. . . 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…
By Guest Blogger Claire Voyant Storytelling. As marketing and PR professionals, we know storytelling works, but sometimes it’s hard to convey that to our clients (you nonprofits out there). After all, our clients are serious people doing serious work. Just the word sounds a little “light” doesn’t it? Storytelling. Like a group of children sitting…
Next Thursday’s Nonprofit Marketing Guide webinar is on keywords and search engine optimization (SEO) for nonprofits and will feature guest speaker David Westbrook, an SEO expert with lots of nonprofit experience. If you just crinkled your nose and said, “Huh?” or if you are your office’s accidental techie and default webmaster, this webinar is for…
I’m working on a new webinar for later this spring currently titled “Nonprofit Writing Sucks – How to Write Like the Smart, Passionate Human Being You Are Instead of the Wonky, Dead-Inside Droid You Sound Like Now. ” Yes, I agree, the title needs some work, but you get the gist. I’ve been collecting examples…
Last week I said that the call to action is the most important part of a nonprofit brochure. Yesterday, in my Nonprofit Marketing Tips e-newsletter (sign up here in the left sidebar) I sent out an article that explains how to write a good call to action for a brochure. That article is now available…
NOT your mission statement. NOT your description of activities. NOT your photographs. The most important part of a nonprofit brochure is your call to action. Once you’ve answered my questions about your organization and inspired me to take the next step, what do I do? Whom do I call (don’t just give me a phone…
Most nights I watch the NBC Nightly News and last night I saw two stories with interesting nonprofit marketing angles. They provide two great examples of how to create story hooks that are so enticing that the media simply can’t pass them up. Lesson #1: If your point isn’t quite compelling enough, it’s OK to…
When people read on paper, they usually start at the beginning and work their way through in a linear fashion from page one to page two to page three, etc. When people read on the Web, however, they start where Google sent them, and that could be anywhere on your website. Once they get there,…
I’ve been reading several books on storytelling, most of which were written for a corporate audience, in search of great advice and tips for nonprofits. I’ll share some of the best stuff during this Wednesday’s webinar, “What Should We Write About? Storytelling Ideas for Nonprofits,” and in future posts here. But for now, here is…
Claire Meyerhoff Last month, Claire Meyerhoff called to interview me about nonprofit storytelling for some articles she is working on, and we ended up having an hour-and-a-half chat about how hard it is for so many nonprofits to get press coverage, even though they have such great stories to tell. We shared all kinds of…
Using stories in your nonprofit annual report is a great way to bring to life what might otherwise be some stiff writing on your activities and accomplishments. But simply throwing some stories into the text won’t do. You need to be very focused and highly selective about which stories you use and how you tell…
One the biggest challenges organizations face when trying to improve their nonprofit marketing programs is to stop thinking about themselves and to focus on their audience instead. One analogy I use in my nonprofit training courses is gift giving. With the holidays still in our short-term memories, you’ll recognize some of the five types of…
