Not For Profit Marketing: Your Story in 7 Words or Less
Here is a new and free strategic resource for your Not For Profit Marketing. The database was created with a simple goal in mind – to help NFPs develop a positioning statement that works best for them.
‘Our Story’ (AKA Positioning Statement or Elevator Pitch) is a statement that addresses your market’s most pressing problem and focuses on outcomes or benefits. In just 10 words or less it clearly says why they should care about what you do.
‘Our Story’ is therefore the foundation for all your communications as it then becomes easier to deliver the same message across all media and face to face. Repetition is critical in claiming a position and giving it staying power. Remember, you’ll get tired of your message long before your audience does!
How can you use the database of 920 examples in your Not For Profit Marketing? Here is an approach we have used many times…
Get two of your people, perhaps one volunteer and one staff member, to go through and select those they like. Or entries that have an idea or a word that they like. Then print this ‘medium list’ and compare notes, then narrow it down to a short list of anywhere between 20 and 50.
Now you are ready to share the list with your key people and volunteers. Just get in a room with a whiteboard to brainstorm some ideas.
Does it have to be 7 words or less? Of course not. But if it is longer than 10 and you’ve just met someone, you’ll induce sleep, not curiosity!
Once you have some powerful words, step two is to add 2 or 3 sentences to explain how you do it – the supporting claims. And these are more concrete.
Here’s what a client of ours says when asked “What do you do?”…
“We make English readable. So, read it, speak it, know it.”
How do you do that?
“We make English phonetic without changing the spelling, so students pronounce the word correctly as they read it.
So they read it; speak it mentally and will remember the word ‘shape’ when they hear it later.”
For your copy of the NFP database (no boring ‘capture’ forms!)
Cheers, Ashley [W16]
Ashley manages a team of young, international B2B marketers at Lead Creation
