Arts and non-profits marketing productivity and effectiveness consultant, Neil McPherson of Professional Word, reviews recent research report by Non-profits specialist Nancy Schwartz and Company of New York, USA. Large response from Non-profits marketers reveals a crisis: Majority of respondents (from around 1400) agreed their messaging failed to make effective connact wothe target donors, potential supporters and advocates, Review claims one reason is arts and non-profits are affected by sacrificing effective, creative content while chasing after key words and guru-type expressions and missing real connection with like-minded " colleagues". Is critical of Google impact on fine language and creativity.

1. Sharing experience and expertise with art & non-profits marketers http://www.professionalword.com/
Non-Profits Miss Out on Connection with Potential Supporters
Neil McPherson Professional Word
Sharing genuine high-quality research and ideas about effective marketing for non-profits is a rare
online phenomenon. Not the usual “it’s a snap and it’s sold”. Limited coverage is the toughest
disadvantage that non-profits face; that is, after limited resources and public indifference.
But here is that rare something exceptional (and immediately-useable) designed for non-profits
communicators everywhere. It’s about …
The sorry state of non-profits messaging today
“Messaging Crisis for Nonprofits” is the newsletter headline to a vital new article under a “Getting
Attention” logo from veteran marketing consultant Nancy Schwartz, principal of Nancy Schwartz &
Company in New York City. I subscribe to that excellent newsletter and I would love to share it and
my thoughts as a fellow professional in the arts and non-profits sector.
Nancy Schwartz’ hefty report conducted at the end of 2009, was released in January 2010. It reveals
what she describes as: “the sorry state of non-profits messaging today”. It reviews the probing
questions asked to more than one thousand non-profit communicators; then follows up by digesting
the findings and pointing to actions that should provide a remedy for the sector’s malaise. If you read
Schwartz’s 2009 Tagline Report for the same group, you’ll see that in their principal
communications she was looking for a memorable message, with distinctive brand focus, personality
and values – a message designed to motivate an audience to act. (Her web site gives you access to
that free report as well.)
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The survey data came from communicators in non-profits organizations of all sizes, issue-focus and
geography and drew on a massive response to questions like: “How effective do you think each one
of your messaging elements is?”
Respondents were asked to rate their messages to prospective clients, donors and others, over a
range from: "Don't Have/Not Effective" to "Very Effective”. Among the survey questions Schwartz had
offered response triggers to her survey group, for example: "Don't Have/Not Effective/Somewhat
Effective/Moderately Effective/Very Effective.”
The messaging elements in focus for this survey included: tagline (organization), tagline (for
programs or campaigns); positioning statement (briefly: what the organization does for whom, how,
and the unique value delivered); talking points or key messages for the organization and about
talking points or key messages for programs, campaigns or audiences.
The survey adhered to a professional, rigidly fact-focused approach. The questions were not “leading”
in any legal sense, but they did, I think, demonstrate Nancy’s deep knowledge of the non-profits
arena. So right then and there, respondents received a lesson in marketing, perhaps without
recognizing it.
The principal finding was that 915 or 84% of the non-profit communicators surveyed
said that “their messages connect with target audiences only somewhat or not at all”.
Schwartz’ “Getting Attention” article proceeded to delineate other key findings about messages: 86%
characterized their content as difficult to remember; fewer than 50% were in line with the
organization’s core message (“Inconsistency leaving confusion in its path”) … Effective messaging
had been stymied by a lack of focus and mixed leadership support in the organization.
Turn those findings “on their ear” therefore, would be an excellent recipe for a coherent marketing
strategy.
Why are non-profit marketers going wrong, and why? Several hot suggestions
Being a mere observer here, I take the liberty to vent my passion about issues I see running beneath
the surface of the survey responses. Nancy’s was a professional survey and report. At all times she
took an objective, clear, and dispassionate approach. This was probably despite amazement she must
have felt as the responses rolled in. She knows her field thoroughly and she’s obviously walked into
many non-profits physically and online. I imagine that she uttered a gasp or two.
There was evident concern, within the organizations themselves, about how they designed and
delivered of one of their primary marketing tools: messages transmitted and received. There was
almost a sense of being lost in the dizzy world of buying and selling. I experienced that when I left
employment in a government public service (teaching English) and hit the streets. Do I read too
much into the data? I don’t think so.
This long-time arts and non-profits marketer and communicator from Australia and USA found one
comment in Nancy Schwartz’ web site that struck me: “Nancy Schwartz & Company provides high-
impact marketing and communications and services that match your vision and meet your goals.”
“Match your vision and meet your goals”, is a neat high-wire act for any consultant, but an
essential objective for marketers in a “sensitive” field like non-profit organizations.
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“Match you vision and meet your goals” - significant words in the realm of non-profits marketing. For
consultants helping their clients to retain their initial enthusiasm, even a “calling” and pursuing a
worthy goal, often seem an elusive target for consultants who offer their ideas and experience to
guide marketing communicators.
Why did findings in Schwartz survey trigger this reviewer?
I believe in giving back to the arts and non-profits a real chance to act like creative people again
despite their surroundings, especially the internet.
