There's a word with so much destructive power that you should never, never, use it when talking about or evaluating a marketing effort.
I know you'll find it hard to believe a word could have such appalling magic. But it's true. I've seen this word works its evil more times than I care to think about. Here's the baleful word:
I
As in "I like it," "I don't like it," "I would never respond to that," etc.
The minute you use the word I when talking about nonprofit marketing, you leave reality behind and enter a topsy-turvy world where it's dang hard to do good work. Because you are not your donor.
- You are probably younger.
- You know too much -- perhaps too much to see the simple clarity of the issue at hand.
- Like it or not, you have more agendas than the work at hand.
- You are paying too much attention. You're being paid to read this stuff! Your donor isn't.
All these things can add up to a screwy perception of your work. You will almost certainly get it wrong in a lot of ways. The best way out is to eliminate I from your vocabulary.
It takes a real abnegation of self to do nonprofit marketing right. But the more discipline you can give it -- the more power you can take out of your hands in put in your donors' -- the better you'll do. Always.
Try it.
(If I is the forbidden word, what's the magic word? See here.)
Technorati Tags: copywriting, marketing
Hi Jeff,
You really hit the nail on this one. It is so important to pay attention to demographics, which can be vastly different from the people that make up an organization.
For example, I've seen clients become very focused on the look and feel of their Web site when those particular features might not even be important to their constituents.
Great post!
Leila
Posted by: Leila Johnson | 25 July 2006 at 10:50