What's in a Name? A lot!

Just came across this interesting post on the Advanced Marketing Institute website. Thought you would find it interesting.


Unique Marketing Test Reveals Likely Election Winner.
The Secret? One Name Captures the Emotions of Voters.

How do you reach inside the mind of voters to determine who they will vote for, even before they may even know themselves?

That is the particularly intriguing question faced by hundreds, even thousands of pollsters, not to mention politicians. As the public is exposed to the daily, hourly barrage of skittishly jumping results of the polls, there seems to be no way to measure what will happen, except to say it is "virtually a dead heat."

Hakim Chishti, Executive Director of the research firm Advanced Marketing Institute (AMI) believes his form picked the likely winner. And it will not be anywhere near a "too close to call election." In fact, according to Chishti, "one of the candidates is three more times more likely to be chosen in this election."

“It’s All in the Sound of Your Voice”

According to Chishti, "Going all the way back to Plato, it has been known that our emotions are affected by the actual sound of words; the tones within words 'mean' something to us, regardless of which language is being spoken, and regardless of whether we even know the
language."

Chishti, who is fluent in several Near Eastern languages and a US Government Fulbright Research Scholar, says "I became interested in the harmonics of languages, when in my travels I found that people had emotional reactions to languages which they did not know."

Phonetic Symbolism: the Key to the Emotional ‘Meaning’ of Words

In linguistics this phenomenon is known as "phonetic symbolism." Marketers and researchers for decades have used this awareness to develop brand names and evaluate marketing communications. Russian researchers discovered that these sound affect a child while it is still in its mothers womb.

While the effects of spoken words on our emotions can be profound, understanding the specific mechanics of how sounds produce specific emotional reactions has been an elusive goal for researchers.

200,000 Words Analyzed for Emotional Impact

In the 1990s, Dr. Chishti led his team of researchers at the Advanced Marketing Institute to develop special algorithms. Based upon research at Bell Labs, Chishti's computer experts analyzed the tonal qualities in more than 200,000 words in the English language, and the specific centers in the mind and body activate by specific waveforms made by each sound.

The Advanced Marketing Institute provides a free analysis tool online which provides free evaluation of headlines. Site visitors run more than 30,000 headlines through the tool each month, to improve the emotional connection of their marketing slogans with potential customers.

The analysis results provide a breakdown of words into three categories - those affecting the emotional, intellectual and spiritual centers of a person. Based upon these criteria, Chishti's firm provides special computer analysis to Fortune 100 clients and others. The results are stated as an "Index" for each component of the emotional value of a particular series of words.

“Inside the Mind of the Marketplace” (And Voters)

According to Chishti, this type of research provides very deep insight into how customers interact with products, services, and other people. "We call this analysis "Inside the Mind of The Marketplace," Chishti said.

"It was possible for us to evaluate, as just one example," said Chishti, "political candidate's speeches, to discern how emotional, or intellectual or spiritual their communication is."

Chishti also said, "If you also evaluate the blog posts
of a candidates' web site, one can more fully match the communication style of prospective voters. That is a considerable advantage."

So after an evaluation of all the candidates' speeches and all of the campaigning across millions of miles and thousands of hours of stale dinners and limp shrimp, which candidate does Chishti predict will be the winner?

“It’s all in the name …”

"Of course many factors influence an election," he said. "The area we thought most relevant was the name of the candidate himself. Since this is the most obvious and often-repeated aspect of everyone's connection to a candidate, we wanted to get to the core perception for each candidate. We felt the name provided just such a focus.

And Chishti revealed to us that purely in terms of the harmonics of the names, one candidate is a clear winner, and overwhelming winner. And that is Senator Barak Obama.

"At least according to the science of linguistics and our computer analysis of how people respond emotionally, Sen. Barak Obama's name has an overall emotional content index value of 150%, whereas John McCain's rating is only 50%."

Candidate’s name “off the charts in terms of emotional appeal…”

To put that in perspective, even the best copywriters attain an index rating of around 30%. So while McCain's name is not necessarily weak, the harmonic strength of Obama's name if essentially off the charts. You practically could not have invented a more emotionally connective name for a political candidate," said Chishti.

"Without getting too technical about it all" Chishti said, "simply in terms the emotional, heartfelt connection, common people have three times the "emotional" connection with Sen. Obama."

Though considered ‘intellectual’, people ‘feel’ him as the more as emotional and empathetic candidate.”

Even more interesting, said Chishti, is that we can further break down the specific format of emotions, into heartfelt qualities or emotions, intellectual values and spiritual values. "Interestingly, " even though Obama is considered the "intellectual" of the candidates, his name conveys only "emotional" or heartfelt values to people.

"Perhaps that explains to some extent the rising tide of veneration enjoyed by the Obama campaign, and the large crowds, their sense of commonality of purpose and community exhibited by the huge crowds he draws," Chishti said.

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The Best Exercise is Walking

How getting up and getting out can really boost your MarCom efforts

One of the least expensive, and most effective way of communicating about your organization is as old as campfires in the hills.

Think about how you learn about new restaurants to try, new movies to see, new bands to hear, new networks to check out. In most cases, even in our hyper-connected age, word of mouth is still the most trusted communication, especially for recommendations. Sure, we all use Yelp and TripAdvisor, but don’t you usually ask your friends, too?

Getting up from your chair and getting out of the office to talk with people is one of the most cost-effective marketing arrows in your quiver.

There are a million opportunities to get out and tell people about your organization’s great work. Most are free to very inexpensive. A few require larger investments, and as with any other MarCom purchase, you need to evaluate the potential ROI.

In my last job, I had my assistant call all of the local Rotary, Lions, and Elks clubs, as well as Chambers of Commerce, offering my services as a presenter at their frequent luncheons. Our goal was one presentation a month, and after a few weeks she had easily lined up those presentations for me. Not only did they directly bring in new business from people who were unaware of our organization (a nonprofit social enterprise) and its great work and mission, but it enabled me to make a few long-term connections that have proven beneficial. The cost of this? A few hours of my assistant’s time and a few hours of my time. And generally speaking, I got a free lunch out of the deal.

