The Clued-in Copywriter: Marketing and Fundraising

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.

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?

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.

You’re working. You’re with a group, brainstorming. You’re trying to come up with a concept for an ad. You’re thinking about images and ideas and of course headlines. And inevitably, someone — it could be a designer, the client, or even a creative director — says something like this … “We have to somehow get the whole point across in the headline to catch people who are just leafing through the magazine — because, you know, nobody reads body copy.”

Is that true? Does the headline have to do all the work of the whole ad? Well, like most things in marketing, the answer is … it depends.

It depends on the product or service, the state of the market, and the target audience. Say you have a product that’s pretty simple and your audience is fully aware of. In that case, sure, the headline can do all the heavy lifting. In fact, sometimes a headline might be all you need. For example, “Laundry Baskets — 3 for $9.99.” Not a lot else to do there.

Or even if the product is just slightly more complicated than a laundry basket but your audience is aware of it and its benefits — even then, the headline can do most of the work, like this — “Laugh at the Snow with Goodyear Ultra Ice Winter Tires Thanks to Posi-Lock Traction Tread.” Sure, you could go on in body copy about tread design, rubber compounds, differentiating from competitors, and whatnot, but for the most part — and depending on the audience — the headline says it.

For the vast majority of cases, though, the purpose of the headline is NOT to convey the entire sales message. Not by a long shot. For most ads, the purpose of the headline is to get your target audience to read the ad. Because if we’re trying to introduce a new product, open up a new market, or reinvigorate a product that’s nearing the end of it’s lifecycle, then our best hope of persuading prospects is by exposing them to a powerful step-by-step sales argument. And you just can’t do that in a headline alone.

Think of one of the greatest headlines of all time — “Do You Make These Mistakes in English?” This gem was the first step in a blockbuster ad for a correspondence course in grammar. What if someone had imposed the headline-has-to-say-it-all requirement on the writer of that headline, Max Sackheim, one of the true greats of advertising and copywriting? The ad wouldn’t have generated the millions of dollars in business that it did. The key to the success of the headline, of course, is the addition of the unassuming little word “these.” The headline works because — with the help of this one little word — it points the reader’s attention to the body copy, where the ad then takes up the art of persuasion in earnest. Most of the time, that’s the headline’s real job.

Lots of nonprofits telemarket to persuade donors to give. They can, because the do-not-call laws don’t apply to them. But even so, there’s a right way and a wrong way.

I received a phone call a few days ago from a nonprofit I support. Without naming names, it’s a well-known civil liberties charity. The guy on the other end of the phone introduced himself politely and explained why he was calling. He went into his rap about what the charity does and why it needs donor support.

I told him that I was in full support of the charity’s mission but that I preferred to be contacted only by mail. I was expressing a clear preference.

The caller acknowledged my preference – which is good. But he didn’t honor it – which is very bad. He could have reassured me that future contact would be by mail, politely thanked me for my time, and hung up. Instead, he decided to see this situation as what’s euphemistically called a “service-recovery opportunity.”

He launched into a lecture about how vital donor support is to keep the work of the charity going. This went on for some minutes. After which, he asked me to make a donation now over the phone and then sign on to become a sustaining member with monthly contributions from my credit card.

I again reiterated my preference for contact by mail.

Undaunted, he took a fall-back position. After another dissertation about the need for donors to pony up, he asked for a single donation now over the phone.

Finally, getting frustrated, I told him that I supported charity’s mission but wanted to be contacted only by mail, and bid him a hasty goodbye. The lasting impression from having been worked over like that for a donations was, “can you believe that guy?”

Not the impression any nonprofit would want to create. Telemarketing is a fundraising channel that’s supposed to complement other channels like direct mail and email. Telemarketing like this doesn’t compliment other channels – it harms them.

When I’m contacted by that organization in the future, instead of thinking kindly about them, I’m going to hesitate. That hesitation – even if it’s only for a moment – is deadly for fundraisers. That hesitation could spell the difference between meeting a budget goal and falling short. It’s vital to eliminate it, because as fundraisers, that fleeting moment of decision – or indecision – is all that we get. We have to make the most of it.

There’s fundraising. Then there’s marketing. In most people’s minds, they’re two separate worlds. One is about blatant materialism, and the other’s about selfless altruism.

While that may be true on one level, the fact is that both marketing and fundraising are strikingly similar from the point of view of persuasion.

Take one example, a very successful mailing done for Peale Partners, a division of the Guideposts empire. The reason it did so well is that it uses many of the techniques of direct marketing. The envelope features a bold headline delivering a specific promise to the customer – er, donor. This big promise is then followed up with additional benefits to make the sale – in this case, to persuade the donor to open up the envelope – including, of course, the offer of something free. It’s consumer marketing from top to bottom, aimed at a donor instead of a buyer.

Other examples abound. In the fundraising world, creative directors talk about making a promise to the donor. They talk about presenting the donor with a specific, believable offer that will motivate her to give. They talk about persuasion strategies, about using guilt and fear and other motivators, about donors’ motivations for giving and how to tap into them.

Replace “donor” with “customer,” and you can see how interchangeable the two disciplines are becoming. In fact, a lot of fundraisers refer to their craft alternatively as fundraising and donor marketing.

Not surprisingly, one of the best direct response copywriters of all time, Clayton Makepeace, found his inspiration in fundraising. He recalls a time when he was a copy cub noticing how the fundraising writers were able to persuade people to send in money just by the sheer power of their letters.

From this revelation, he developed his theory of the dominate emotion and how to evoke it. He used his theory to sell – literally – millions of dollars of products and services to customers all over the world.

Fundraising and marketing – two separate worlds? Don’t you believe it.