those stories.

One story that ALL nonprofits should tell is your “founding” story or “how we got started” story.

One of my favorite founding stories is the one on Heifer International’s website. It’s buried in the site, but I bet it’s a story that staff tells all the time when introducing the organization to new supporters.

“These children don’t need a cup, they need a cow” was Dan West’s reaction to ladling out food rations to starving kids. What he did next, and how it grew into Heifer International is a great story for several reasons:

It’s about real people.

It’s about real emotions.

It’s about real actions that those real people took based on those real emotions.

Here is another founding story that appeared as Ruth Sheehan’s column in the Raleigh News and Observer this week: “Paying It Forward for Real” is the story of how the Caring Community Foundation came to be (Thanks to my buddy Claire Meyerhoff for the tip).

Once again, you’ll see that what makes this story so effective is that it’s about just a few specific, real people, reacting with real emotion to a situation (cancer in this case) and doing something concrete about it.

Note what these founding stories are NOT about:

– All the different organizational permutations that brought them to where they are today.

– Generic people who had generic ideas and generic responses ala “A bunch of people in the community had an idea and started coming to some meetings about it.”

– Lots of irrelevant detail that detracts from the core message. It’s sometimes hard to boil down a founding story when you are in the process of founding an organization, but with a little time and hindsight, you should be able to find those essential elements that explain why and how you came to be.

You can learn more about nonprofit storytelling during this Wednesday’s webinar. Details and Registration Here.

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)

Dozen Nonprofit Marketing Webinar Recordings Now Online

Photo by RaeA

If you’ve been waiting for me to make the recordings from the Nonprofit Marketing Guide webinar series available, wait no more. The following titles are now all available when you purchase an All-Access Pass.

For $97, you’ll get to view all of these webinars and any I add in the next twelve weeks. You also get to attend any and all live webinars I host for the next twelve weeks, at no additional charge.

Nonprofit Storytelling: How to Write Your Nonprofit’s Best Stories
Recorded May 14, 2008.

How to Connect with Generation Y
Recorded May 7, 2008. Featuring Sam Davidson.

What Do Baby Boomer Donors Want from Your Nonprofit?
Recorded May 1, 2008. Featuring Jeff Brooks.

Online Writing: Dos and Don’ts of Writing for the Web and Email
Recorded April 24, 2008.

How to Write a Press Release Reporters Will Love
Recorded April 17, 2008. Featuring Claire Meyerhoff.

Branding for Nonprofits: What Is It and Should You Do It?
Recorded April 10, 2008. Audio only, featuring Nancy Schwartz.

Converting Your Print Newsletter into an Email Newsletter
Recorded March 20, 2008.

How to Write a Four-Page Nonprofit Annual Report
Recorded March 13, 2008.

Can We Find You on Google? Keywords and Search Engine Optimization for Nonprofits
Featuring David Westbrook. Recorded March 6, 2008.

How to Make Your Nonprofit Brochures Pop! – The Crash Course
Recorded February 27, 2008.

What Should We Write About? Storytelling Ideas for Nonprofits
Recorded February 13, 2008.

Getting Reporters to Cover Your Nonprofit: Tell Your Story So They’ll Tell It Too
Recorded February 6, 2008. Audio only, featuring Claire Meyerhoff.

Yes, it’s a ton of great training at a very reasonable price. Ready to get your pass? Register now.

Tags: nonprofit, Nonprofit Communications, nonprofit-marketing, training

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

Nonprofit Marketing Tip: Be Nice. It Pays Off.

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at a conference in Nashville for Neighborhood Networks, a HUD program that supports nonprofits who run technology centers in and around public housing projects. The session was on nonprofit marketing, and I gave my talk on nonprofit website basics. On the panel with me was David Zermeno, executive director of Operation P.E.A.C.E., a Neighborhood Network center in Boston.

David shared several great stories about how simply being nice to people and providing really good customer service had created wonderful opportunities for his organization – perhaps more so than any other traditional marketing tricks. I asked David if he’d be willing to share one of his stories here and he agreed.

Here’s David’s story in his own words:

One day Gloria, a senior citizen, came into my center saying, “What’s this email thing all all about? My daughter-in-law keeps asking me to take a computer class and get an email account so we can communicate throughout the day. She won’t get off my back, but I hate computers. I’m so afraid of them. Do you think you can help me?”