An added benefit of these lunch-time talks was the rehearsal time they afforded me. Most top marketers are frequently required to make presentations on their organization and its programs. The Rotary lunch talks got me ready to talk to our funders and donors. They helped me see what descriptions made the best impressions, and how to best talk about what we did. The frequent talks showed me which jokes worked and which programs created the greatest empathy. And because I generally had a slide presentation as part of my speech, the frequent repetitions helped me fine-tune that, fixing slides that didn’t flow well, or that people didn’t seem to understand. And after you do this a couple of dozen time, your stage fright will disappear, or at least becomes controllable, and your presentations will get better and better.

Finally, the questions that always came after the prepared remarks revealed how well I was communicating, which concepts were easy to grasp and which were confusing, and what parts of our program really resonated with people. All of this was incredibly useful information. And a great opportunity to hand out business cards and some brochures.

Is that a badge in your pocket, or…

Of course, one must include conferences and conventions in your marketing efforts. They are great opportunities to meet lots of people by giving presentations, but also by simply being there. There are dozens of conferences every day – and you could spend your entire career on the road attending them. But if you pick the top two to four conferences each year and attend those, you’ll make dozens of new connections and spread the word about your organization while learning new tricks to help your work improve.

Speaking at conferences usually involves one of four presentation options: Panels, Breakout sessions, Plenaries (to everyone), and Keynotes.

Panels are conversations between two or more people on a specific topic. Audiences like these because they get a multitude of opinions and expertise addressing a specific issue. Organizers like them because they enable a lot of people to talk, and usually each speaker brings in income for the conference organizer.

Panels can be a good way to present information, but they have a few drawbacks. Unless the moderator has good control over the panel, you can get a runaway speaker situation, where one presenter monopolizes the time available. This can be especially annoying when that presenter is not very good, or is boring and uninteresting. Another hazard of panels is poor moderation in general. The panel moderator needs to know enough about the subject to be able to ask interesting and provocative questions, and to be able to keep the panelists on topic and on time. Panels are especially good because they give you an opportunity to get feedback from the audience. The question-and-answer period after a panel presentation is usually the most useful part of the presentation, and almost always the most interesting.

If you are asked to moderate a panel, be sure you understand the topic and the presenters as well as possible. Call the panel members beforehand, preferably in a video or audio conference so that everyone can talk together, and discuss  the topics you want to cover, the order of the speakers, how long each of them has for an introductory speech, whether or not you want them to use slides, and how much time you have overall. Well-run panels can be really interesting for the audience members, are great way to meet other experts in your field, and can be very rewarding.

Breakout and Plenary presentations are a bigger deal than panels, and put you in the spotlight in front of the audience, all by yourself. Breakouts take place at the same time as other sessions, and typically have only a portion of the total attendance, but otherwise are very similar to Plenary sessions. Plenary presentations are usually a half hour to 45 min. long. They require a firm understanding of your topic, a tight presentation that doesn't wander or give people time to get bored, good slides, and confidence on your part. Usually you'll work with the conference organizers to determine what the topic should be, what style of presentation they prefer when you're going to give the presentation, and what audiovisual or other amenities will be available. This is a tremendous one-to-many communications opportunity, and a chance to tell important stories about your organization’s efforts, methods, and impacts.

Keynotes are often among the most highly-anticipated presentations at a conference. This gives you a huge messaging opportunity. Keynote speakers often get featured in the program and receive a lot of attention. As with any important presentation, you want to be sure to talk to the organizers of the conference beforehand to understand their expectations, how long you have, what the stage and presentation area will be like, who you're following and preceding, and any other details that are important.

Before you do any presentation at a conference or even a luncheon be sure to rehearse it. I find it really good to talk to myself, to give the presentation while looking at the slides on my computer, to get a sense of flow and timing. Flow is very important — your slides and your presentation has to move along as if it were a conversation. The best presentations sound like someone talking directly to you, not like someone reading a book. It takes time and practice to get relaxed enough to give a talk like that, and its only possible when you know your material well.

After you've talked through it yourself a few times, looking at your slides and checking how well the flow and timing works, ask a few friends to be guinea pigs and critique your presentation. I always do this before an important talk and find it to be incredibly valuable.

You don't want your friends to be just your friends when you're doing a rehearsal talk and asking for their critique. You want them to point out the things they don't understand, and the places where you struggle with your delivery. You need them to tell you if your talk is interesting, and holds their attention. You need them to be brutally honest with you. This isn’t the time for people to be patting you on the back, and telling you how good you are. (But you are, you’re really good!)

One last thing. Don't make your presentations commercials. Talking in a way that sounds overtly like a sales pitch is going to alienate your audience and make them far less receptive to what you have to say. Your presentation needs to tell the stories that help people understand your topic. It can be all about your organization and the great programs it provides. But don't make it just a sales pitch; tone it down, keep it subtle, and make it interesting. When you get people engaged with your stories, they'll be eager to learn more, eager to help, and eager to donate.

I recently saw an online conversation that started with the question, “How do I get my development director out of the office and talking to people?” don’t let your boss ever ask this question. Whether you’re in development, MarCom, or general management, get up off your chair and go tell your story.

In summary, here  are a few of the types of places you can make presentations with a few thoughts about each type of venue.

Venue	Good for	Remember
Hallway conversation at a conference	Getting to know people. Practicing your elevator speech Getting the latest gossip Learning about things before official announcements Making friends and allies	This can be the most important time at a conference Practice your elevator speech before you go. Notice how people react to your elevator speech and refine it as needed.
Talks to service clubs (Rotary, Lions, Chamber of Commerce, etc.)	Getting the word out to local people. Creating new supporters Practicing your presentation skills.	Wonderful practice opportunity – get your presentation down. Great way to get info to the community. Good place to meet local who will support your mission.
Panel discussion at conference	Opportunity to be seen and have your story heard Be seen as equal to other presenters (increased status) Providing short comments on a topic Learning from other panelists while presenting	A way onto a conference program. Usually a larger audience than a service club. Meet other presenters who may be good to know. Low-risk way to get feedback and test your messaging and presentation before a larger, more sophisticated group.
Plenary presentation at conference	Providing long-form information to an interested audience. Establishing authority and the importance of your topic/organization.	A bigger audience, with higher expectations than at a panel presentation. Keep your talk general enough to appeal to everyone. Be sure you rehearse until it becomes effortless.
Keynote presentation	Captivating an audience with the strength of your personality and the importance of your cause..	This is the big time, be sure you are ready. Remember: a plenary talk is often as much about entertainment as information. A great way to introduce new ideas, plans, efforts. By virtue of place, your status increases.

