On Wednesdays Multitasking Wears Pink

Oct 27, 2021

Have you read Malcolm Gladwell's book The Tipping Point? A tipping point for anything is when a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change. And the good news--maybe even great news--is that while bad things like diseases can be so contagious that they reach a tipping point, so can really awesome things--like that work that you do!

That's why the most sought-after superpower for any nonprofit marketer is when your donors become your secret sales forceThey know, like, and trust you. They open your mail. They actually read your mail. They tell their friends your stories. But how do you do that? It's easily than you think--one part marketing method and one part marketing moxie, that's how!

Don't fall prey to the old adage that we are the best kept secret around these parts, and everyone needs to know about what we do. That's a lie. You're not Tide. You're not Crest. You're your Coke or Pepsi. Your go-to marketing method is to market to the minimum viable audience. Who has an affinity for what you do and the capacity to support your cause with action? Seth Godin equates this to selling water only to the thirsty people. After all, trying to sell water to fully hydrated people is hit and miss--mostly miss.

That marketing mojo means you'll segment your donors into more manageable groups--that will literally give you the bandwidth to do less better and work smarter, not harder.

The idea I'm sharing today harkens back to the election of 2016--Clinton vs. Trump.  Holy guacamole, it was like boxing avocados--even if you wanted to, you couldn't look away.
                                      
It didn't matter who you were voting for, the social media and constant negative ads were headache-inducing. So, we just leveraged that fact and said what everyone was thinking, "𝗘𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟭𝟲--𝗜𝘁'𝘀 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲!! Who wouldn't read that!? A subtle nod inside also underlined the importance of voting which was also a good way to make the communication more stamp-worthy. #StampsAreExpensive

But, to take it over the top in an "Oh-Em-Gee, I have to tell my friends about this one" kind of way, you need to add that dash of marketing moxie. So, we enclosed a small packet of Advil--you know, to aleve those election headaches. This was easily doable for a few reasons:

  1. We already had these Advil packets on hand (in bulk-so there must have been a sale at some point in our history), so there was no purchase required. Thus, we were stewarding our donors while also being good stewards of the resources we already had--score!
  2. But, even if we had purchased them, we were marketing to a minimum viable audience, that's a segment of 50 for this mailing, not our entire donor base. So, the cost would still be low.
  3. When you're not going big with the quantity of your audience, you can easily go big with the quality of your idea--you'll have the ability to do it well, within your time and budget constraints.

Big ideas like this get your donors to open and read your mail. That might be a huge leap from where you are right now. Think about it...do you receive requests from nonprofits (because you're a generous person) that are boring, that you don't read, that you don't ever mention to anyone, and that you don't act on? Of course, you do! Don't send out that kind of marketing! Why? Because donor guru Penelope Burke, author of Donor Centered Fundraising says new ideas don't stand a chance unless you build in time to try them out. I'd listen to her, she's smart.

Friends, I've been doing this for a while now with remarkable results every year. You can, too. But you have to stop believing these two other lies

  1. You can effectively market to everyone in your database.
  2. Coming in on Monday and (a) trying to figure with your left brain who to market to and (b) trying to come up with your clever right brain idea all at the same time will be fun because multitasking works well.

The biggest marketing mistake is that multitasking is your BFF. It's not! It's a Mean Girl that would totally wear pink on Wednesdays.

                                      

In the end, your customized audience who loves what you do and wants to join you in doing it will become your secret sales force.  And my experience tells me that they'll start looking forward to getting your mail and may even be wondering what you'll be doing next. Sign me up for that!

Try it out, see how it works for you. After all, it's imperative that we all do our part to prepare the world that we'll leave behind for Betty White when we're all gone--𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙪𝙨, 𝙩𝙤𝙤.

All My Best,

dawn

 

 

 

P.S. Fundraising is hard, even though you make it look
oh-so easy! ♥

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