The first thing I did was make sure she felt welcome the minute she walked in the door. “Thank you so much for coming in, Gloria,” I said. “Don’t be afraid,” said the other seniors in my computer class for seniors. “We all had the same fear when we started.” “You see that?” I said. “I’ve never met anyone who I couldn’t help. So have a seat; I’ll have you up and running with email in no time.” As I starting teaching her, I just tapped her on the shoulder and focused on her quick progress.

With her new email account, she became a regular in my computer class for senior citizens every Monday morning where they listen to jazz music and use my class as a community of hip seniors who have access to technology.

Shortly afterwards, Gloria told me her daughter-in-law was very happy and impressed with my computer program for senior citizens. Having an ability to communicate as a family throughout the day, their emails had brought them closer together and had clearly strengthened their relationship.

One day her daughter-in-law called to personally thank and inform me of a grant that was intended to serve community programs like my program for seniors. She strongly encouraged me to apply and gave me a lot of important information. She also informed me that she was also on the panel and would make sure that the trustees knew what a difference my programs were making for families like hers. I couldn’t have a better person as an advocate for my proposal. It was valuable marketing that money could not buy.

That experience taught me some important lessons when it comes to marketing:

1. Treat everyone well and make sure that each person feels welcome.

2. We are all connected, so never underestimate anyone. This senior citizen was the best connection I could have asked for.

3. People are going to talk about you. This is direct marketing. So make sure that you treat people well and give them a reason to promote you with a positive image.

It’s Kivi talking again . . .  this is just one of the stories David shared. He has many more just like it. Be nice. It works.

Tags: Operation PEACE, WOMM, word of mouth marketing

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

Where to Find Some Great Nonprofit Storytelling

In preparation for tomorrow’s webinar on how to write your nonprofit’s stories (registration is open until 1:30 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday 5/14/08), I’ve been updating my list of good storytelling examples on nonprofit websites and thought you’d enjoy reading them too.

I mentioned some of these in my earlier post on Five Questions Nonprofits Should Answer with Stories, but if I repeat them here, it’s because they are that good.

National CASA is my current favorite. The video vignettes on the homepage with both children and volunteers are incredibly powerful, in a very short amount of time. The site also features some written stories, and while still good, they aren’t nearly as moving as the videos.

Interplast. Their blog contains wonderful stories about how their teams are repairing cleft lip and other birth defects around the globe. Lots of great before-and-after photos that really take you into the lives of the people they are helping.

Covenant House California, a homeless shelter for youth, features multiple success stories right on the home page. Each story explains the specific challenges the teens faced and how Covenant House helped them regain control over their young lives. Covenant House clearly inserts itself into each story, but leaves the teen as the central character, as it should be.

ONE Northwest, a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits with technology needs, shares several client stories. While these don’t fall into the “touching” or “inspirational” category like those above, they do clearly show the difference they are making for the organizations receiving their assistance. If you do capacity building or provide services to other organizations, rather than individuals, you’ll find yourself telling stories like these.

DonorsChoose obviously has great material to work with — who doesn’t like helping little kids learn? — but I especially like the way that this organization offers both short case studies and quickie testimonials.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Local Funding Partnerships website shares stories from a variety of community-based organizations that have received foundation funding. The foundation paid for storytelling training with Andy Goodman, so you’ll find some really well-developed and crafted stories here.

Heifer International uses stories throughout its website. I especially like their founding story.

HSUS also uses lots of stories and is quite skilled at taking the plight of one animal and using it to illuminate greater institutional injustices, whether its factory farming or puppy mills.

Read my other storytelling posts and check out my storytelling training.

Tags: examples, nonprofit, stories, Storytelling

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

Five Questions Nonprofits Should Answer With Stories

New donors, volunteers and other potential supporters have questions that they want answered before taking the next step with your organization. These five simple but universal questions that people will have about your organization are best answered not with statistics or wonky program statements, but with stories. Your website is the perfect place to answer these questions.

1) What Do Other People Think About This Group?

Answer with Testimonials. When someone is learning about you for the first time, they’ll be curious what other people think about your organization, your staff and your effectiveness. You can talk about how great you are, but that’s not nearly as convincing as testimonials from other people who aren’t on your payroll (or even on your board). Testimonials are short quotes — little mini-stories — that offer insight into why someone is happy to be associated with your organization in one or two sentences. Gilda’s Club Seattle includes testimonials and photos at the top of nearly every page on its site that instantly convey how important the group is to its supporters.

2) Are People Here Like Me?