Making the Most of Your Events

Everybody thinks that an event is a great way to raise a lot of money fast. This isn't always true.
by Ben Delaney, © 2013

According to my former boss, and development guru, many, in fact most, events lose money. He pointed out that the cost of a good event is substantial and that the immediate payback from it is not always high.

He explained that key to really using an event well is to use it both as a reward and cultivation opportunity. In other words, it's a place where you reward the people who have been helping you the most. Bringing your staff is a great team builder and incentive. It also helps fill seats in case your event isn't the sellout you hoped for (more on that later). The other people you reward are your donors, those who have really helped you out. Not by asking them to buy a table or to support the event, but rather by giving them a table or providing recognition from the stage.

Now there are as many types of events as there are organizations. For the purposes of this chapter, I'm thinking about an evening gala. I think you'll find that most of these ideas apply no matter what sort of event you are producing.

A well done event makes your entire organization look good.

The highest value of your event is cultivation. Cultivation means talking to people that may give to your organization and talking to people who have given to your organization with an eye on getting, or increasing the amount of, their support. Events do this by providing a good meal and an entertaining program that helps them feel good, better understand the organization, and see how well run it is.

It's essential to demonstrate competence, because the impression that people get from your event is going to carry over to the entire organization. Think about your reaction when you have a great waitress at a restaurant. The food tastes better. In a great restaurant, if the service is bad it leaves you less excited about the food. The impression you leave with is dependent on the totality of your experience.

Enveloping your planning for the event itself is all the promotional and impact planning, as well as establishing measurement points for evaluating the event. Your event planning should start with concrete and measurable goals. Those goals might include developing five new major donors, or having X number of City Council members attend. Your goal might include a dollar amount, such as raising $100,000. It's important to have all the goals in mind because this will guide the event planning, and allow you to make informed decisions on the budget and which ideas contribute to the overall impact of the event. After the event, they provide the measuring stick against which you evaluate the event's success.

Event planning as part of Systems Marketing™

Let's think a little bit about events and how they connect to your full marketing effort. In an organization with Systems Marketing thinking, event planning would start early. A year is not too early to start thinking about a large event. Annual events are often on staff work plans as a year-round effort, because there's always something to do to prepare, and there's always follow-up activities. As Systems Marketing organization knows that a big event is going to impact virtually everybody in the organization.

Every event should have a planning committee that is made up of people from the various departments that are affected by the event or contribute to it. These people are conduits for information from the teams with which they work directly, to the committee and back again. Obviously the communications team has to get the word out early and often, and plan follow-up. In fact it's recommended that you follow up an event with a press release that describes how well it went, how much money raised, what dignitaries attended, whatever else is important, and announces the date of next year's event.

The event committee needs to keep in mind all aspects of the event. The planning checklist varies a lot, but will include things like catering, decorations, printing of a program, door prizes, program, securing a venue, and, if you have an auction, arranging for donations for it, as well as the many other items critical to the success of the event. That is just for the event itself. As you can see from that list, which is nowhere near complete, there's an awful lot of aspects to pulling off the big event. At one event I worked on, we produced a nine-minute video that took three months to produce. It's important to do your planning in advance, and understand the time and the budget.

It's also important to evaluate what you can do in-house and what you want to hire expert help for. Catering is an obvious task that is usually best to contract out. AV production, decorating, and printing are other aspects of events that are often handed off to contractors. Be realistic in balancing your resources – some things you can and should do in house, some things should be outsourced.

The event committee needs to work closely with your communications department to make sure that the branding of the event, including its name and logo, are appropriate both to the event and to the larger branding of the organization. It's possible to completely confuse your audience by mixing up your messages. A clear purpose and messaging are essential to garner positive attention and attendance.

Often the development team is the lead team on event planning because it's so critical to their work. As we discussed earlier, donor cultivation is a major goal of many events. This is where the development team shines. Events give the development team a reason to personally reach out to major donors. It also enables fund raising, especially from corporate and foundation supporters, who will buy tables and sponsorships. It's an opportunity to raise money through raffles and auctions, and thereby a chance to reach out to in-kind donors who will provide the items that you offer. The development team will also see your event as an opportunity to invite people who haven't donated to come to see what your organization is all about.

It's very important for the development team to be thinking about goals and accountability related to the event. If your goal is to invite 20 new potential owners, sell 12 tables, and raise $15,000, you need to write those goals down and measure the appropriate data to determine whether or not you've hit your targets. This is easy when you build in specific points to measure at the planning stage.

The event

Let's plan a hypothetical event and take a look at what it takes to make the event work well. Our hypothetical organization is Kitty Rescue League. Kitty Rescue League collects feral cats,  sterilizes them, and re-releases them or finds them adoptive homes. The hopefully annual Fat Cat Bash is being attempted for the first time. The goals are to bring in 20 potential new donors and raise $10,000. There also will be recognition of existing donors.

In order to raise interest and recognize major supporters, Kitty Rescue League is going to make three awards to people or organizations that have really helped save the most kitties in the past year.

 A quick sidebar on awards

Why do so many organizations give so many awards? It's not a conspiracy by the award industry. Awards are a great way to gain positive attention, recognize your donors and others in the community, and give your organization a topic for a good press release. Awards bring in the recipients and their friends and families. They increase interest, and rightfully bestow recognition on those who work hard for your cause. 

Awards don't have to be extravagant to be appreciated. A nice trophy, an engraved clock, or some similar trifle says thank you over and over. No one gets all the attention they need or deserve; your organization can make its donors feel great by recognizing them at an annual event, where the community can hear about their good deeds and express its appreciation.

The Fat Cat Bash budget

Kitty Rescue League has a mailing list of approximately 3,500 names. They're hoping that they can get 5% of that list, or 175 people, to come to their bash. So now the planning team needs to create a budget that shows how to pay for the cost of the event and show a profit.

