Fundraising Copywriter George Crankovic

Month: February 2011

  • Will this marketing tactic work for your next promotion?

    Two different promotions. Two different products. One marketing tactic. Maybe these marketers are onto something. They are, and it’s something we can use.

    In the space of one week, two promotions arrived in my mailbox. One was for a collection of uncirculated coins. It came in a snap-pack envelope (the kind with the perforated edge that you pull off to open) with all the markings of a special delivery business mailing. It talked about the coins and included a reservation certificate, which was of course an order form. What really stood out, though, was the heading “Notice of item on hold.” The letter went on to explain, “This is a 10-day hold. After this 10-day period, we will be forced to regard the item as unclaimed.”

    The second promotion was for a collection of leather-bound books. It came in an envelope with special-delivery markings and the label, “photo mailer.” Inside were photos of the books. The letter explained that “Our records show 1 (one) unclaimed genuine leather-bound Collector’s Edition of Huckleberry Finn being held in your name.” Here we had the “unclaimed item” approach again. This promotion went a bit further, though. It included an official-looking claim tag with instructions on how to claim the item (“simply affix your Claim Tag sticker to your Reservation Card and return it before January 31.”).

    You might be thinking that this “item on hold” approach isn’t new, and you’d be right. It isn’t. But, then again, offers like “buy one get one free” aren’t new, and, be honest, how many times have they worked on you?

    Fact is, these tried-and-true approaches work, and you can’t deny that the psychology of “item on hold” is interesting. These promotions both presented me with an item that’s virtually in my hands now. It’s really already mine. The little matter of actually paying for it is positioned as nothing more than a technicality. What’s more, in a clever bit of reframing, I don’t even have to go through the trouble of ordering the item. I simply have to claim it.

    But before you dismiss “item on hold” as just another schlocky direct mail trick, take a moment to consider how you could use this approach in marketing your product or service. It’s worth thinking about, because this tactic could be adapted to a variety of B2B or consumer products or services – for example …

    · Novell updates – our records show unclaimed software updates available for you now.
    · Acme Industries’ new white paper – Social Media Strategies for Lead Generation – is on hold for you now, pending your acceptance.
    · There’s a new Dell Inspiron laptop on hold for you – claim it now and receive a free keyboard!
    · Our service team is holding a maintenance certificate for the 5,000-mile oil change for your BMW 3-Series. To claim it simply respond now.
    · Notice of Unclaimed iphone Ap! The new Starbucks-finder ap is on hold now for you – just text “I want coffee” to claim it.
    · The July introductory issue of Investor’s Monthly is ready to deliver to you, pending your approval – claim this valuable investing intelligence now.

    Borrowing this tactic just might erode some sales resistance and create an opening for your product or service. Or, as a jumping-off point for brainstorming, it might lead to another solution that creates sales or lead generation opportunities. At the very least, it’s worth testing with your product and your audience. You never know – it just might work.

  • Make your webinar sell — 3 traps to avoid

    It seems as if there are more webinars on offer than ever. Just about every topic in marketing and fundraising is covered, along with just about every other conceivable subject in business or commerce. There are even all-day “conference” webinars, complete with virtual coffee breaks. And perhaps not surprisingly, there are webinars on giving webinars.

    The proliferation is understandable. After all, not much beats a webinar for reaching prospects inexpensively. I’ve been on the receiving end of lots of them, and unfortunately they can often fall short of delivering specific, actionable, useful information. That includes paid webinars as well as free ones. If you’ve attended even some of these events on the webinar circuit, you know it’s true.

    What’s also true is that the presenters don’t want people coming away feeling shortchanged for having spent an hour in their busy day. Certainly the audience doesn’t what that either. So, to the folks out there who are putting webinars together, for the sake of all of us who will be watching and listening, please …

    · Don’t serve up some vague aphorisms about strategy, planning, and benchmarking, and think that it’s information people can use. If we come to a webinar on marketing or fundraising, we want specifics we can put to use right now, today – not the airy, hand-waving, 10,000-foot perspective. We get enough of that in meetings. Give us tips, techniques, how-tos. That’s what we’d expect in an in-person seminar. Why should a webinar be any different?

