| by Katya Andresen, Vice President of
Marketing, Network
for Good
The Four Things Your Message Must Do
Part Four
The following tips are based on my book, Robin
Hood Marketing, and I am pleased to be sharing
them with you, along with some new content specific to
the interests of GrantStation readers, in this fourth
installment of a five-part Tracks to Success series.
You can also sign up for regular marketing tips by subscribing
to Network for Good's Nonprofit Marketing Newsletter. Click
here for more information.
Robin Hood Rule 7
Messages should establish a Connection, promise a
Reward, inspire Action, and stick in Memory. CRAM is
the key to getting a distracted audience attracted to
your cause above all others.
There are four components to a great message: connecting
with an audience based on their values, rewarding your audience,
asking for a specific action to get that reward, and making
the message memorable. If you do this in your grant applications - keeping
in mind that the funder is the audience - you will vastly
increase the appeal of YOUR appeal.
Remember this rule with the mnemonic device, CRAM, and these
four easy steps:
- Connect to things your audience cares about: fulfilling
the foundation's strategic goals, looking good before peers,
feeling innovative, saving time, feeling powerful, etc.
- Identify and offer a compelling reward for taking action:
Remember, good rewards are immediate, personal, credible,
and reflective of audience values. If funders support your
organization, what's in it for them?
- Have a clear call to action: Good actions are specific,
feasible, and filmable (in other words, easy to visualize
doing). They should also measurably advance your mission.
What are you asking of funders when you meet with them?
To give you money? To feature your programs in their communications?
The more specific your request - and the easier it is to
fulfill - the more likely you are to spur action.
- Make your message memorable: What makes something memorable?
It's memorable if it's different, catchy, personal, tangible,
and desirable. A word of caution, however: memorable elements
should always be closely tied to your cause. Think of all
the advertisements that were so funny or memorable that
you told a friend about them, but when asked what product
the ad was for, you couldn't remember. Your goal: Stick
out from the crowd in a way that reflects the essence of
your organization.
Once you have a sense of how to CRAM with your audiences,
you have to be able to do so in three ways: through one-way
communication, two-way communication, and the "third way" of
communication: storytelling.
Robin Hood Rule 8
To get to audiences, go where they are.
Your audiences, whether the funders or the beneficiaries
of your programs, shouldn't have to look for your message.
Your message should be delivered to their precise physical,
mental, and emotional location. Effective strategic messages
need four components: the right mood, messenger, moment,
and channel.
- When choosing the mood, make sure it is consistent with
the unique personality of the cause, the content of the
message, and the audience's sense of self. Remember, different
audiences require different messages, so the mood also
must be tailored to fit each specific audience. Each funder
may require a different tone of message.
- Place your message in other people's mouths. Messengers
from outside your cause may be better able to connect with
your audience, and they make your promises far more credible
than you do yourself. Find someone the funder respects
to speak on your behalf. A great way to do this online
is with person-to-person fundraising. Check out www.sixdegrees.org for
some free tools.
- Identify open-minded moments, the times when your audience
is most likely to want the reward you are offering and
to be seeking the benefit you provide. Open-minded moments
occur when audiences are thinking about an action and are
able to take it. Is there a major news story or trend that
a funder is under pressure to respond to - and can you
position your organization as that response?
- Match the open-minded moment to the right channel. Think
of the opening and channel as the yin and yang of communications.
Channels are the same old vehicles you always have to choose
from (proposals, ads, PR, etc.), and they lack power without
the yang of an opening, which increases the chance that
your audience notices the message delivered. Together,
the yin and the yang create a coherent, powerful whole.
Think about when your funder needs you - not when you need
your funder - and you'll be on the road to choosing the
best channel for reaching that person.
In the next article of this series, we will cover Robin
Hood Rule 9, Approach the Media as a Target Marketing, and
Robin Hood Rule 10, Execute Campaigns and Assess Their Worth. |
