I was in a meeting a few years ago with a leader who was trying to raise money for a big initiative.

He had passion.
He had vision.
He had a real need.

But about ten minutes into his explanation, I could see the room starting to drift.

Not because they were uninterested.
Not because they were ungenerous.
Not because they didn’t care.

They were confused.

The leader kept adding more context, more history, more side notes, more internal language, more “let me explain how we got here” commentary. By the time he finally got to the actual opportunity, the people in the room had already lost the thread.

And that is one of the most expensive mistakes a leader can make.

Because people don’t fund confusion.

Donors don’t give to something they don’t understand.
Investors don’t back something they can’t explain.
Buyers don’t purchase something they can’t quickly connect to a problem they actually have.

Clarity creates confidence.

Confusion creates hesitation.

I’ve seen this happen in nonprofits, churches, businesses, startups, capital campaigns, product launches, websites, fundraising letters, sales decks, and donor conversations.

The leader knows too much.

They understand the background. They know the acronyms. They know the internal challenges. They know the twenty-seven reasons this new initiative matters.

But the donor, investor, or buyer does not live inside your head.

They are asking a much simpler set of questions:

What are you doing?
Why does it matter?
Why now?
What happens if I say yes?
What happens if I do nothing?
Why should I trust you?

If you cannot answer those questions clearly, you are asking people to make a decision through fog.

And most people will not do that.

They may like you.
They may believe you.
They may even want you to succeed.

But they will delay.

They will say, “Let me think about it.”
They will ask for more information.
They will need to “circle back.”
They will go quiet.

Not always because they are saying no.

Sometimes they are saying, “I don’t understand this well enough to say yes.”

That’s why clarity is not just a marketing issue. It is a leadership issue.

A clear message does not make something shallow. It makes something accessible.

A clear offer does not cheapen the mission. It gives people a doorway into it.

A clear ask does not pressure people. It helps them understand the role they can play.

The organizations that raise more money, attract better customers, and gain more momentum are not always the ones with the best ideas.

They are often the ones that explain their ideas the best.

So before you launch the campaign, rewrite the website, pitch the donor, approach the investor, or run the ad, ask yourself:

Can someone repeat back what we are doing in one sentence?

If they cannot, you are not ready to ask them to fund it.

Clarity comes before commitment.

People do not fund confusion.

They fund confidence.

It is your job to give them a compelling reason to invest in something that matters.

Generous people give in good times and in bad times.

So do not let uncertainty cause you to shrink the vision, delay the ask, or assume no one is ready. If your mission matters, present it clearly. Invite people boldly. Let them respond.

People are still looking for something worth believing in.

Make sure they can see it.

The ways in which we communicate are changing very, very fast. The pandemic has accelerated changes that would have taken years to take full effect and are now happening in a matter of months.

Much like you, I want the work I do to mean something. I want my efforts to produce fruit, and I want the people and organizations I help to thrive, not just survive.

I have a few predictions of what’s in store for those of us who want to reach people using marketing strategies and tactics. These have been trends I’ve seen growing in 2020 and some that have appeared in the past few days even, but can fundamentally change how we reach people.

1. Good content is not going to be enough to reach people

Content is now ubiquitous and great content is everywhere. There was a time where if you had helpful, practical content, you were ahead of the curve and it was easy for people to discover your content and to consume it.

That’s no longer true. Great content is everywhere: podcasts, blogs, e-books, videos, course, and it’s easy and a lot of it free.

Now people are seeking curated content.  

“Don’t just give me good information. Help me to understand it and implement the information you produce.”

The new winner in content marketing is The Guide. That’s the person who not only show me a better, faster, easier, purposeful way of doing something, but he or she is willing to help me through the journey of getting what they promised me with their content.

Figure out how to be the guide for your content, product or service and you’ll win.

2. Online advertising is going to take a step backwards

As a marketer, the past decade of evolution in digital advertising has been an amazing ride.

A few years ago, we marketers would send direct mail pieces and pray that it would connect with our list (which we hoped it would be worth the thousands it cost to buy). Today we are able to define exactly who our target audience needs to be for any of our digital ads. For example, we can show an ad to a mother of preschoolers who lives within 3 miles of our client’s location, is a conservative Christian and, therefore, would most likely be interested in the Mother’s Day Out program our church has to offer.

I’m afraid it’s not going to be that easy anymore.

First it was GDPR, then came the California Consumer Privacy Act who put more scrutiny on how personal data was collected, and now Apple just announced that it will stop sharing personal information with social networks and sites unless users give their expressed permission to do so.

What does that mean?

Well, a lot of things, but mostly, no more pixel tracking. Which means we won’t be able to serve ads and content to people who visited our FB page, our website, our ministry landing pages or opened our emails.

