Don’t Put the Fundraising Cart before the Friendraising Horse:Think Inbound 'Pull' vs. Outbound 'Push'

It can’t all be about ‘push’. We’ve also got to ‘pull.’ Recently I’ve been writing a lot about social media. It’s an important tool for engaging with our supporters.  But let’s not forget that what makes technology sing is not the technology; it’s the people behind the technology.  Successful technology is about bonds, not bells…

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From Customer Engagement to Desire to Investment: Blogs Bond, Now What? Part III

Now what? Blogs – and social media of all stripes – are not the end goal.  They’re a lot of things. Fun… Annoying… Exciting… Time sucking… Sexy… Leveraging… Awareness creating… Teaching… Seducing… and let’s not forget –Bonding!  As discussed in  Part I and Part II , they can create relationships like nobody’s business if we…

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R.I.P: Top 3 Things Required for Content to be King – And 17 Questions We Should Ask Before Embarking on a Content Marketing Strategy

Is your content pushing up daisies?  It should be.  That’s the way to grow and blossom.   I call it  the R.I.P. Content Marketing Strategy:  (1) Relevance; (2) Ideas; (3) Plan. [Coincidentally, adhering to these principles should bring peace of mind so that you can rest easy in the knowledge you’re doing the right things (relevance;…

R.I.P: Top 3 Things Required for Content to be King + 17 Questions You Should Ask Before Building a Content Marketing Strategy

 

Is your content pushing up daisies?  It should be.  That’s the way to grow and blossom.   I call it  the R.I.P. Content Marketing Strategy:  (1) Relevance; (2) Ideas; (3) Plan. [Coincidentally, adhering to these principles should bring peace of mind so that you can rest easy in the knowledge you’re doing the right things (relevance; ideas) in the right ways (plan).]  So, to mimic Do,Re,Mi from the Sound of Music:

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The Winter of our DisCONTENT: Why, even with a content plan, marketing feels so cold to much of our audience

We’re leaving too much of our audience cold, despite the fact that we now have content plans. Brian Solis of the Altimeter Group  bloggedon a new report released by his colleague, Rebecca Lieb, “Content: The New Marketing Equation Why Organizations Must Rebalance.” A principle take-away is that, while we’ve been conscious about creating what…

"Story Quilt" by Faith Ringold

How to Project Manage Your Nonprofit Story

"Story Quilt" by Faith RingoldYour nonprofit’s story is the whole ball of wax.

Without it, you’ve got nothing.

So let’s really talk about this for a minute.

A story is not “Give us money because we’re good guys and do good work.”

Nor are “Sustain humanitarian aid,” “Support the arts,” or “Save our rivers” stories.

Sure, there may be some implicit narratives hiding within these phrases, but they’re really tag lines or calls to action. Useful, sure. But not until you’ve laid the groundwork of telling a compelling story.

You never start a story with “And they lived happily ever after.”

Similarly, you should never start a fundraising appeal with “We saved the whales.” Where’s the emotion and drama here?

You know donors are moved to give through emotion, right?

The best way to get inside a donor’s head and heart is by telling a dramatic, emotional story. Something that taps into their core and arouses their curiosity, or some deeper feeling like sadness, fear or anger.

You see, human brains are wired for story.