Kitty Rescue League's budget  for the Fat Cat Bash looks a bit like this:

EXPENSES

Space rental                       $1,500

Catering, 200                       5,000

Audio/visual                         1,500

Programs and favors               875

Program                            15,000

Marketing costs                   5,000

Decoration                           1,000

                                       -----------

Total                                $29,875

INCOME

Tickets, 175 at $75          $13,125

Sponsorships                    20,000

Program ads                       1,000
                                       -----------

Total                                $34,125

NET                                 $3,250

As you can see, even if Kitty Rescue League meets their goals, they miss their revenue target. And it means that the planners need to decide if they want to proceed with a smaller return likely. That illustrates the difficulty in event planning.

Looking at this budget, the event committee has several options. They can change their goals, they can change the cost of the event, or they can figure out a way to bring in more revenue.

Key to making this evaluation is determining what's more important: cultivation or immediate revenue. If cultivation is more most important, then it may make sense to run the event expecting a low return, or even take a loss, in order to have the opportunity to meet and interact with the people that you need to talk to. If revenue is a prime goal then it is important to look at both sides of the budget to see what can be reduced or grown. For example the $15,000 cost for the program includes creating a video montage of the award winners. Perhaps money could be saved by instead doing a montage of still pictures which would require no original taping. Or maybe a video production company can be found that would donate part or all of the cost of production. Other expenses should be looked at too, but it's always best to start with your biggest expense, because that's where you're most likely to find some fat to trim.

On the income side of the table, there aren't very many options. Calculating the increase in donations resulting from the dinner will help, but is a very unreliable figure. owever, factoring in the anticipated increase in donations in the next few montKitty Rescue League can charge more for tickets, but that may make it more difficult to get people there. Additional sponsorships may be possible and it may also be possible to raise the cost of advertising in the program to raise more money there. Maybe adding a raffle or auction would increase revenue, but with additional costs that have to be figured in. Perhaps bigger actually works better than smaller. Because your expenses do not go up directly with the number of attendees, it may make sense to increase seats to 200 or 300. However the challenge then becomes getting those additional people to the event, which typically would require increased marketing and communication costs, and often more staff time.

Which brings up the importance of filling seats. Nothing is worse than a partially empty banquet hall. It is far better to oversell a small event, and bring in extra tables, then to undersell the room. You may have the same number of people there, but the packed room looks infinitely better. This where you use staff people to help out. A good rule of thumb, if your staff is large enough, is to have one staff person at each table. Board members can help with this usually pleasant assignment. They can answer questions about your organization and help make your guests feel welcome. But staff and board members and their (adult) families can also help fill seats to ensure that the room is filled to capacity. It is a nice reward to invite your staff, and they will help your event succeed simply by being there.

The Program

What is going to happen at the Fat Cat Bash? You don't want people to simply come in, eat and leave. So a program is in order.

First, don't overdo the program. 30-45 minutes is usually enough. If you run late, people become impatient. If you are boring, it's even worse.

The program needs to be both entertaining and interesting. Again, an award ceremony, if it is appropriately brief, is a great way to create excitement and enthusiasm. A door prize drawing does the same. Perhaps Kitty Rescue League has connections to a musical act, or a staff member who is a good magician. Adding that entertainment to the bill can be very enjoyable. But again, be sure the entertainers, unless they're cute children, are professional enough to entertain, and not embarrass.

A keynote speaker is often considered de rigueur at nonprofit event. This can be good or bad. Some very impressive and effective people are not good presenters. Some speakers enjoy their own voices so much you almost have to drag them off the stage. Either of these situations can really bring down the mood.

If you have a keynote speaker, find someone who knows your organization and can say nice things about it. Have someone go see them present before you book them to ensure that they will provide a good presentation. If at all possible, get someone with name recognition who will help you sell tickets.

Finally, don't forget the ask. No one is going to be offended by having your Executive Director or Development Director make a brief pitch. People are there because they care. So Kitty Rescue League will tell them about the tremendous impact they've had over the past year, some of the challenges facing the organization, and how X more dollars will make a huge difference in the coming year. For added impact, have a donation envelope under each plate.

After the event

After the event, there are two important tasks – follow-up and evaluation.

Follow-up means that your event and development teams get on the phone and call people to thank them for attending. Nothing cements a relationship like a personal touch. One could write an entire book on cultivating donors, but suffice it to say that you need many touches with each donor, and your post-event phone call is an important one. This is when you can ask for support, get feedback on the event, and stay in touch with the people who keep you going. I can't overemphasize the importance of this step in funder cultivation. 

Also thank your in-kind and other donors that helped you stage your event. Again, your personal attention is worth a lot, don't be stingy with it.

Finally, a few days after the event (when people have had a chance to catch up on their sleep) get the event team together for a postmortem. What went well? What would you do differently? What was awful? Be honest and fair. Evaluate the work plan, the promotional efforts, and your vendors. Take notes and refer to them before your next event. Only through an honest appraisal will you be able to improve on your event.

This chapter addressed planning for a dinner event, but planning for any other type of event is not dissimilar. Obviously, a 5K run has different details, but the process is similar.

Events can be a lot of fun, good money-raising opportunities, and ways to acknowledge the people that help you carry out your mission. But they are complex and important, so do the work up front, and then enjoy your event. As my old boss always said, “Have fun kids!”

Systems Marketing™ Ties it All Together

Why integrating consistent communications into every activity gives you way more bang for the buck.

System Marketing™ means that your marketing is a system, in the same way that your financial procedures form a system. In either case, the specific task informs and is informed by the total organization.

System Marketing directs that you align your goals, procedures, and communications to all pull in the same directions, with verbal, nonverbal, electronic, print, and attitudes all reinforcing the same message.

Most importantly, System marketing requires a deep understanding of the marketplace and the customer, and the ability to address the customer's expressed, implied and inferred needs and desires. This requires research. That research may be a simple as a comment sheet on your front counters, or as complex as a multivariate, blind, controlled test. The cost varies with the number of words used to describe the research. For example, putting a comment sheet on your front counter requires nothing more than a piece of paper, a pen, and some scotch tape. It will result in some of your customers providing valuable insights into your operation, with minimal expense. The multivariate, blind, controlled test will probably take several people several months, will require a series of letters after the author's names, will result in a colorful bound report with footnotes, and will cost appropriately. In either case, when research is done thoughtfully and with well-defined goals, it is almost always worth the money.

