Want Response? Tell A Story
How many times have you heard it?
The best way to get attention and communicate your message is to tell a story.
Imbed your brand, your key fact, your call-to-action in a story and you will be taking advantage of the emotional processing that governs and adds significance to all information processing that humans do.
As marketer Max Kalehoff puts it, “We're all suckers for narratives.”
Citing recent research on emotional and physiological response to TV ads to ground his point, Kalehoff observes:
“While great brands are the result of many things — particularly all the factors that deliver great experience over and over and over again — it's the presence of compelling, authentic stories that determines high resonance in our minds … Our minds are hardwired to embrace narratives and distill meaning with force.”
While he's talking about building brands, without question the same is true of promoting your charity or cause.
He ascribes special importance to the “foundational stories” that keep brands (we'd say, organizations) alive even as they grow in scope, complexity and history. Being able to maintain the authenticity of your cause through its original stories is crucial as organizational circumstances and context evolve. As Kalehoff concludes: “In this age of growing transparency — where our mental BS radars remain on high alert and are only further sensitizing — narratives can't be artificially manufactured.”
How good is your nonprofit at capturing and telling its stories?
Roger & Tom
Behavioral Science Q & A
Integrating an individual giving appeal with other communications from a charity can have both positive and negative effects, and the outcome largely depends on how it’s executed. Advantages of Integration Brand Consistency: Maintaining a consistent appearance and messaging across all communications can reinforce the org’s brand identity and strengthen brand recognition and trust among your […]
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I’m not aware of any in-market tests specifically comparing recurring vs. gift frequency language. I suspect the answer might not be the same with all gift frequencies, nor with all people. It sounds like a great opportunity for you to test and find out what works for your audience. Based on the literature, here’s a couple […]
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Based on what we know from existing data, those renewal notices can actually be pretty effective in getting people to donate. They tap into our psychology – creating a sense of urgency, reminding us of past support, and using personalization to make the message hit home. They’re playing on our natural tendencies to feel obligated […]
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Interesting question. I had a quick look at the testing done on this topic. On the positive side, in all cases, over half of donors decide to cover the fee. In some cases, it goes as high as 65%. Not a negligible percentage at all. Here’s another test from iRaiser showing consistent results (see point […]
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There’s just one thing to consider when designing a supporter journey: the supporter. More specifically, you need to take into account: Who the supporter is i.e. their identity, which is the reason they support this cause, and their personality, which describes the way they “see” and process the world. These will determine the kind of […]
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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