Fundraising Copywriter George Crankovic

Tag: digital-marketing

  • Is AI simply another ‘shiny new object’?

    Is AI copywriting nothing more than the next ‘shiny new object’ that’s grabbing everyone’s attention?

    To find out, let’s take a look at a couple of shiny new objects in the past from commercial marketing.

    For the first one, we need to go back in time to the early 2000s or so. That was the beginning of the SEO craze. Search engine optimization.

    SEO was everything. If you didn’t do it, you wouldn’t be able to market any product to anyone. And if you wanted to be a copywriter, well, you absolutely had to take one of the many certification courses on SEO copywriting that were springing up.

    Because if you didn’t know SEO, your so-called career as a copywriter was going nowhere. You’d be left behind, drowning in the wake of advancing technology.

    Looking back on those days, things seem quite a bit different today. You don’t hear much about SEO copywriting anymore. And if you bothered to get one of those SEO Copywriter certifications, it’s probably just collecting dust.

    That’s because it gradually became apparent that simply loading up advertising and marketing content with keywords produced a very predicable result.

    Copywriting that sounded like it was produced by a robot spitting out keywords. And not only keywords. The same handful of keywords over and over again.

    To anyone actually reading this copy, it seemed like the content was there for the sole purpose of delivering keywords to the search engines. Which was exactly the case. Customers recognized this too, of course. They became less and less enthralled.

    Needless to say, even though it seemed like a good idea at the time, SEO copywriting kind of fizzled out.

    Another shiny new object was the whole ‘article marketing’ craze that happened somewhere around the same time.

    The experts promised that you could market and sell anything just by publishing articles about it on sites like ezinearticles.com – which by the way doesn’t exist anymore.

    With all the initial hoopla about article marketing, ask yourself if you’ve heard much about it lately. You haven’t, for a few reasons.

    First of all, the content was mostly crap. That’s because, again, the content was seen as simply a way to deliver keywords to the search engines. And that was the problem. After you’d read a few of these articles, why would you waste time ever reading another one?

    Second, the algorithms changed. If you were an avid article marketer, your articles suddenly stopped showing up on search results, because Google changed the rules on you.

    Third, too much content! With everyone pumping out articles as fast as possible, it’s obvious that we’d reach a saturation point. How much of that stuff could people actually read?

    Which brings us to AI. And to copywriting.

    If you’re a marketing or fundraising copywriter today, you’re being told that you have one of two choices: adapt or die.

    Either you use one of the AI writing tools available – and ideally more than one – to write better and faster, or you gradually succumb to a rapidly changing climate, watching fellow copywriters die off like Wooly Mammoths, once great creatures that just couldn’t keep up.

    But there’s another problem. Let’s say you stand up and announce, “I choose to adapt!” With your hand over your heart, you pledge to use the amazing new AI copywriting tools.

    The only thing is, the nonprofits or businesses that might hire you to write copy don’t need you. They can just plug a prompt into AI, and the copy appears.

    In the nonprofit world, even tiny nonprofits with no communications department can produce donor communications by the bushelful. Appeals for direct mail, appeals for email, donor newsletters, case statements, donor acknowledgements, whatever. You can pump out content like crazy.

    And you can direct that fire hose of content at your donors, and blast them with it. Then they’ll have no choice but to give. Because you’re communicating with donors, right? Well, yes and no.

    Pumping out content isn’t necessarily communicating. Especially if your content sounds like everyone else who’s using AI.

    And especially if you’re bombarding your donors with content in the same way that the other charities they support are also bombarding them with content.

    Remember SEO marketing? Remember article marketing? Aren’t we going to reach a saturation point in fundraising with AI-generated communications?

    Sure, in the beginning, everyone is smitten with AI copywriting, just like everyone was smitten with SEO copywriting and article marketing.

    But will we end up a few years from now looking back and wondering why we didn’t realize that computer-generated fundraising appeals weren’t really the great idea that they seemed to be?