Let me  give you an example of how research helps. A while back, I was asked to provide a campaign to increase interest and visits to a nice retirement home in Mill Valley, California. As we talked, I realized that the staff had only the vaguest of ideas about why people chose to come, or not come, to live there. So we started some research.

First we conducted a written survey of the residents at the Redwoods, asking them what they liked about living there. Along with a few other questions, we also asked where they had lived before. From this we gained a lot of insight. People, as expected, liked the beautiful grounds and that it was easy to get into Mill Valley for shopping. The food was good, as were the maintenance and staff interactions. What surprised us was the most important factor in the move-in decision: Folks at the Redwoods really liked that they could bring their own furniture!

We then sent out a mailing, by postal mail, to a large population. I don't remember the exact numbers, but we mailed to over 10,000 homes in the Bay Area, to a radius of 40 miles from Mill Valley. Why 40 miles? Because that's maximum distance from which Redwoods residents had come. (Some came from further, but more than 80% had previously lived within 40 miles.) 

The mailing included a brochure illustrated with professional photos, taken on the grounds,  of people who actually lived at the Redwoods, sporting the headline, “Come Home to the Redwoods”. We emphasized the hot-button items we knew from the survey: just like home, extra secure and safe, bring your favorite furniture, and close to your friends, family, and familiar landscape.

This was the most successful direct mail effort I've ever done. We received a 24% response rate, and a 10% conversion rate, thereby beating expectations by a mile, and filling the waiting list. I am convinced that the research set the tone that enabled this successful effort. But equally important was the participation and buy-in of the staff, the truthfulness of the messaging, and the ability of the intake staff to model exactly what people expected. That's System Marketing!

Your organization can establish System Marketing as SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). Do the research needed to truly know your customers, the marketplace, and the outside factors that impact that marketplace. Share staff knowledge about current customer-facing processes and communications. Listen to complaints, and don't dismiss them as trivial. Be sure everybody is involved and heard. Review your mission, vision, objectives and impacts to be sure they are current and actually reflect what you do and want to do, and how it happens. 

Then you can unify communications and attitudes. Why attitudes? Because a large part of your customer and prospect communications is old fashioned conversation, as well as emails and other official, personal interaction. It is essential that everyone understand and buy in to the official message, and be able to reflect it in every action and utterance. Answering the phone, responding to an email, completing a proposal, talking at the bar at a conference: the language, style, conditions and outcomes should all reinforce your messaging. When you add that to consistent public messaging, including your website, logos, business cards, brochures, and advertising, then, my friend, you have a marketing system and System Marketing.

Frankly, I don't consider this rocket science. I have been thinking about it for a long time, and have seen the theory proven. Much of this is common sense, and just plain good business, be it for- or nonprofit. This book breaks down various marketing tasks and offers suggestions on how and when to use them. Regardless of the marketing mix you chose, when you keep system Marketing in mind, all your marketing will be more effective.

Stickiness: Your Website Needs It

By Ben Delaney © 2007

How to get people to stay for a while when they visit your website

Let’s assume that you have optimized your website so all the search engines find it, and you’ve started a pay-per-click ad campaign to help bring more visitors to your site. Now, the question is, how do we direct people to what they are looking for, and what we think they will find useful. We are asking for more of our visitor’s time, and getting people to give up that most precious commodity is not easy. In the web-management business, the trait of people staying a while is called “stickiness.” Your website needs to be sticky.

Log files: the marketer’s friend

Almost all web hosting services provide detailed logs of events related to your website. Log files tell you how many visitors have come to your site, which pages they have looked at, what browser they use, and much more. Data may be organized by time, requestor, directory, file type, or any number of other parameters. Some of this data are more important that others. Here is a list of items, along with brief descriptions of them, that you may find in your web server log:

• Browser used: Did your visitor use Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, Mozilla, or some other browser?
  
• Entry page: The page in your website that your visitor saw first.
  
• Exit Page: The page from which the visitor left your site.
  
• Failures: The files that were requested that could not be served. (These are “404” errors.)
  
• Hit count: The raw number of files served over some period of time.
  
• Number of pages viewed: the number of .html or other viewable files presented.
  
• File type analysis: A listing of files types and the number of times they were served. Types include: .html (web pages), .gif, .png and .jpg (images), .cgi (forms), .pdf (Acrobat), .mov (QuickTime movie), and several other types, depending on the types of files you offer.
  
• File requests: This is a list of each file served to visitors. This is a key item – showing you exactly what people are seeing when they visit your site.
  
• Hit count: The raw number of files served over some period of time.
  
• Referrers list: The previous site you visitor viewed.
  
• Source IP: The IP address of the visitor’s computer. Often this is incomplete, to preserve your visitors’ privacy.
  
• Time on site: How long the visitor stayed on your site.
  
• Visitor count: The number of individual visitors to your site.

The most important of these statistics, in my opinion, are file requests, visitor count, entry and exit pages, and referrer. Analysis of these data can tell you what the typical visit to your site looks like – which pages are looked at, what files are downloaded, and how long the visit lasted. These stats make it possible to tell if the things you think are important are those that your visitors look at. These stats can also tell you if a press release increased visits to your site, and by how much. These are the minimal, bottom line numbers you need to determine if your website, and particular sections and pages in it, are doing the job you expect. The other data in your web logs gives your further insight, and can be very useful as you analyze your website performance over time.

Analysis of your web logs tells you how sticky your site is – that is, how long visitors stay and how many pages they look at. That obviously raises the next question: How do we make our site stickier?

I believe that there are two key to website stickiness: good content and good navigation.

Good content is pretty obvious. Interesting articles, enticing headlines, offer of contests or games, intriguing possibilities – these are the types of content that make people want to read more. If your website bores you, it will bore others. Make it interesting, and be sure that it is relevant and unique.

A good technique to keep your website interesting is to have frequently changing content, especially on the home page. This can be as simple as a slide show, perhaps pictures of volunteers on a project, or your staff at work. Also good is a up-to-date list of news items, a calendar of events, and ad-like sections that promote your programs. What you use will depend on your organization, but changing content encourages people to check your site frequently, and increases the chance that they will find something interesting and stay awhile.

