How To Say Nothing In 500 Words

July 14, 2008

This is a "chain post" for lack of a better term.

I went from this Seth Godin post, to this Doshdosh post, to this essay.

Skip right to the essay for some great advice on how to sharpen your writing.

Preview of top three tips …

  • Avoid the obvious content.
  • Take the less usual side.
  • Slip out of abstraction.

Enjoyable reading … unless you’re already in Ernest Hemingway’s league.

Tom

 

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Pushing the Creative Envelope, communications, copywriting, creativity | Leave a Comment 

Thank You For Stealing

July 1, 2008

 

The maxim very successful fundraisers live by was set forth by George Bernard Shaw 80 years ago: "The mediocre borrow, genius steals."

In short, when you see a winning concept, campaign, technique, whatever, just steal it. Adapt it. Run with it.
Which brings me to today’s plea: All of us need to be sending more samples of good and great campaign or one-off efforts to SOFII the marvelous fundraising attic (aka: swipe file) where you can find all kinds of useful, informative and stealable stuff.
SOFFI just posted its June additions yesterday. For example:
§ActionAid’s controversial Bollocks to Poverty campaign.
§ Inspirational direct mail from a seven-year-old schoolgirl.
§ How Giving Scotland turned a crisis into a triumph.
§ A simple but brilliant idea for involving business people in the fight against heart disease.
§ Croatia’s campaign for mobility and independence for blind people.
§ A small organisation’s low-cost solution to recognising donors.
§ Hannah’s make and bake cake and biscuit sale.
§ The launch of a high level monthly giving product designed to upgrade donors in their thousands.
§ How a beautiful flower, the Edelweiss, became an involvement device and a symbol of hope for a hospice in Romania.
§ Make–A-Wish and upgrade your donors.

§ Twenty years before Barack Obama, the tale of an African American’s bid for the White House. Common Cause takes on the excesses of the American legislature. [Hey, this is copy I wrote 20+ years ago, long before "mid-level donor programs" were even a glimmer in whatever consultants’ eyes and it’s still good, he says, in all modesty :) ]

Seriously, so much great thinking, great creative and great innovation occurs every day in our trade, but we need to be far more energetic in sharing it with the rest of our world.

So please, vow to take 15 minutes, find one or two samples and get it up on SOFII’s site.

Thank you for stealing.

Roger

Posted by rcraver | Filed Under Uncategorized, advocacy, cause marketing, charities, communications, copywriting, creativity, direct mail, direct marketing, drtv, email marketing, fun | Leave a Comment 

Need Some Creative Inspiration?

June 4, 2008

We’ve talked before about the Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration (SOFII).

It’s an international online collection of "best of" fundraising efforts, mostly direct mail, some print.

They have a new feature highlighting the top twenty "Best of the Best" campaigns in their library. It’s well worth a browse if you’re looking for some creative inspiration.

We enjoyed the donor "thank you" example from public radio station WDCN in Nashville … the only station responding to this "mystery shopper" test showing any appreciation that their "donation" had come from an obvious bequest prospect.

The quality of a service like SOFII is totally dependent on the participation of the community it seeks to serve. If you have a fundraising package that performed especially well and can help teach others, we encourage you to share it with SOFII.

Roger & Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Pushing the Creative Envelope, copywriting, creativity, direct mail, fundraising | Leave a Comment 

Where Will The Writers Come From?

April 25, 2008

From Pew Internet Research comes a disturbing report on teens (12-17), technology and writing.

In my household, with a 14-year-old and two parents paranoid on the subject, this report has landed like a bombshell!

While 87% of teens engage in some form of electronic personal communication — text messaging, email or instant messaging, posting comments on social networking sites — 60% of them do not think of these electronic texts as "writing."

Thank god, you might say.

But the study goes on to indicate the substantial extent to which the informal styles of electronic communication are carried into writing for school. Soon to come … the first dissertation using emoticons! So maybe they’ll be able to write web and email copy … but who’s going to write the direct mail?!

25% of teens report they have done creative writing in the past year. Only 8% report they have written an essay in that time. Interestingly, 6% have written computer programs!!

I guess the good news in the study is that 86% of teens believe that good writing ability is an important component of guaranteeing success later in life … with 56% terming it essential.

Call me a curmudgeon, but is there any evidence they are actually taught good writing in school? Indeed, in Pew’s focus groups (which greatly enrich their survey data), students complain about their teachers’ lack of interest in writing and their inability to provide useful feedback!

I say … let’s begin by making them (the students, that is … the teachers might be a lost cause) read Hemingway!

If there’s one saving grace of electronic personal communications, it’s brevity … direct, short sentences, short paragraphs. All of our writing — certainly mine — would benefit from that.

Here’s a nice piece on writing lessons from Hemingway … from a copywriting blog worth following.

Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Don't Miss these Posts, communications, copywriting | 3 Comments 

Words That Work

March 5, 2008

If you’re in the communications side of the biz, or spend time writing copy, here are two books you should peruse … from opposite sides of the ideological spectrum. The advice from both is superb … but for such prominent communications experts, the books are, well, wordy!

From the progressive side, George Lakoff, Don’t Think of an Elephant.

And from the right, Frank Luntz, Words That Work.

I’m reminded of them by Colin Rowan and his Rowan Report. If you’re too cheap or busy to buy the books, Colin at least provides a brief rundown of Luntz’ "Ten Rules of Successful Communications."

Worth a peek.

Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Don't Miss these Posts, communications, copywriting, issue fundraising | Leave a Comment 

Count The Ellipses

March 4, 2008

Lately I’ve noticed that in my blogging and other online copywriting I’ve fallen into the habit of using more and more ellipses.

I hadn’t really thought about it. It just somehow felt right … something about the pacing.

So this article from Marketing Sherpa, The Glory of the Ellipsis, jumped out at me.

Their observation: "The art of getting a paragraph — or a long sentence — read is all about catching the eye." That’s the job of the five letter-free spaces created by an ellipsis.

Now I feel reassured that there’s a method to my madness … as unconscious as it has been. But now that I know why ellipses work, I’m worried that I’ll think about them too much … and begin to overuse them! Oh well.

Experienced direct mail copywriters know these tricks of the trade for holding the attention of their readers and moving them through a multi-page letter. One more case where certain marketing tactics transfer readily from one medium to another … and maybe in this case, with even greater impact.

But how much of your online copy is written, or at least edited, by experienced direct mail copywriters?! Too little I suspect. Count the ellipses!

Tom

Posted by tbelford | Filed Under Pushing the Creative Envelope, copywriting, direct marketing, online publishing | Leave a Comment 

Hope & Love … Yeah, Right!

February 8, 2008

Seth Godin says that people take action based on one of three emotions … fear, hope, or love.

Not to play semantics, but I think this is a somewhat limited palette of emotions.

For many in the direct response biz, the key emotional drivers consist of the “Super Seven” …

Fear
Flattery
Greed/Advantage
Guilt
Anger
Exclusivity
Salvation/Hope

This is a pretty common formulation. Interesting that it's devoid of love!

Here's direct marketing guru Denny Hatch on the motivators, looking at the issue form a copywriting standpoint.

We'd all like our relationships with members, donors, activists and other supporters to be grounded on the purest and highest of motives. And that's certainly something to strive for.

But the research — and experience — indicates that people seek to “cover-off” on their “basest” needs first. Woe to the fundraiser who forgets that reality.

Love ya.

Tom

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Relevance Is The Word

January 30, 2008

Relevance. Relevance. Relevance!

Relevance, that is, to your prospect … not just to you or your nonprofit.

Now matter how truly needy, important and urgent your cause is, your donor gives because the act of giving satisfies a need of his or hers.

Finding what makes your need converge with their need is what establishing relevance is all about. And it's at the root of successful fundraising, from direct response appeals to major gift solicitation. Indeed, it's at the root of all successful selling. Period.

Jeff Brooks at DonorPowerBlog never misses the bulls-eye when he writes about fundraising copywriting.

In case you missed his most recent item on successful fundraising copy, Seven steps to a relevant fundraising offer, here it is.

Tom

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Lessons In Copywriting

August 22, 2007

Beginning with a critique of email spam from the standpoint of effective copywriting, direct mail wiz Denny Hatch winds up reminding us of the most fundamental principles of the copywriting craft.

For example:

  • The letter is all about “You” copy — it's a highly emotional, personal message from the writer to the reader that translates the action sought into benefits for you the reader.
  • Flattery is one of the most proven copy drivers there is — according to one expert, flattery was the key to 42% of all the persisting controls in his mail archives.
    [You've gotten them: “You are one of a special group of brilliant, caring visionaries to receive …” I fell for one in 1970. Written by, you guessed it … Roger Craver. It got me to join Common Cause, who subsequently gave me my first job. See, it pays to read junk mail!]
  • The other key drivers are fear, greed, guilt, anger, exclusivity, and salvation.
  • Always tell a story — since before writing was invented, humans were hard-wired to listen to stories.

It's entertaining — and educational — to see Denny pick apart his spam because it's so poorly written.

Tom

Posted by admin | Filed Under Denny Hatch, Pushing the Creative Envelope, copywriting, direct marketing, fundraising | Leave a Comment 

Copywriting Checklist

August 7, 2007

Last week we talked about checklists, and asked for yours.

Here's a checklist for writing copy — copy that seeks response — from Agitator reader Ellis Robinson, author of The Nonprofit Membership Toolkit.

Some boxes to check:

  • Use the word “you” in the first sentence or paragraph.
  • Make sure there is a reason to respond today.
  • Break pages mid-sentence.

Et cetera … practical checklist stuff.

Thanks Ellis.

Roger & Tom

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