While there are a lot of strategic and tactical implications for marketers, the biggest one is that it will take longer and cost more to find your target audience within social networks.

However, once we unlock how to create engagement with our target audience, we will be able to have a greater impact on them.

3. One-to-one marketing will grow exponentially

Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram direct messages, and text messaging are going to rule the day, shortly.

While you are not able to retarget ads to someone who saw your IG story, you will, however, be able to contact them if they sent you a direct message or contacted you via Messenger or WhatsApp.

While that’s a lot more work, it is also be a much more personal and effective way to communicate with a potential volunteer, member, buyer or donor.

Here are some resources that you might want to take advantage of:

The 5 Must-Do Nonprofit Marketing Strategies from the Pandemic is a great resource if you have not downloaded it. You can find it here.

If you want help in putting together an integrated marketing campaign, we have a FREE training. You can learn more here.

I have known Pete for many years and served on Cross Point’s Board during its first 12 years. As Pete was going through his own discovery journey for the next chapter in his career, I was contemplating The A Group’s future, and how we could best serve our clients. In a series of events that could only be described as “divine intervention,” both stories came together and a new chapter is being written.

I founded The A Group almost 15 years ago, seeing a need to offer churches, ministries and non profits excellent marketing and technology services from people who understood their unique challenges. As The A Group grows and continues to serve organizations in the ever-changing world of technology, faith and culture, I realized that it was time for us to offer a fresh perspective and experience that can only come from recent service in ministry. Pete is the perfect person for that job.

I know Pete’s heart for ministry, as well as the deep knowledge and wisdom he has acquired during his time leading large, growing organizations. Being able to offer his invaluable experience and counsel to other leaders is an honor.

Nearly every client that comes to us is asking the same questions: how do we reach the next generation? How do we grow in an increasingly secular world? How do we adopt new technology and adapt to a new culture without losing our hearts? Pete has navigated that world with incredible wisdom and success, creating a growing, thriving church that reaches across generations. He has invaluable experience and encouragement to offer other leaders who are facing those same challenges.

Ultimately this partnership will bring new perspective, creativity and leadership to our clients as well to our internal team. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have Pete as a part of The A Group!

To read the full story of how this partnership came together, view our full announcement and hear from Pete as he shares his perspective on his blog.

And be sure to subscribe to The A Group’s blog, as we’ll be sharing encouraging content and resources from Pete each week, along with marketing, technology and donor development resources. You won’t want to miss it!

Please join me in welcoming Pete Wilson to The A Group. God has great things ahead!

Save

Save

• Visual
• Amuse

            and by making sure you

• Listen
• Unify
• Engage

with your audience.

VISUAL

A picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes a thousand clicks. When you scroll through your news feed on your smart phone, what catches your eye? Photo posts account for 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook. Photos on Facebook generate 53% more likes than the average text only post (Hubspot 2012). Use pictures and video to your advantage by creating compelling images that share the story of your brand and its impact, your brand’s history, and celebrate your customers.

AMUSE

Even the most conservative brands and organizations can have fun. Show your wittier side and your fans will love you. Think about the unpredictable humor behind such traditionally “boring” brands as Old Spice. Their new campaign strategy featuring former football player and actor Isaiah Mustafa was quirky and very, very viral. Old Spice’s online interactive strategy took place over just three days and featured real-time responses to Twitter accounts during “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign. The campaign generated 80K twitter followers in 2 days, bumped up traffic to their website by 300% and Facebook fan interaction jumped 800%. Maybe you don’t have a shirtless guy to promote your brand, but don’t be afraid to think outside the box when appropriate.

LISTEN

According to the Exact Target’s State of Marketing Report, 60% of marketers were using social listening strategies in 2013 and 24% plan to do so in 2015. Social listening helps you identify opportunities to interact directly with your audience but it’s more than setting up a HootSuite account and monitoring tweets that mention your brand’s name or your conference hashtag. Monitor your social media statistics to see what content resonates best with your fans. Use social media listening to better understand your target audience, respond strategically, and build relationships.

UNIFY

Use social media to unify your brand messaging across all platforms as well as to create unity. Non-profits can really utilize the power of social media to get their supporters to rally behind a like cause. Consider appointing a social media street team to help spread unified messages about your organization.

 ENGAGE

Don’t just inform your followers, interact with them. Consider using user-generated content. Ask your audience to submit photos and videos as part of a special campaign or to recognize a milestone, such as an anniversary or fundraising goal. Moe’s is celebrating their signature “Welcome to Moe’s” greeting with a fun fan-generated Instagram video contest. They’ve asked fans to upload their own version of the Moe’s welcome and tag it on Instagram. One lucky winner won a $250 gift card to Moe’s (that’s a lot of burritos.) Not only is fan-generated content a fun way to show customer appreciation, it’s a clever way of generating fresh, relevant content.