Another good way to keep people on your site is to include user involvement techniques, collectively known as Web 2.0. there is a lot of hot air being blown about on Web 2.0, but essentially it means that there are interactive features that encourage visitor participation. Such features include:

• Blogs: A blog is simply an area where people can freely discuss whatever is on their minds. I strongly recommend that this be moderated to avoid liable profanity, and spam. I strongly DO NOT recommend censorship of any comments simply because you disagree with them, or they conflict with what your organization thinks about an item. Free speech keeps blogs going, and people will quickly stop bothering to comment if you censor their remarks. Possibly worse – they make a big deal of your redactation, and spread nasty remarks and rumors elsewhere on the web.
  
• Video uploads and sharing: This is a simple feature that encourages your visitors to get heavily involved in your organization. Again, be sure to look at uploaded content before it goes live to avoid embarrassment.
  
• Podcasts: these are audio files that are easy to download for offline listening on an iPod or similar device. Same rules apply – be careful about what you allow to go live, but encourage free commentary.
  
• Photo sharing: This can be a great way to have people document your event, and otherwise share good times.

Also important is good website design. I always recommend that you work with a good web designer, either on staff or on contract. Web designers know the ins and outs of making things look good on computer screens, which is a somewhat different science that print design. Here are a few key design factors to keep in mind:

• Use a different font for headlines and text and make them big enough to read easily.
  
• Keep your site design narrow enough to fit on a standard screen and moderate resolution. Not everyone is using the hottest new screens, so design for the lowest common denominator.
  
• And finally, be sure to test your design on Macs and PCs and in Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla, and Opera – the most used browsers.

Good navigation enables your visitor to find and go to the information she is looking for as easily as possible. Here again, a good web designer can make a great contribution by providing navigation that is easy to use, works well, and looks good. While there is no simple manual for good navigation, there are a few rules of thumb:

• Build your main navigation so that visitors can see where they are going. Drop-down menus or similar tricks make if possible to see what each section of your website contains before going there. This makes navigation through your site much quicker and easier, and helps to keep your visitors from getting frustrated and leaving.
  
• Keep your site shallow and broad. If you diagram your site like an org chart, you want to see many second level (below the home page) choices, and you don’t want to go beyond three or four levels deep. Keeping the site shallow means it takes fewer clicks to get to information, and that makes for a more satisfying experience for the visitor.
  
• Have a feedback mechanism that shows when a button is pushed. You can change the button color, or use sound, for example.
  
• Make your navigation big enough for boomers to read.
  
• Have a search box. Often your visitors will not know exactly where to find what they want. A good search function helps them get what they’re looking for with minimal effort.
  
• Have an easy to find site map. And be sure your site map is detailed enough to be truly useful.
  

Once your site has good content and good navigation, and you have optimized it for search engines, it’s stickiness should increase. And the longer each visitor stays, the more opportunity you have to tell your story, and solicit donations. So go to it. Get sticky!

More on Messaging

By Ben Delaney © 2007

Effective communications in 4 easy steps

Talking is not communicating. Sending a million emails is not communicating. Yelling from atop a soapbox in the town square is not communicating. Printing a glamorous four-color brochure is not communicating. Sending out a well-written press release is not communicating.

Communication requires a receptive audience. A message has to be heard and understood to be considered communication.

It seems obvious, doesn’t it? Yet it is remarkable how many pieces of “communication” fail to get their message across. I am constantly amazed by websites that fail to describe the service or product being sold until you dig through virtual reams of copy and pointless pictures. Or how many nonprofit people falter when it comes to explaining their mission, vision, and programs in language that non-initiates can understand.

There are several issues that cause these problems. As a follow up to my last article on messaging, let me go a little deeper.

The 4 C's of effective communications

What you say needs to be consistent, clear, concise, and contextual. I discussed the first C, “consistent,” in the last article. The crux of consistent messaging is that all of your materials, and all of your people, need to be on the same wavelength, providing a consistent message to all comers. The other side of that coin is what your messaging says. In other words, you can be very consistent, but still be saying the wrong things. And saying the right things can make a really big difference in the success of your organizations. Let’s go through the other three C’s of good messaging.

Clear: Is anything not clear about your messaging? You should be able to describe what your organization does so that someone who has no knowledge of your group can quickly grasp what you do. Use simple language and words that are easy to understand. People will not work to get your message, so keep it simple and easy to comprehend. Clear messages look like this:

• Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment.
  
• Since its founding in 1881 by visionary leader Clara Barton, the American Red Cross has been the nation's premier emergency response organization.
  
• TechSoup Stock connects nonprofits and public libraries with donated and discounted technology products.
  
• GuideStar's mission is to revolutionize philanthropy and nonprofit practice by providing information that advances transparency, enables users to make better decisions, and encourages charitable giving.
  
• Springboard Schools is a nonprofit network of educators committed to raising student achievement and narrowing the achievement gap.

Concise: Remember, even your long-form description of the organization should be no more than 100 words, and (Now, this is important!) each sentence should be no more than ten words. People forget the beginning of your sentence if you haven’t finished it within about ten words. Many nonprofits, especially academically-oriented groups, have a problem with this. One organization I used to work with seemed to need to impress people with their vocabulary. I describe their method of communication as never using 10 words when 100 would suffice. Don’t fall into that trap! Nobody cares how many words you know. They care about understanding what you do.

A good elevator speech is key to successful communication with donors and program participants. This short-form presentation is based on the idea that you are in an elevator and need to describe your organization before your fellow rider departs. You have 30 seconds. What will you say?

The clear messages I noted above are also great elevator speeches. Take another look at them, and then practice getting your descriptive message down to 30 second. Remember, use short, punchy, sentences and unambiguous language. Practice saying it out loud and work on it until your elevator speech flows smoothly and naturally and tells your story.

Contextual: This means that your message fits your audience, mission and vision. Keeping your message contextual means not getting sidetracked. For example, if your organization provides seminars on gender equality for HR professionals, you should not start off by talking about the technology that enables online discussions. A contextual message stays on topic and is not cluttered with interesting but nonessential information. Remember that data and information are not the same thing, and supply just the data needed to back up your information, and not a lot of extraneous facts or opinions.

