If you look at the preliminary results from our 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report Survey, email marketing, print marketing, the website/blog and social media marketing are almost identical in the rankings for how much time nonprofit staff are spending on them. This chart shows a weighted average where 2 is “a limited amount of time” and 3…
In the 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report Survey, which is open for you to participate in through December 2, we are asking a new question: How would you rate the overall effectiveness of your nonprofit’s communications in 2016? We give you a five-star scale, from Not At All Effective (1 star) to Extremely Effective (5 stars). The…
I just pulled some preliminary data from our 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report Survey. Staff from about 400 nonprofits have participated so far (add your voice now, please!) About 35% of participants say that the “extent to which strategy drives our communications work” is either somewhat better or much better. That’s the good news! But when we…
If you’ve heard me on an annual reports webinar any time in the last decade, you’ve heard me say some version of this: It’s OK to go short and stop publishing the donor list. Seriously. Now that I am actively advocating for very short annual reports, I’m hearing that the donor list is the last…
Back in September, I told you about our experiment to see who our most loyal newsletter readers were. I thought that was a better measure of email engagement than simply looking at open or click rates. Here’s what we discovered: We used our CRM to help us figure this out, but I knew there…
It’s a common frustration for nonprofit communications directors who are trying to work collaboratively with staff: getting people to meet their deadlines. This is a hard first step, but one that’s essential: If you want someone to meet your deadlines, they have to believe it’s important to do so. And that means that they understand…
Getting great results from your communications work is often contingent on timing. It needs to get out the door or online quickly to be relevant. But a painful review and approval process can cripple your creative work, no matter how good it is. We’ve all been there . . . You missed a great opportunity…
In a few short weeks, we will open up the 2017 Nonprofit Communications Trends Survey . . . But before that happens, I have to put this year’s questions together, and I need your help. Think about your own work challenges, and where having some data about what other nonprofits are doing could help you…
A creative brief is a quick worksheet that you fill out before you get started on any significant piece of communications work. You can also use a creative brief as a mini-strategy for how you’ll use a particular social media channel (e.g. how is what we do on Facebook different from Twitter?). Using a creative…
I’ve received several emails in response to Tuesday’s post about other ways to measure email engagement asking about the accuracy of open rates. The main concern is that if the open rate data is bad, any additional analysis like I suggested is also bad. For example, you might categorize someone improperly, and more likely as…
Let’s talk about email engagement. Right now, I bet most of you are looking at your open rates and click-through rates, and maybe your click-to-open ratio. The email service providers spoon feed us those numbers, so they are easy to track. But they don’t really tell us much about the real percentage of people who…
This week’s cartoon from Marketoonist made me laugh out loud . . . You know why. Replace the Sale bag with a Donation Jar or a Volunteer Sign-Up form or any other nonprofity transaction tool and it’s pretty much the same cartoon, right? But you don’t have to feel that way, and you shouldn’t, if…
