e-newsletter courtesy of Make it Count - communications for success

Hello,

The closer you are to something, the harder it is to see it clearly. It is natural to focus on what is important or meaningful to you. But myopic messaging is the kiss of death in organizational communications. What’s important to your organization may also matter to your staff, volunteers, donors and others, but it’s a sure bet that they are not looking at it the same way. Your communications efforts need to be presented with your audience foremost in your mind to support your organization’s goals. In this month’s issue I give you tips on getting perspective, and positioning your message for greater results.

All the best in your ventures and adventures


Sherri Garrity

Positioning in six easy steps

Positioning a message is a lot like good dinner party conversation; you need to learn enough about the person across the table to get the ball rolling. The act of translating this message into information that gets attention and sticks in the minds of your audience is called positioning.

Many people struggle with positioning; simply put, it’s using your knowledge about your audience’s interests to help them better understand your organization and, most importantly, what you want them to know and do.

Remember, your organization’s needs and wants aren’t those of your audience. The purpose of your communication is to inspire a specific action, which gets the desired result for your organization. All people, whether they are staff, donors or consumers, react to a message based on an emotional appeal. How well you appeal to their needs and interests will make or break the reaction you want.

To do this for your organization, you have to consciously and deliberately go through these steps:

Step 1. Identify your communications goal.
Step 2. List your audiences.
Step 3. Identify the concerns or interests of each audience, relating back to your goal.
Step 4. Identify the desired result you want from each audience, again specific to your goal.
Step 5. Determine the emotional appeal that drives your audience, relating it to their concerns in step 3.
Step 6. Apply this knowledge and develop your message.

For example:
Your organization has identified improving governance and financial sustainability as a strategic objective. One of the supporting goals to reaching this objective is to use new accounting software that will track all revenues and expenses. This software was carefully selected for several attributes but it will be a large undertaking to convert data and there is a significant one-time cost.

Your communications goal is to gain approval and acceptance of the new software. Your audiences related to this goal would be board (decision makers), staff (implementers). If there are no other audiences that are visibly affected (from their perspective), stop there.

Audience	Desired Result	Issue/Concern	Appeal
Board	Approval	Cost, impact	Responsible use of funds; long-term benefit
Staff	Support	Workload, change	Good use of time; you’ve listened to their concerns

Once you do this, it becomes clear why one message does not fit all. In summary, follow these guidelines to deliver messages that add value.

Know your audience – You are wasting your time and theirs if you are not positioning your message in a way that will appeal to them. In a world of information overload, this investment of thought and effort will go a long way in keeping your audience interested and connected to your organization.

Know what you want to achieve – Your message has to support your overall goal, but also has to be intended to achieve a specific purpose. Without this direction, you can’t begin to match the message to the audience. With it, your message will be effective and clear.

More emotion, less logic – Don’t bog down your message in facts, data and history. To penetrate your audience’s attention and to achieve your desired result, you need to consider their driving emotion and design your message in keeping with it.

Ready, Aim, Inspire! – the blog

In the Ready, Aim, Inspire! blog I write often about opportunities for non-profits and how they can achieve greater results through improved communications from the inside out.

Enter your email address to receive a steady supply of Ready, Aim, Inspire! directly to your in box. You’ll receive new articles each time they are posted.
For those who are familiar with and prefer RSS feeds, click the orange RSS Feedblitz button to receive the feed in your web browser.
Or, visit the Make It Count website and click on the Ready, Aim, Inspire! section to browse current and past posts.

Here’s a sampling of recent articles:

Work with meaning

Are you cranky or cool?

Job descriptions that work

Tip of the month

A trick of the trade some visual artists use is to hold a work in progress in front of a mirror, or look at it upside down. The reason for this is the mind’s eye can’t fill in the blanks intuitively, so any error in perspective or composition suddenly becomes obvious. You can do the same with your draft materials by starting backwards. If you’re stuck in a quicksand of notes and random thoughts, write your conclusion first, as if you only had one paragraph or less to get your point across. This can help refocus your thoughts and your writing.

Coming Attractions

Inside - Out Communications presented by Sherri Garrity
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Association of Fundraising Professionals, Manitoba Chapter
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Welcome new subscribers

Welcome to the new subscribers who joined the exclusive list of communicators, fundraising professionals and directors of non-profit and philanthropic organizations who receive this e-newsletter. The list is growing and contains readers from across Canada and the United States. If you know someone who would also find this information useful, feel free to forward using the box at the end of this email. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to spend with me and to invest in continuous learning and improvement. I hope your communications with staff, volunteers, donors and the community are the better for it!

Sincerely,
Sherri Garrity

Make It Count Communications for Success
w: www.makeitcountcommunications.com
e: makeitcount@shaw.ca
t: (204) 955-6391


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