Contextual messages also relate to whom and when you are communicating. If you are talking to your Senator, you want to address concerns that relate to national policy, how your organization can help, and what you need to get the job done. If you are talking to high-value donors, you want to stress the big picture, the great need, the wonderful work you do, and how supporting your organization will benefit them. If you are promoting an event, stress the value of attending, the reasonable cost, the important contacts to be made there. Get the picture? Context is everything in communications.

To sum up: Your communications are how people know who you are and what you do. Remember the 4 C’s of communications – Consistent, Clear, Concise, and Contextual – to ensure that your communications do the job for you and your organization.

You May Have Heard This Before

By Ben Delaney © 2007

The importance of consistent messaging

Have you ever seen an ad, or a TV commercial and realized you already knew exactly what it was going to say? Have you ever found yourself with a jingle rattling around your brain, hours after you heard it on the radio? Have you glanced at an ad in a magazine, recognized the company, and turned the page? If you answer “yes” to any of these questions, you’ve been a target of effective and consistent messaging.

One of the prime characteristics of effective messaging is that it’s boring. Boring that is, to those who create it, because it seldom changes. Boring perhaps to those who hear it, because they are constantly being told the same thing. But not boring at all to those who rely on people understanding their organization, because effective messaging creates an image in the mind of your customer that is long-lasting, cohesive, and easy to remember.

Messaging includes every public impression of your organization. That includes your logo, your tagline, what the CEO says at the country club, how your receptionist answers the phone, the sales literature, your trade show presence – essentially, every public manifestation. As a marketer, your goal is to create a consistent and coherent message that hammers a few key points over and over – until your customers know them as well as you do.

Messaging isn’t a slogan, though. It’s much more than that. Messaging is the overall impact that everything you say and do has on your customer. If you use blue and gold on your logo, but your ads are red and black, you have muddled your messaging. If your website proclaims, “The only product you need to create better relationships with your customers”, but your business card says, “Great CRM System”, you have created a dissonant and less effective message.

The keys to effective nonprofit messaging

For nonprofits, consistent, effective messaging is even more critical. Every nonprofit has a Mission Statement. That’s where your messaging starts. But not where it ends. Your organization also needs a Vision Statement, a Needs Statement, and a USP, or Unique Selling Proposition. Let me explain each one and how they differ.

Your Vision is what you hope to accomplish, such as “ending hunger in Central America.” Your Mission Statement describes how you fulfill your vision. You might say, “We will end hunger in Central America by teaching locals how to farm more effectively.”

The Needs Statement is for your donors. Donors need to believe that your organization is meeting a critical need, and doing it better than your competitors. (More on competition in a later installment.) Your message has to evoke a need that is relatively unchanging. Your needs statement is a quick explanation of why your organization exists and why people should support its mission.

Your needs statement is that rationale behind the vision and mission. In our example, it might read like this: “Thousand of children in Central America go to bed hungry every night. If their parents understood a few recent discoveries about farming in their region, they could produce 50% more maize and feed their children every night.” See the difference?

Like commercial enterprises, each nonprofit also needs to have a “unique selling proposition (USP).” This is a few key points that differentiate your organization from others with similar missions – as your customer perceives them. I have heard dozens of clients in for profits and nonprofits tell me that they have no competition. That is bunkum. Your customers will perceive competitors, and you need to offer a unique reason that they should support your organization instead of any other one. There is a limited pot of donor money out there. Your unique selling proposition is key to differentiating your organization from all the others. In our example, the USP might be, “We provided more money to support farmer training than any other organization, and our method has been proven to be highly effective. Last year we helped 8,431 farmers learn new techniques and help their children getter more to eat. Won’t you help?”

You mission, your vision, your needs statement and your USP form the basis for all of your messaging. Be sure that everything flows from those key statements, and that every opportunity for communicating your message is clear, consistent, and true to those ideals.

Here are some key questions that will help you evaluate how consistent your messaging is:

• Do you present your mission, vision, and needs statements consistently?
  
• Have you identified and codified your Unique Selling Proposition?
  
• Does your logo look the same in every usage?
  
• Is your color scheme simple and consistent?
  
• How often does your tagline change?
  
• Is the look of your website and literature appropriate to your company, products, and customers?
  
• Are your customers comfortable with the language you use?
  
• Do you consistently make the same sales arguments (your USP)?
  
• Do you describe your services differently in different places?
  
• Do your service or product names relate to each other and the company name?
  

If your messaging is consistent, and true to your mission, vision, needs statement, and USP, you will find that soon your customers are parroting it back to you, and even your competitors will start to talk about your organization in your terms. That’s good messaging.

Thanks to Kathy Cole, of West Wind Consulting, for helping me better understand these important aspects of nonprofit messaging.

The Importance of Branding

Or how the cowboys got it right.

By Ben Delaney © 2007

In the old west, cowboys needed to tell which cattle belonged to whom on the open range. Way back in the 1880’s most of the American west was a vast, unfenced area – rangeland punctuated by dramatic mountains and perilous arroyos. Cattle roamed freely and often herds belonging to different ranchers intermixed.

Back then, establishing a brand meant marking all your cattle with a hot iron that permanently burned your mark into each animal’s hide. Today, every brand manager longs to create a mark as permanent as that.

We’re all familiar with many modern brands. The words coke, nike, scotch, windows, and many others have had their historical meanings blurred by the simple addition of a capital letter. Now, those are international brands, carrying deep and often complex emotional and intellectual meaning to millions, if not billions of people.

(This branding sword cuts both ways, though. Think of xerox, kleenex, post-it, margarine, and band-aid. These were, or are, trademarked brands. But through carelessness, these valuable properties have become common nouns – with a substantial loss of value for the companies that own them.)

Virtually every successful organization has created a brand. This applies just as strongly to nonprofits as it does to for-profit enterprises. Think about what these brands mean to you, and how you respond emotionally to them:

• Red Cross
  
• YouTube
  
• Girl Scouts
  
• IBM
  
• Salvation Army
  
• Apple
  
• Greenpeace
  
• Google
  

See what I mean? Whether you like or dislike them, brands rule the mind-space of consumers world-wide.