Arts clients who I see and read about and those I recall from other “climes” provide many clues to
the disarray that Nancy has pinpointed. Each working day, many non-profits and arts communicators
share a creative dilemma: feeling compelled to, or at least drawn towards, producing content that is
rigidly factual; the sort of stuff that in fact sometimes buries the dream and ideals that energized
most the participants in the first place. They have to produce content that dampens-down their power
source; the edge that separates arts and on-profits people from most other marketers. That
compromise presents a massive loss of innocence for many a creative individual in today’s
communication maelstrom. No wonder they miss-fire.
Failing to “stick to their own knitting”, some new marketers in this specialized arena follow the
“horse-feathers” strewn about by the legions of marketing gurus. They seem like lemmings
heading to a precipice. Get-rich-quick techniques entail adherence to “key word” research, SEO,
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bang-for-buck and other aids to survival and “conversion”. Some communicators, including staff, let
go of their passion and their deep respect for ageless values. There lies the pity.
This process depletes and diminishes many people - a recipe for burnout, if it goes on un-recognized
for what is: a mirage, a deception. Like many of my colleagues in communication industries and
professions like broadcasting, marketing and public affairs management, I have experienced that let-
down first-hand.
Hold that passion!
Am I talking through my hat in suggesting marketers can produce and disseminate passionate, even
controversial, copy and succeed with it? Yes. Here is just one example, which fell on my desk
recently. It comes from Joel Comm, author of a popular and practical book: “Twitter Power - How to
Dominate Your Market One Tweet at a Time.” It was a blog post of his, that garnered his biggest
ever comments response, over 1400. He still uses that post as marketing tool. It was a passionate
report of an alleged deception by a pyramid-style marketing scheme on the internet.
You can read more about it here
Joel Comm “Twitter Power”
Now Joel is successful in that same minefield. He must have paid a personal emotional price, maybe
even in self-respect. I don’t know.
There is worse pressure for arts-business marketers. Most creative people rejoice when their
content matches what they really wanted to say. Within normal social and traditional constraints, that
is possible to experience at least sometimes. But the often-overlooked “outside pressures” are
insidious. Google and McDonalds’ could benefit all sane people in the western world at least, if they
employed more creatives and fewer engineers, technicians, web geniuses and lawyers in their teams.
It might stem the tide only momentarily: the ice-cap of creative and passionate writing would just
dissolve a little slower than it is doing now.
That seems to be what has surfaced in the masterful survey conducted by Nancy Schwartz and her
company. Non-profits surveyed, often missed effectively engaging their potential and current
supporters, volunteers or advocates. The message was blurred and no connection was forged. When
they ended up sounding like snake-oil salesmen, they sounded unconvincing, almost disconnected
from the visions and goals of their target “market”. Many a lemming’s fate
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Tramping Onwards through a Jungle
Match the vision and goals of your audience and you are on the right track to engaging your potential
base supporters. It marks a courageous step that might turn out to be a marketing plus for non-
profits, if they only cling to it.
Correcting and re-running messages is not an easily-acquired art. Often, arts organizations, for
instance find they have flung themselves into the marketing world as an accident of their job,
whereas their training and preferences come from another world. They then either toss their passion
and goals aside or dilute them.
Other recent surveys have unearthed many business operators and marketers, in the arts and non-
profits and the small business area as well, who tend to “soldier on” with their marketing despite their
unique situation and central importance to the culture as whole. They may have been among those
swept along by the “flavor of the month”, the sure-fire techniques dished up by so-called “opinion
leaders” and experts. They should have noticed that many of the “market dominators” wouldn’t know
their way around either an independent bookshop, regional theatre, museum or any organization that
seeks to serve, not just to prosper. They tend to write a lot but not to read much. Non-profits
organizations encounter them every day. Maybe they should stand up and fight.
Read Nancy’ Schwartz complete report: “Messaging Crisis for Nonprofits”
Nancy Schwartz & Company
Helping Non-Profits Succeed Through Effective Marketing
A talented virtual team of communications planners, writers, designers, and web developers, Nancy
Schwartz & Company has provided services nationwide in USA, to a wide range of corporate and
non-profit organizations. Nancy and her team have been consulting in New York City and beyond
since 1995 and have integrated Internet strategies into their work from the outset.
Links to Nancy Schwartz: http://www.nancyschwartz.com nancy@nancyschwartz.com
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Neil McPherson Professional Word
Author of this review article: Teacher, marketing and public relations consultant, media manager and
journalist, Neil McPherson loves to shares his long, wide-ranging experience and expertise to help
boost the marketing content for arts and non-profits business. He also enjoys assisting marketers in
his new home Germany, to make the most of their English as a Second Language. He has also
worked in Germany for Berlitz language school
Neil’s consultancy specializes in arts and non-profits marketing, with a world-wide online reach and
perspectives contributed by a small team with members located in Toronto, Sydney and the team co-
ordinator (Neil) in Mainz, Germany.
Wendy (Canada) and Munaiba (Sydney) also provide on-the-ground assistance in their regions. Each
contributes to Professional Word’s substantial resource of business and government experience plus
hard-won expertise in marketing and communications, brand management and copywriting.
http://www.professionalword.com
info@professionalword.com
You can follow Neil at Twitter @lonewordsmith and Slideshare(Business, Professional Word),
Linked -In (Lonewordsmith) and Xing
© 2010 Neil McPherson Professional Word
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