    And will we wonder why we didn’t realize that human beings don’t really love computer-generated fundraising, even though it’s cheap for the nonprofit to produce?

    The shortcomings of SEO copywriting and article marketing seem obvious now. Shouldn’t the shortcomings of AI copywriting and fundraising be just as obvious?

  • How to harness the power of good to make your fundraising appeals better

    Many nonprofits aren’t giving donors what they want.

    And then those same nonprofits wonder why donors aren’t giving them what THEY want – donations.

    Donors want a whole range of things in exchange for their gifts. One of those things surely is the intangible benefit of thinking of oneself as a good person.

    And why not? Why shouldn’t donors think of themselves this way? Donors ARE good people for giving.

    But many nonprofits fail to tap into this in their fundraising appeals. Maybe they think it’s too sentimental or too melodramatic. Nonsense.

    You want to connect with your donors on a practical level (I’m sending food for starving people), but you also want to connect with donors on an emotional level (I’m doing something good that I can be proud of, something that shows I’m a good person.).

    So how do you communicate this important intangible benefit to donors?

    There’s the tried-and-true donor appreciation certificate with the donor’s name on it, saying how wonderful they are. That says, “you’re a good person for giving.”

    There are special awards, like a Good Neighbor Award, that send the good-person message.

    There are impact reports saying, “you made this good work possible,” which the donor understands as “I’m a good person for doing this.”

    There are memberships in giving groups, like president’s clubs, where donors can see themselves as good people in the company of other good people

    There’s messaging. You can suggest, you can imply, you can even come right out and say, “You’re a good person!” in donor communications.

    There are many more ways to convey to donors that they’re good people. And when you give donors what they want, they’re more likely to return the favor. See the whole story at https://tinyurl.com/28e4pkjp

  • Your donors need to feel like they belong

    Fundraising appeals often fail to convey a sense of belonging to donors. That’s too bad. It means nonprofits are missing out on a major reason why donors give.

    Donors want to feel like they belong. They want to feel like they’re part of the team.

    In fact, it’s essential for revenue and retention. But how do you square donors’ need for belonging with the fact that giving is often a solitary activity?

    Think of it. A donor gets an appeal in her mailbox or email inbox. She opens it, glances through it, and decides whether to write a check or give online. Not a lot of shared experience in that.

    For most donors, your fundraising appeals are the only thing they’ll ever see of your nonprofit.

    Some donors will attend your events. Some will take the tour. But most won’t. But that doesn’t mean your donors shouldn’t feel like they’re insiders. Because they certainly are.

    One way to bring donors inside the tent is the messaging in your appeals. You can say, for example, “You’re one of us. You see someone on the street picking in a trash can, and your heart goes out to that person. You want to help. You believe what we believe — that no one should have to live on the streets.” Messaging like this conveys community and shared values.

    Other ways to create a sense of belonging? There are membership cards, bumper stickers, window clings, refrigerator magnets, and more. They’re all ways for donors to feel part of the in-group.

    There’s your sustainer program. Belonging is one of the benefits of monthly giving, president’s clubs, and other giving groups.

    There are the stories you tell. You can include not only the donor and the beneficiary but also staff, the volunteers, the case manager and others where appropriate. Why not have a group photo with the beneficiary and staff to show the donor they’re not alone but part of the group?

    There’s inside information. This could be an impact report, a financial report, an annual report, a memo from the executive director, a message from somebody in the field and so on. Lots of possibilities here. They make your donors feel like they’re in on the action.

    There are donor testimonials. Why-I-give statements tell donors there are other supporters like them.

    There are surveys. Asking donors for feedback is often effective, since we all love giving our opinions. But don’t stop there. Report the results (maybe in your newsletter), so donors can see what other donors think. 

    There’s more in the full article at https://tinyurl.com/28ws2hy5. Fulfilling the need for belonging is a vital way for nonprofits to connect with donors. And a vital way to be donor centric in your fundraising, with the increases in revenue and retention that come with it.