Social media should be a 24/7 conversation that constantly evolves. If it’s a one-way street of dialogue, then pretty soon you’ll be the only vehicle on the road.

What’s a good social media campaign you have seen lately?

We all have heard someone say: “he was not what I expected,” or “I imagined her being different.” Often these comments translate into “he did not look like he had his act together,” or “I expected her to be more professional.” Before you call me shallow and too focused on the veneer of human existence, hear me on this one. I agree we are so much more than the sum total of how we look and dress like. I get that. But no matter how hard we try to get people we meet to see the real us, we will be categorized by our first impression–at least for a while anyway. During those crucial first seconds people will place you somewhere in their minds.  We can make a positive impression or a negative one. Most of the time, we hold the power on how that impression is made.

Regardless of our physical attributes, there are several things we can do about creating a first impression that will help us in life. Here are some thoughts:

1. Dress appropriately to your role. Be yourself, but understand that you’re representing your personal brand as well as your professional role. No matter your style, wearing clothing that fits goes a long ways. Ok, this is a pet peeve of mine: coat sleeves that are too long, specially on men, make you look like a child wearing an older sibling hand-me-downs. Scuffed and dull shoes tell people you don’t care about details or finishing a job. You don’t need new shoes to impress someone, just make sure the ones you have are shined.

2. Engage people with your eyes. Nothing says more about you than your eyes. They are true windows to your soul. If you fail to look people in the eye they might think you either have something to hide or you’re uncomfortable with them.

3. Smile. That seems so obvious, but I can’t tell how many people I meet whom will extend a hand but their faces tell a different story. A smile is always appropriate.

4. Get the other person talking about himself. Except for your mother,  no one wants to hear how wonderful you are.  You can never go wrong with focusing the conversation on your new friend.

5. Assume the person you just met could become a close friend and treat her accordingly. What type of first impression would we make if we approached new people not as strangers but as a new friends we might have for life?

6. Don’t take yourself too seriously. There’s nothing that endears someone to you more than some self-deprecating humor. My friend Wayne Elsey has a famous line. Every time someone compliments him on something he’s wearing, he often answers: Lane Bryant Catalog.

What am I forgetting? Do you have any other points?

• Visual
• Amusing

      and by making sure you

• Listen
• Unify
• Engage

with your audience.

VISUAL

A picture is worth a thousand words, and sometimes a thousand clicks. When you scroll through your news feed on your smart phone, what catches your eye? Photo posts account for 93% of the most engaging posts on Facebook. Photos on Facebook generate 53% more likes than the average text only post (Hubspot 2012). Use pictures and video to your advantage by creating compelling images that share the story of your brand and its impact, your brand’s history, and celebrate your customers.

AMUSE

Even the most conservative brands and organizations can have fun. Show your wittier side and your fans will love you. Think about the unpredictable humor behind such traditionally “boring” brands as Old Spice. Their new campaign strategy featuring former football player and actor Isaiah Mustafa was quirky and very, very viral. Old Spice’s online interactive strategy took place over just three days and featured real-time responses to Twitter accounts during “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign. The campaign generated 80K twitter followers in 2 days, bumped up traffic to their website by 300% and Facebook fan interaction jumped 800%. Maybe you don’t have a shirtless guy to promote your brand, but don’t be afraid to think outside the box when appropriate.

LISTEN

According to the Exact Target’s 2014 State of Marketing Report, 60% of marketers were using social listening strategies in 2013 and 24% plan to do so in 2014. Social listening helps you identify opportunities to interact directly with your audience but it’s more than setting up a HootSuite account and monitoring tweets that mention your brand’s name or your conference hashtag. Monitor your social media statistics to see what content resonates best with your fans. Use social media listening to better understand your target audience, respond strategically, and build relationships.

UNIFY

Use social media to unify your brand messaging across all platforms as well as to create unity. Non-profits can really utilize the power of social media to get their supporters to rally behind a like cause. Consider appointing a social media street team to help spread unified messages about your organization.

ENGAGE

Don’t just inform your followers, interact with them. Consider using user-genrated content. Ask your audience to submit photos and videos as part of a special campaign or to recognize a milestone, such as an anniversary or fundraising goal. Moe’s is celebrating their signature “Welcome to Moe’s” greeting with a fun fan-generated Instagram video contest this spring. They’ve asked fans to upload their own version of the Moe’s welcome and tag it on Instagram. One lucky winner will win a $250 gift card to Moe’s (that’s a lot of burritos.) Not only is fan-generated content a fun way to show customer appreciation, it’s a clever way of generating fresh, relevant content.

Social media should be a 24/7 conversation that constantly evolves. If it’s a one-way street or a monologue,  then pretty soon you’ll be the only vehicle on the road.