Answer with Profiles. When someone donates time or money to your organization, they are joining a virtual community of people who believe in the same cause. If someone is not quite sure if your nonprofit is a good fit for them, showing them that they fit in with other supporters can help overcome that barrier. Profiles of clients, donors, volunteers, members, and other supporters are a good way to show the different kinds of people who are involved with your group, making a newcomer feel more comfortable that they are in the right place. Iraq Veterans Against the War lets members write their own profiles as part of the open, online membership directory.

3) Does This Work?

Answer with Success Stories. Do you get the job done? Are you going to make a difference with the money I give you? Success stories show donors (and potential new donors) exactly what it is you do and how you do it. They can be full-length articles or shorter vignettes like those on the National CASA website. The multimedia stories on the home page show the children they serve and their adult court-appointed advocates speaking about the benefits of the CASA program. These stories end with this simple statement: “Children with a CASA volunteer are less likely to reenter Child Protective Services.” Does it work? Yes, it does.

4) What Difference Can a Single Person Make?

Answer with Personalized Giving Options. Big problems are overwhelming. If you swamp people with the enormity of the need, they are likely to tune you out and move on to something that feels more manageable. One way to overcome this problem is to focus on the difference that a single person can make and clearly demonstrate through storytelling that a new donor, as a single individual, can bring about change by supporting your organization. Tying donor actions or gift levels to specific results is a great way to do that.

Kiva and Donors Choose are the shining stars in this category. CARE’s “I Am Powerful” campaign also makes a clear yet less direct connection between individual donors and the people they are helping.

5) Can I Come Along?

Answer with Personal Chronicles. For your supporters to fully engage with your nonprofit, you have to be willing to share what’s really going on. A small but important segment of your donor base won’t be happy with the level of detail they get in your newsletters. They’ll want more and you should give it to them. Blogs are a natural way to provide this kind of ongoing, detailed, behind-the-scenes narrative about your work.

The Humane Society of the United States’ dispatches from the Canadian seal hunt are riveting (although brutally graphic). It’s one thing to ask supporters to put a “Save the Baby Seals!” bumper sticker on their car — it’s another to invite them to tag along virtually with the HSUS’s Rebecca Aldworth as she chronicles the bloody devastation on the ice floes day in and day out. A more heart-warming example can be found on the Interplast blog, where doctors chronicle their efforts around the globe to repair birth defects like cleft lip.

In both cases, these nonprofits are taking their supporters to places they would likely never physically go themselves, showing them in detail both the need for their support and what can be done with their donations and advocacy. By bringing your supporters along day in and day out, you can make them feel like they really are part of your team.

While storytelling is a wonderful tool for nonprofit marketing, it only works with a specific goal in mind. What point are you trying to make? Or in these cases, what question are you trying to answer? Without a goal behind your story, the words may be interesting or amusing, but the point will be lost on your supporters. Know what question you are answering before you start telling your story for maximum impact.

Learn More Here: Nonprofit Storytelling: How to Write Your Nonprofit’s Best Stories

Tags: nonprofit-marketing, Storytelling

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

Will Donors Ignore Your Stories? They Might . . .

. . . if they don’t see themselves in them.

I just read this interesting article by Tom Neveril called “Consumers Ignore Ads that Don’t Tell Their Stories” in Advertising Age. The first part of the article talks about some market research for a new beverage targeted at surfers and then analyzes what happened with Tide to Go’s MyTalkingStain campaign. The SuperBowl commercial was ripe for spoofs, so Tide set up a site where people could submit their own spoofs — stories about their own talking stains, putting themselves into the narrative. People liked the commercial because they could imagine a stain on their own clothes talking.

The bottom line is that people don’t really care about the rational claims they hear in ads, or about stories about other people not like them (or people they admire or can otherwise relate to). If they can’t connect in some personal way, they ignore it.

Can your supporters relate to the stories you are telling? They don’t have to be in the same situation as the person you are telling the story about, but can your donors share an emotion with that person? Is there some common human experience they can latch on to? Can they see themselves helping that person through your organization?

The second part of the article has some helpful how-tos that nonprofits can use to conduct ethnographic research (listening to people talk in their own environments, where the stories will flow from them much more naturally) and then use those stories in your marketing.

– Trigger memories through senses

– Know how to identify a good story (protagonist – antagonist conflict)

– Add an element of surprise

– Focus on the markers of a good story

Want to learn more about telling your nonprofit’s stories? Check out the webinar I’m hosting on May 14.

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