Avoiding the Messaging Trap

Messaging is how we use words to move people to take action. The increased sophistication and power of tools at our fingertips has created a dangerous trap, however. A novice can now create a fairly sophisticated Web site or e-mail campaign. A glossy, professional look is necessary but not sufficient in moving a target audience to the desired actions. Similarly, clear, concise, and grammatically correct text is not enough. An excellent and inexpensive guide to how to craft and tune your message is Writing Copy for Dummies.

Key points on how you communicate who your organization is include:

Emphasize the benefits! (should relate to your mission)
Highlight your key difference
Be consistent (about who you are)
Be credible
Keep it simple

Emphasize the Benefits

People are lazy readers. Always connect the dots between what you do and what it does for them. If you run a soup kitchen in a suburban area, you could say that you feed the hungry, but that may not resonate as well as saying that your support helps neighbors through such crises as loss of jobs until they get back on their feet. Think about how what you do is most relevant to those you are reaching out to.

In the nonprofit world, organizations get in trouble with messaging when their mission is really a program description. If your mission is to educate teenagers about the legal system, you may need to reach beyond your mission. Why are you teaching kids this? Is it to encourage more to be lawyers or to reduce a sense of alienation from the justice system? Your potential donors are not nearly as interested in the means as the ends. Touch upon what will matter to them.

Highlight Your Key Difference

Your communications will include a description of who you are that should reflect your positioning—i.e., what services your organization provides, who you provide them to, and how your organization is different from related organizations. Don't say simply that you feed the hungry. Why should someone give to your organization rather than another that feeds the hungry? Maybe it's your geographic focus. Maybe you teach recipients cheaper, more nutritious ways of preparing food. Whatever your key difference is, flaunt it.

Be Consistent

Be consistent in how you portray your organization. If you are experienced at e-mail marketing, the reference to consistency may seem counter to what you learned about splitting a campaign into two or more variations to test different approaches. Testing tweaks in the call to action is not the same, however, as changing how you describe who you are.

You might wonder, "Aren't I supposed to highlight different things based on the audience receiving my message?" Absolutely, but you can't pretend to be a completely different animal to each audience. Nor can you change who you say you are in each communication to a specific audience. A conservation organization should have one key message to highlight for potential members—perhaps, enjoy our properties as much as you'd like without paying admission fees—and another for large donors—perhaps, we're the most efficient organization in Massachusetts for conserving land and educating the public. Highlight the aspect most relevant to the audience but include a consistent blurb about your organization in each communication. If you are revising the description of your organization repeatedly, you probably have not agreed on your positioning yet.

Be Credible

Being credible means providing evidence. Numbers make great evidence. Let's say that you have found that donors are interested in funding the most efficient provider of shelter for the homeless. You could highlight the number of homeless people you helped or how your overhead decreased as a percentage of costs last year. Your readers probably won't remember the evidence you cite, but if it is credible, it will help glue your positioning into their memories.

Keep It Simple

Finally, keep it simple. Regardless of how acute our mental facilities are, we know that the more items we are given to remember, the lower the probability of remembering any. The less you ask donors and members to remember about you, the better they will remember it. Conservation organizations may occasionally do things outside of conserving land for species protection. They might conduct a native plant sale annually, for example. They don't, however, need to list every activity they undertake when they are explaining who they are on their Web site or in their brochure.

Conclusion

Messaging is just one aspect of marketing your nonprofit organization; strategy, positioning, branding, and segmentation are others. If you are struggling to secure funding, it may help to look at how you market your nonprofit. If you develop a meaningful position and segmentation for your organization, the other parts of marketing-including messaging-should be much easier to execute. Click here for more information.

Kathryn Roy is a principal at strategy and marketing consultant Precision Thinking in Boston. She serves on the board of Community Action Partners, an arm of the Harvard Business School Alumni Association through which HBS alumni consult pro bono for Boston-area nonprofits.