Disruptive Philanthropy: Using Message Marketing to Maximize Donations for Social Work Management

1. Disruptive Philanthropy: Using Message Marketing to Maximize Individual Donations Network for Social Work Management 2018

2. Today’s Objectives: • Learn the role of Message Marketing • The five steps to Message Marketing • Case study, sample materials • Work on a marketing message for your organization

3. Standing Out in the Crowd • Did you know you only have seven seconds to capture someone’s attention? • Behind every successful fundraising program stands a well-crafted, psychologically compelling message that drives your communications and fundraising materials.

4. What IS Message Marketing? • Message Marketing is about making sure that everyone that comes into contact with your organization understands what you’re about in a clear, concise, succinct way. Your Elevator Pitch. • A marketing message is not a slogan, summary of accomplishments, vision, or mission. Your marketing messageis something that gets your prospect’s attention, provides a solution to their problem, tells them why they should trust you, and why they should choose you vs. your competition. • All philanthropists have a need – a need to support causes they care about. Your job is to convince them that your agencyis the perfect vehicle for meeting that need (examples: American Cancer Society, mattress company). Your messaging needs to take this into consideration.

5. The Role of Message Marketing • Your message is the lynchpin in your marketing efforts. Pairing a powerful marketing message with effective communications program will help attract and retain clients, donors and funders. • Your marketing message needs to be integrated into all of your communications strategies, including: • print, radio, TV, ads, business cards, presentations, website, speeches, workshops, daily correspondence, proposals, brochures, annual reports, voice mail and email.

6. Getting Your Audience’s Attention • The key to creating a compelling message is to align it with the needs of the audience receiving it – it needs to “speak” to the reader by crafting a message that triggers an emotional reaction. • Once you get someone to open what you’ve sent them, you have to get them to read, and keep reading. This means you need to pull their heartstrings, bonk them over the head, surprise them, engage them every 7 seconds.

7. Moving to Action • How do you get them to keep reading? Bullets, headings, charts, pictures, pull quotes and testimonials build excitement & “buy-in.” Use “construction” to move their eye down the piece. • At the bottom of the piece, you need to get themto ACT – make a donation, a phone call…whatever the point of the communication was, you need to compel them to do it. What is your Call To Action(CTA)?

8. Five Steps to Creating Your Marketing Message • STEP 1 - Identify your target market. • Every agency has a target market – most have several. The 1st step is to identify them. Case study: who are the target markets for Safe Haven? • Once you have identified them, you’ll be able to tailor a message to meet the needs of that particular audience.

9. STEP 2 • Identify the problem(s) of your target market(s). By honing in on the problem(s) being experienced by your target market(s), your message will start to emerge. The key is to determine what the problem is and how it makes them feel. • “People don’t care about you until they know you care.” Identifying the problem(s) being experienced by your audience members helps create a connection with them. Creating a sense of understanding and empathy moves them toward you, compels them to act. • Case study: What problems do stakeholders who might care about Safe Haven have?

10. STEP 3 • Present your solution. The next step is to present your solution as the remedy for the problem your market is experiencing. • “Rub raw the wounds of discontent.” Most people won’t move to action unless they are compelled to do so, so you need to make them uncomfortable. • Outline the benefits of your solution and how they will resolve the problem at hand. We live in a “Do-it-for-me” society -- present your solution as the easiest way to address the problem.

11. STEP 4 • Outline the results you’ve produced for others. People are inundated with requests for support, so it’s not enough to tell people you have a solution; you have to prove to them that your solution works. If you can show that you’ve achieved positive results – and that people like them have benefitted – they are more likely to move to action. • Quotes and testimonials can serve this purpose.

12. STEP 5 • Explain what makes you different from the competition. • Differentiate yourself from similar agencies, especially if they are in the same geographic area. Donors need to know what is different about your “product”! • Communicate your differences! Those differences need to have perceived value to the prospect; they need to be something they care about. • Example: Abby’s House shelter helping women from all circumstances

13. The Bottom Line • Focus on the 'What’s-In-It-For-Me’ –what’s in it for that particular audience member? • What benefit or value are you offering to them? And how is that better than what the competition is offering?

14. Identifying Your Audience(s) • Internal stakeholders -- staff • External stakeholders – board, clients, funders, volunteers • Constituencies – • Area agencies • Partners/collaborators • Politicians/legislators (local/state) • Educational institutions • Religious institutions • Civic groups • Businesses/corporations • Media • Community at large • Others?

15. Expanding Your Audience(s) • Identify which people/organizations you are already working with in each category • Identify people or organizations that need to be added to the list (you may have to conduct some research) • Be sure to have a database where contact information is stored, which includes affiliation and communication codes

16. Identifying Organizational Communication Needs • What do you need to communicate? To whom? Consider both internal and external communication needs. • What vehicles are already in place? How effective is each one? Consider both ingoing and outgoing communications vehicles. • Which ones do we need to add? For whom? • This may entail running some focus groups and/or doing some research.

17. Branding Your Organization • Branding helps create a particular “look and feel” to your materials, such as: • Brochures • Annual reports • Websites • Social media pages and posts • Newsletters/e-newsletters • Letterhead/envelopes/postcards • Thank you notes • Powerpoint presentations • Etc.

18. Connecting the Dots… Message Marketing and Branding • Message Marketing helps you to identify your core identity – what is it that we’re “selling”? • Need to answer: What’s the core message we want to deliver? Who are we? What do we do? How are we different? • The Message Marketing process will influence the selection/creation of logo, colors, tagline(s), layout, etc. This ties directly into your branding.

19. Case study: Safe Haven • Someone you know is living in fear. • No one deserves to be hit. • Don’t give up on her. She needs you.

20. Case study: Abby’s House • Annual Appeals • Raise the Roof • Buy A Bed Campaign

21. Case study: Edward Street Child Services • Which one of these children doesn’t deserve to succeed? • Speed dating is bad for kids. • In 15 years, only 3 of these kids will be employable.

22. Time to Play! • Pick an audience • Identify their concerns, their “pain points”. What problem(s) are they experiencing? What are they feeling? • Craft a message that addresses those things.

23. Contact Information Sarah Lange Principal & Founder sarah@newera4nonprofits.com www.newera4nonprofits.com The material contained within these pages is propriety. I ask that you not reproduce or disseminate it to others without my express written permission. Thanks for respecting my intellectual property!