Social media works. Period.

Savvy churches are now using social media to fund raise, organize events, and bring people to Christ.

The old adage that dictated that the pastor of a church had to use the stage for all formal announcements is over. Churches and their communities are plugged in. Communication 101: reach people where they are. And for a large demographic in today’s world that most likely means via social media.

Cross Point Church here in Nashville held an overwhelmingly successful night of praise this week that was completely announced via social media and an impressive 1,500 people showed up to the event. No emails, no church bulletins, no announcements were made. This was pure buzz generated solely via social media. Using powerful imagery and graphics and promoting the event with the hashtags #WorshipNight #OneNightOneVoice, Cross Point built up excitement. By posting on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, they spread their message efficiently and effectively.

Some may argue that social media causes people to feel isolated, but it can also be used by the Church to listen, lift up and love on their communities. By effectively leveraging social media, the Church can build community and engage with people who normally resist setting foot on a church campus, but who are open to watching a live worship cast on their iPad.

Social media is just that – social. It is possible to build meaningful online relationships that lead to meaningful IRL relationships. Millennials especially want that digital connection.

Churches can no longer ignore the power of social media engagement. How is your church adapting to the digital age?

Last week I attended the first Martech Conference in Boston. The Martech Conference was an integrated conversation of marketing, technology, trends and best practices led by experts, often titled Chief Marketing Technologists (a position that didn’t exist a few years ago).  There was a lot of good information and networking, but here are some of the thoughts that resonated with me:

• We are in the age of the consumer and brand expectations have never been as high.
• The new digital marketing tools allow marketers to quantify results and make course adjustments.  I once heard someone refer to “marketing voodoo” as a reason not to invest in a campaign. Now we can tie dollar-per-dollar from marketing strategies direct to results.
• Customization is no longer an option. Consumers now expect you to anticipate their needs and customize their next experience. They expect you know what they want to see next time they log in your website. New intelligence allows a completely individualized online experience.
• Data is key to customization and brands, small and big, need to learn how to tap into “big data” in order to deliver the experience consumers expect. That’s no longer an option.
• Omnisource. We want our shopping, church, learning, and even dating experiences to follow us on all of our devices seamlessly.
• Video is still king online. Nothing brings more conversions than video on landing pages.
• Marketing budgets are surpassing IT budgets.
• Marketing technologists have to understand and work on marketing strategy, software integration and IT support to make their companies viable.

How have you experienced the collision of marketing and technology?

I embraced grace for myself and for those around me. In my early twenties my life was a series of black and white pictures. Grace helped me soften the landscape with shades of gray. Once I embraced the grace God has freely given me, I was able to be more gracious to those around me. I could not be a safe person without that understanding. Thinking about it now, I might even call it “shades of grace.”

Failure humbled me. Early in my career I thought I was invincible and to a great degree inerrant. And it was until my late 30’s before I could point out to something I could deem a big failure. I couldn’t take the heat in the career I felt called to and gifted for, so I quit. I walked away. I failed.  There’s nothing that gives me more compassion for those who fail than remembering how it felt to come to grips with the fact that my dream was no longer going to happen the way I had planned. It was not going to happen at all.

Age gives me perspective. Age cannot give you wisdom. I’m convinced of that. Time, however, gives you perspective. As I listen to those in the middle of a storm, I can often relate to the feelings of fear and panic that often paralyze us during those situations. I’ve been through them–quite a few of them. Knowing that storms are always temporary no matter how threatening, helps me to listen, comfort and walk with my friends through their own turbulent times.

In which other ways can we become a safe person to those around us?

I left the Guess store feeling good ready to buy some news shoes to match my new purchases. I knew my next stop would have to be the Kenneth Cole store. My experience could have not been any more different. The store was empty of customers with all three sales people standing by the small counter in the middle of the space talking and bobbing their heads to a techno beat–think “Night at the Roxbury.”  No one seem to notice me, my large bag of purchases or the fact I was trying on several different pairs of shoes. As I matter of fact, when I asked one of the head-bobbing employees a question about their merchandise, I felt as if I were rudely interrupting their conversation. A great product  and brand was tarnished because of poorly trained and managed employees making near minimum wage.

Think about your organization and the people you have at the front lines. Are they contributing to the brand promise you’re trying so hard to build, or are they working against you? Are the greeters at the parking lot creating that great first impression for your church, or are they yelling at the people for parking in the wrong spot, as someone did to me recently? (I wrote about it here) What about the person who answers your telephone? Have you thought of the tone of emails coming out of your organization? Sometimes people don’t realize how short or impatient they come across on their correspondence.

Remember: every exchange matters. Every communication defines your brand, specially the ones at the front lines.

How’s the quality control at your front line?