    · Don’t simply repeat what’s on the slide. It’s the curse of the deadly PowerPoint presentation transferred to our computer screens. If the slide is filled with copy and the webinar presenter is simply going to read what we can see for ourselves on our screens, what do we need a presenter for? No, the wording should be simple bullet-pointed phrases, in most cases. And those phrases should just be thought markers, to provide the presenter with a jumping off point for expanding on the ideas presented and offering more specifics and insight – maybe even an anecdote or a war story. That’s what we want.

    · Don’t speak softly or in a monotone. One of the advantages of a webinar is the same as that of attending an in-person conference – hearing someone speak confidently and enthusiastically about a topic. It’s frustrating for people in the audience to have the moderator interrupt the proceedings to say that people are emailing in with the comment that they can’t hear the presenter. It happens all the time. And it’s just as frustrating to sit through a monologue that’s monotone. Instead, we want the presenter’s enthusiasm to come through so we can get excited about the topic too.

    What do you think? How can webinars be more useful?

    Meantime … obviously not all webinars are poorly done. Many are engaging and useful. Webinars given by Seth Godin and Clay Shirky come to mind. The ones that I attended were so interesting that I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who went back the next day to replay them. And neither of these guys hardly even used slides. They let their passion for their topic bring the event to life. And so it did.

  • 4 fast, easy tips to tighten up your copy

    A quick read. That’s what we want. Whether it’s for marketing or fundraising — whether it’s an ad, a brochure, direct marketing, or any communication — copy should get to the point and move along briskly.

    Problem is, copywriting should also be conversational in order to be effective, and by definition, writing that’s conversational means more words not fewer, since it involves phrases and expressions used in everyday speech.

    But there’s a way to make copy both tight and conversational. In fact, there are at least four.

    1. Watch out for that. When you write or review copy, be aware of how often you see the word that. Often it’s the written equivalent of like when we talk — not needed. And it slows copy down. For example,
    • “It’s one more way that Acme Advertising ensures your success” can become “It’s one more way Acme Advertising ensures your success.”
    • “Staying number one means that we need to work harder” becomes, “Staying number one means we need to work harder.”
    • The server that stores our applications is on the third floor” becomes “The server storing our applications …”

    Of course, not every that can be eliminated. But you’ll hear the ones that can be when you read the copy.

    2. Be careful of to be. The verb to be is a tricky one, since it takes many forms, such as am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being, and so on. These verb forms show up when we write because we tend to use them when we talk. Most times, copy is better off without them. For example,
    • “The Red Cross is doing life-saving work” can become, “The Red Cross does life-saving work.”
    • “The income we’re generating comes from increased prospecting” can become, “The income we generate comes from increased prospecting.”
    • “The changes in the economy we’ve been seeing …” becomes, “The changes in the economy we see …”

    3. Go easy on the modifiers. Whenever you see an adjective or an adverb, ask yourself whether it’s necessary. Most times it isn’t. We tend to use them liberally when writing in an effort to be emphatic. But modifiers often weaken the impact we try to create. And worse, they slow copy down. For example,
    • “We desperately need this program” isn’t as strong as “We need this program.”
    • “Our lead-generation process is extremely effective…” isn’t as strong as, “Our lead-generation process works.”
    • “Advertising that’s precisely targeted generates rock-solid results in sales” becomes “Targeted advertising generates more sales.”

    4. Chop off the first paragraph or two. When we write, we tend to work up to the main point instead of tackling it straightaway. As a result, the first one or two paragraphs of just about any piece can usually be deleted. Copy will get to the point faster and will seem more direct — both of which are good things.

  • Why brainstorming sessions often don’t produce good ideas — and what to do about it

    The idea of brainstorming is so ingrained in most businesses today — especially among marketing and fundraising people — that we pretty much know all the “rules” of a brainstorming session by heart. Like … don’t judge, go for quantity of ideas not quality, set a time limit, get people up and out of their chairs, and so on. Some people even go further by wearing funny hats and passing toys around a conference table.

    These various techniques are supposed to produce surprising ideas. But the reality is usually far different. Too many brainstorming sessions are boring and — worse — unproductive time-wasters, with people stifling yawns and glancing at their watches. Be honest — you’ve been there, haven’t you?

    But if we all know how to brainstorm, why are these sessions usually so far removed from the free-wheeling, free-association love fests of brilliance and creativity that they’re supposed to be?

