The NonProfit Times - May 15, 2008 - (Page 20)

BAKER’S DOZEN TODD BAKER Design Your Message 13 ways to get your message to dominate P rofessor Jef I. Richards at the University of Texas at Austin once said,“Creative without strategy is called art. Creative with strategy is called advertising.” Years have passed but those insightful words still help shape the approach to marketing. However, bringing life to strategy through the illustration of words and images so it ignites the heart with a burning passion to better life is indeed an art. Do people find meaning and purpose in your advertisement? Are you challenging their soul to join a cause that changes their world? People seek significance in life, which is the strongest “offer” that charities provide. Many nonprofits struggle to design their message in a clear and powerful way. Therefore, to maximize the impact of your charity’s message, it must be presented: • Concisely, so it will get read; • Clearly, so it will be understood; • Creatively, so it will be remembered; and, • Consistently, so it can guide people to self-discovery. The presentation of your core message matters more than the demographic it reaches. A powerful and compelling message stands on its own, without the help of fanfare artwork to entice a target audience. Do you have a powerful and compelling message? Here is a Baker’s Dozen of ideas to help you illustrate your core message in a print advertisement. Keep in mind the demographic and psychographic make up of the ad’s potential reader. For example, if you’re placing an ad in Better Homes and Gardens make sure you ask to see the readership profile. 3. 4. 5. venturous and world changing in nature. Of course you can take this a step further and create ads that appeal to specific generations that utilize icons and phrases from a particular period in time. This works very well in alumni marketing. After you understand the one thing you want the ad to accomplish, make sure you “sell” that benefit in a “BIG” way. Don’t clutter the ad with other calls-to-action or offers. Stays focused on one thing and remember the best ads are like a rhinoceros, they make a single point powerfully. First, document your marketing objective.What is the “one”action you want the reader to take? Make sure that action is measurable. Most likely, there are a number of benefits to be realized if the reader takes your desired action. Before you craft your ad, write down all of the benefits. Then rank all the benefits from strongest to weakest. 1. 2. Study the way other marketers are positioning ads within a potential publication, not to copy them but rather to understand how to simultaneously craft your message so it is both unique and familiar. Men and women are different in how they approach just about everything in life. Therefore, you may want to create an ad that appeals to a woman, one that strikes their emotional cord and another that appeals to men, ad- 6. 7. 8. 9. value what we measure, therefore we must ensure everything we do is measurable. Furthermore, you want to make sure that you are measuring the long-term value of the people who respond from each publication.This will help you realize how to spend your future marketing dollars in order to receive highest return on investment (ROI). Make sure your ad has a natural flow to it, what part of the ad will the reader see first, then second, third and so on. Keep in mind donors give toward the impact of your organization, save and change lives and not to coordination, distribution, training, managing, shipping, etc. Include a well-known endorser of your mission, someone either on a local or national level that says your organization is worthy of people’s support. GRANTS Continued from page 19 grantmakers. The topic of evaluation frequently came up.According to the interviewees, the evaluation component of a grant proposal to a foundation should include evidence of a solid evaluation plan, including both objective and subjective data. Indeed, it is best if the evaluation is built into the initial conceptualization of the grant project, not tagged on at the end. Most funders said that they expect to see at least one or two paragraphs as part of the project description section of the proposal portraying a well thought-out plan to evaluate and some projected indicators of success, either qualitative, quantitative, or both. Today’s grants decision makers view a healthy evaluation plan as evidence of a well-run organization, one they can have confidence in and one whose leadership is not afraid to ask hard questions. Still not convinced? An additional reason to spend some time on the evaluation section of your grant proposal is that it may well pave the way for future funding.To quote one of the grantmakers interviewed:“Having a good evaluation component in place helps position the grantseeker for the next grant.” NPT Judith Margolin is vice president for planning and evaluation at the Foundation Center and editor of The Foundation Center’s Guide to Proposal Writing and The Foundation Center’s Guide to Winning Proposals. Spend a majority of your time thinking of what the headline will communicate. Your ad’s headline must seize the reader’s attention and compel them to probe further. Many groups do the exact opposite.They spend a majority of their time writing copy and worrying about color schemes that in the end, there is little time to craft a extraordinary headline. Ensure that your visual matches your headline. The imagery you select should communicate the same benefit promised in your headline. Make sure you include multiple ways for people to respond, a clipout coupon, telephone number, and a Web site address that directs them to an identical campaign or landing Web page. You will discover that some publications work and others don’t but only if you are uniquely coding each advertisement. We 11. 12. 13. Most charities cannot afford a nationwide ad campaign so if you have a limited budget, which most do, pick your publications wisely. It is better to place your ad in one or two publications each and every time, than 10 to 15 publications just one or two times. This is the frequency over reach principle. You can’t be everywhere so dominate where you are and your message will break through. NPT Todd Baker is vice president/senior strategist for Grizzard in Atlanta and is based in Bainbridge Island, Wash. His email is todd.baker@grizzard.com 10. 20 MAY 15, 2008 THE NONPROFIT TIMES www.nptimes.com http://www.nptimes.com

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The NonProfit Times - May 15, 2008 Tying Multiple Sub-Brands To The Primary Idea Executive Session: Giving The Donor The Chance To Say Yes Blogging From The Top Contents Striking The Best Deal Don't Be Fooled Immigrants And Philanthropy Bringing In The Dough Good And Bad Organizational Evaluation Design Your Message You’ve Got Mail? Hybrid Power Calendar NPT Jobs Resource Directory

The NonProfit Times - May 15, 2008

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