Building your brand

Whether you are a marketer in the private sector or in the nonprofit world, building and maintaining your brand is the most important function you have. A strong brand creates recognition of your organization and eliminates the need to explain its purpose. It creates trust (when properly maintained), and makes sales and support solicitations much easier. A good brand makes it easier to introduce new programs or products, and it helps to build a strong base of support. In fact, a strong brand makes every aspect of communications and marketing easier and more effective.

Building a strong brand takes imagination and hard work. But more than that, more important than a great logo or an unforgettable tag line is one thing: consistency. To build a great brand, you must watch it like a overprotective grandma – shepherd it through difficult times, stand up for it if bullies attack, guard its reputation, and be sure it shows up at the right place, at the right time, and looking good. Here are few tips for building and maintaining a great brand.

Ensure appropriateness: If you’re selling muscle cars, you don’t want a pink floral logo. If you’re a nonprofit pushing aid to the poor, a gold trimmed annual report is not appropriate. Bold ideas need bold representations, delicate subjects must be treated delicately. Your logo needs to convey the key aspects of your organization at a glance. This is not a place to skimp. Pay a professional, get a great logo. It is worth every cent.

Be sure it works in every size, and in black and white: Your designer shows you some concept ideas and they all look great. Each concept is shown to you ten inches wide. But be sure to look at it one inch wide, as well. And look at it in black and white. You have to use your logo on stationary, advertising, signs, bags, pens, and websites. Be certain it works in every size and every potential location.

Get a great tagline: The tagline is the short description that often accompanies your logo. Be sure it succinctly tells your story in as few words as possible. Try to make it catchy, even poetic. Great taglines take on a life of their own. Remember, “It’s the real thing”? How about, “Breakfast of champions”? Your tagline augments the logo in building your identity in the minds of your constituents.

Use it everywhere: Don’t be shy. Now that you have a great logo and tagline, be sure to use it everywhere you can. It’s OK if it’s small, or tucked in a corner. But be sure your constituents see it every chance they have. That’s what creates name and identity recognition. And it takes more exposure than you may expect.

Use it consistently: Don’t ever change the shape or color of your logo. It will simply muddle perceptions and reduce recognition. During the design process, have your designer do mockups of many likely usages to test how your logo works. Consistency may seem boring to you, but it helps your image stick in the minds of your audience.

Use it long after you’re tired of it: Think about the logos you recognize instantly, like Coke, or IBM, or the Red Cross. They haven’t changed in years. Neither should yours. People don’t like change, and when you change your identity people will wonder why. Stick with it. Consistent messaging pays marketing dividends.

Branding includes other constituents, including messaging, overall look and feel, theme songs, mascots, and so on. Branding is the sum total of impressions your customers and other have of your organization. As I said earlier, your brand is your organization’s single greatest asset. Guard it like gold – for it is worth far more.

How Your Nonprofit is Just Like a Hot Internet Startup.

There are more similarities than you might expect.

By Ben Delaney © 2007

People frequently ask me how I went from high-tech marketing to the nonprofit world. In fact, I don’t see that much difference between the two environments. They actually have a lot in common. High-tech companies and nonprofit organizations share many characteristics and face similar challenges. That means that a good marketer, after learning the important aspects of an organization, like programs/products, services, and culture, can handle a nonprofit’s needs as easily as those of a high-tech startup.

Here are a few of the things that nonprofits and high-tech companies have in common:

Mission driven: Have you noticed how often high-tech marketers are called “guru” or “evangelist”? That’s because, just like nonprofits, high-tech startups are driven by the compulsion to get their message out – a message of new hope and opportunities presented by new technologies. Nonprofits are driven by similar goals – to ensure that the right people hear their messages of need and hope. This is a basic factor in communications for both constituencies. And many of the same techniques, carefully tailored to the needs of the organization and the expectations of the audience, will work in either type of organization.

Led by a brilliant, inspired leader: The engineer who invented the technology still leads the company, but everybody knows he really isn’t much of a manager. The Executive Director, brilliant in her understanding of the issues, people, and connections that form the crux of the cause, gets buried in minutiae and looses the reins of the organization. It’s called “founders syndrome.” High-tech and non-profits are led by really smart people, but nobody can do everything, especially during times of rapid growth. Both types of organizations need strong Marketing/Communications (MarCom) leadership.

Limited funds: Even the hottest venture-capital (VC) funded tech startups have to make money, or they end up dumping all those cool Aeron chairs on EBay. Nonprofits are chronically under-funded. There are many smart, low-cost marketing techniques that can quickly help the bottom line. A lot.

Need for strong branding: Every organization needs a strong brand. Brands help establish a family-like relationship. Think about the Girl Scouts, Nike, The American Cancer Society, Google, or the Salvation Army. Each of those brands hold meaning for a lot of people, and because of that familiarity half of the communications job is already done. New company – new cause; both need the same thing: a strong brand that elicits warm feelings in the heart of the organization’s constituency.

Unsure of the value of marketing: Limited funds means that not every good idea can be followed up. Some projects get done today, some are put off, some are canceled. Often the first casualty of financial constraints is the MarCom budget line. That is a huge mistake. When an organization is small, or is dealing with a setback, or has a great new opportunity, marketing helps make it happen. Marketing doesn’t have to cost a lot, and it should be treated as an investment, with goals and milestones.

Need for accountability in marketing: Finally, every organization needs to keep its eyes on the ball of accountability. Marketing results can and should be measured. How many people responded to a mailing? Were they the people we were hoping to hear from? Did our ad bring in X number of inquiries? Does our website provide good quality leads? Those kinds of questions matter in every organization.

So, you see, moving to the nonprofit world was easy for me. I get to use my time-tested marketing tools (constantly upgraded as technology changes) to help an organization that is trying to make the world better. While the objectives of a high-tech company will be completely different from those of a nonprofit, the same tools work to get the message out. An advertisement can sell disc drives or encourage donors. A press release can announce the latest version of the Gizmotron, or let people know that the millionth child has been saved. I can do either. But after decades of selling Gizmotrons, it feels really good to be working to educate children, save the environment, stamp out poverty and disease, or bring peace. I highly recommend it.