Archive for October, 2009

"It's so much fun canoeing with my family," said Henrietta Homeowner. "I'm really glad we all did our part to clean up the lake."

Spitfire Communications, a PR firm focusing on do-gooder nonprofit types, has posted its latest e-newsletter, “Spitfire Sparks.” All of the articles are quite good, but one of them is great: Create a “Story Bank” of people whose personal story brings life to your work.

Statistics and charts have their place, but personal stories humanize an issue and make it easier to understand. All organizations can benefit from creating their own storybanks. These collections of compelling stories can be used to make the case to policymakers, attract potential donors or reach out to reporters. Having the stories already written and vetted will make it that much easier for you to move quickly when you need one.

This is a really great idea, readers.

• Storybank Example #1: Center for Children’s Advocacy
• Storybank Example #2: League of Women Voters

Click here to read the latest edition of Spitfire Sparks. Click here to subscribe to the newsletter yourself.

Email is primary form of environmental communication in America today

Facebook is cool. Twitter is red hot. Blogging is not as cool as it used to be, but I still do it anyway.

And Email rules. It rules. According to this latest survey from Marketing Sherpa, when Internet users come across something that gets their attention, they are still more than three times as likely to share it via email as they are to share it with some social media service. Here’s more:

• When I survey the members of nature protection and pollution control organizations, they always rate email as the #1 way to stay in touch. Always. The website is usually #2 and social media services like Facebook are usually #5 or #6.
• And for good measure, when my clients review their donation records, they almost always find that email subscribers write bigger checks more often than than those who only receive mail.

I absolutely encourage my clients and readers to take up social media — it’s come a long way in a few years and will continue to grow in importance – but the #1 priority for any organization looking to run a modern communication and membership operation is email. Here are four basic bits of advice:

• Get a modern blast email tool. Modern tools handle large lists easily and work hard to keep your emails out of spam filters (some will end up there no matter what). You have many good choices here, but I like Vertical Response because they’ll give 10,000 free email per month to nonprofit organizations and offer pay-as-you-go subscriptions for everybody else. Oh yeah, they’re one of my advertisers.
• Target your emails. With modern tools, you can target your blasts by zip code and lots of other criteria. This helps you make sure your emails are relevant and the people who receive them are happy to do so.
• Review your performance. The most important number to look at is your “open rate” — an approximation of the number of people who open your email. If your average is less than 1 in 4, then you have a problem. If it’s more than half, bust out the bubbly and celebrate.
• Stay on the hunt for more subscribers. Some of them will drop out each year no matter how fascinating your emails are, so put those signup forms on your website and everywhere else you can think of.

If you’re using something besides Vertical Response — say Constant Contact or iContact, why not share your experience working with it?

Editor and Publisher, a journal covering the newspaper industry, has released the latest circulation figures for the top 25 newspapers across the country. The news is just ghastly. In the last six months:

• The San Francisco Chronicle lost 25% of its subscribers
• The Boston Globe lost more than 18% of its subscribers
• USA Today lost more than 17% of its subscribers
• The Baltimore Sun lost more than 15% of its subscribers

Click here to see the full article and check on the status of your hometown paper. Better enjoy it while you can.

Hat tip to Tech Crunch for bringing this to my attention.

Have you ever wanted to pre-test some important communications materials on some every day citizens before you release them to the public? Are you daunted by the cost, effort, and time associated with traditional polls, surveys, and focus groups?

I thought so. Today, I’m inviting you to provide some advance feedback on a new market research service I’m preparing — and to sign up to participate in the beta test program. Those who I select to participate will get some FREE market research.

I’m calling this new service the “Do Diligence Sounding Board.” It’s a high-tech hybrid of a poll and focus group — a standing panel of more than 10,000 everyday U.S. citizens. For an affordable fee, they will review your brochure, advertisement, web page, press release, etc. and give you feedback and suggestions from a general public audience perspective — not the expert-insider perspective that your peers provide.

Help me develop a service that meets your needs. Click here to learn more and share your thoughts and concerns about the Do Diligence Sounding Board concept, and to volunteer to participate in the beta testing phase in early 2010.