    A few possible reasons …

    • We may know the rules of brainstorming but we often don’t follow them. I’ve attended so-called brainstorming sessions that have gone on for hours, with a “facilitator” standing before the group like a grade school teacher and pointing out the goals and guidelines of the session and subtly showing disapproval when any idea strayed from them.
    • Most of the time, people come to brainstorming sessions cold, with inadequate background information or preparation about the problem or the opportunity.
    • Work is a competitive situation — much as we try to act as though it isn’t. When someone unleashes a really good idea — maybe THE idea — there’s sometimes a tendency to try and top it … not necessarily to build on it but to try and squash it by changing it. Sometimes an idea that has merit will even get ridiculed. Ego gets in the way, and the good idea can get overlooked.
    • You just can’t “operationalize” breakthrough ideas, although many companies try. You can’t say, “We’re brainstorming at 3:30 today!” and expect everybody to just turn it on like they’re flipping a switch. We all try to be so efficient, but ideas often don’t respect our timetables. Naturally, some people may be able to flip a switch and produce some mediocre ideas but probably not the game-changing ones we’re after.
    • Some people just aren’t good brainstormers, just like some aren’t good test-takers. That doesn’t mean these folks don’t have ideas. They just have a different style of working. Some people need time to ruminate. Some people may not feel comfortable shouting out an idea in front of a group. Still others might be more visual and need some images to spark their thinking instead of staring at a blank whiteboard. It just depends.

    So what to do about it?

    It would help simply to acknowledge that the typical brainstorming session isn’t the only way to generate ideas and might not even be the best way.

    Beyond that, what about …

    • Creating a hybrid situation where people work on developing ideas on their own AND attend a brainstorming session at a different time?
    • Having a pre-brainstorming session where you provide background information and allow people some time to digest it? (There’s just no way around doing the homework. It’s essential for creating ideas.)
    • Letting people go off-site or do something to break up the routine?
    • Letting people separate into smaller groups so they can work with fewer people?
    • Making it a contest where the team that generates the most ideas wins a prize?
    • Using google and keying in some terms related to the problem and see what comes up?
    • Going onto a stock photography site and doing the same to see some different kinds of images?
    • Asking for thoughts from a professional network like Linkedin?
    • Having people come up with ideas that they know will fail, just to get that whole fear of failure thing out of the way?

    What do you think? How can brainstorming be better?

  • Tell a story to sell

    Because storytelling is so much a part of marketing and fundraising, it’s important to know what goes into a good story … what makes it grab people’s attention and lock it onto the point you’re making for maximum persuasion power.

    Luckily, we have some insightful help in our efforts to persuade through storytelling, and it comes from Mark Rovner, a noted fundraiser who draws on lessons from screenwriting. Rovner gives good, workable advice in a webinar titled The One-Minute Storyteller. You can get the audio here http://www.fundraising123.org/files/NP911_060909_Audio.mp3 and get the pdf here http://www.fundraising123.org/files/NP911_060909_Handout.pdf. It’s worthwhile, but the gist of it is this …

    To craft a good story, the first thing you need is a main character, or protagonist, who has something to gain or lose and who faces and ultimately overcomes the conflicts put in his or her path.

    The second thing you need is a beginning, a middle, and an end. That’s the basic structure. Now, character and structure must come together, and here’s how …

    In the beginning of the story, you introduce the protagonist and include endearing details about him or her. You want the audience to like the protagonist right off. After affinity is established, the protagonist goes through some sort of life-changing event – this again arouses the audience’s sympathy. Which leads us to …

    … the middle. Here you introduce the conflict (with either something or someone) and the obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. By now the audience is cheering for your main character to beat the odds and make it.

    Which leads us to the end. At this point, it should look as though your protagonist may not prevail, but in the final scene he or she overcomes the last obstacle or conflict and emerges victorious. The audience, having grown to like the character and having shared in the journey, now has a sense of satisfaction and closure. Things worked out. All is well with the world.

    If you think about it, that’s the same format that gets played out over and over again in TV shows, movies, novels – just about any kind of entertainment. That’s because it works. And it works particularly well for marketing and fundraising. For our purposes, the story can be anything from the handful of sentences of body copy in an ad to one or more pages in a case history, but even in its most compressed form, your story needs to contain all the elements of storytelling. That’s because you want your audience to go through the process with your main character and to be changed as your character is changed. That’s real persuasion.