Creative & Content

Oh and Happy New Year y’all.

Looking back through my 2014 timeline there were a bunch of images that nicely illustrate 10 rules for not for profit Infographics on Twitter.

Including images with Twitter posts dramatically increases both the effectiveness of the communication and the sharing potential of the post. That means you reach more people with a more memorable message. Not exactly rocket science, but what makes an effective infographic for social media sharing?

The more I looked at the graphics out there it seemed to me that getting it right isn’t so much about learning new rules than it is about remembering some old ones.

You Can’t Control Sharing, Remember the Brand

When an image is shared it is beyond your control. It can appear in any context, anywhere, anytime on anyone’s feed. In fact that’s exactly what you want but you DO want people to know where the image came from – and maybe even what they can do next. So spot the deliberate mistake:

This simple image makes a simple point well – strong simple image andunambiguous wording. great, but what now and with who? If you want people to know who you are you might want to brand your image and if you want them to take action you might just want a web address or a hashtag.

Here’s another – it even caused a fuss in the media:

An easy mistake to make if you are an inexperienced organisation. As it is this was from Oxfam – not that you would know it; detached from their feed it might as well be from another planet!

Also based on the essential and most powerful advertising formula – this image from WWF UK, who don’t forget to use their powerful brand and web address.

Name Sources for Credible Information

Awareness of message and facts about the issues being championed are often just as important as brand awareness. This is one of my favourite images of last year (and I make no apology for mentioning it again). Simply presented, colourful and powerful, the information speaks for itself. It states its source and the facts from Trussell Trust, operators of Food Banks across the UK, tell the story.

When I saw this infographic on World Aids Day I found the message encouraging – donors want to see the results of their work and when there is good news it needs to be told. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundationpushed out this good news image with credible data, though once again, it’s unbranded. Disappointing but worse is the monotone presentation of data that could be so much stronger and almost unreadable type – a great story somewhat lost.

Shelter, the housing homelessness campaigning charity, get it right with this simple image to make their point that UK housing starts run woefully behind the need for homes.

Keep it Simple, Keep it Clear

Twitter is an instant medium so impactful images are best. Also, images work best when their size is optimised to what works best for the medium. Twitter, for example, previews in the timeline at 435×375, Instagram images are square, Facebook – well, it depends on the latest redesign. There are so many networks and they change from device to device that it is hard to keep track of them all. Anyway, the image will be shared on different networks whatever you do – remember you are NOT in control.

All that said there are several good practice points to remember:

• Make your point simply – less is more
• Remember there is a limit to what readers can cope with – don’t try to tell the whole story
• Think carefully about how people read and where their eyes will go
• Challenge yourself – do you need every element – if in doubt, take it out.

Breakthrough Breast Cancer do great work and their visual campaigns have involved people. There’s a bit too much going on here, but all the essential elements are present.

By contrast, Alzheimer’s Research UK explain their mission with this concise image – the only problem is who’s mission are we talking about?

The Stroke Association are almost there with their series of infographics promoting the work of their helpline, and they and aren’t afraid of white space. In fact they get everything right except the use of three colours in a headline which weakens the message.

Cancer Research UK almost nail it –  it’s a series, it’s simple, it’s informative but they don’t seem to get hashtags! A series of images in a common style is an important way of amplifying your message and increasing recognition.

Finally, larger graphic can work on social media so long as there are well designed. Here Barnardo’s get it spot on explaining the facts about children leaving care.

Best Practice with Not for Profit Social Media Infographics

To sum up the 10 rules for not for profit Infographics on Twitter:

• Brand your images for sharing: whether for blogs or social media
• Include a call to action and somewhere to go next
• Hashtags – include them
• Less is more – don’t try to say too much
• Think carefully about the size of the image
• Use colour carefully and keep it on brand
• Make your facts credible by including a source
• Make sure your type readable in at 600 pixels square
• Strengthen your point with a series of infographics
• Remember how people read – keep it logical

There are always a lot more reasons put forward for not doing something than for getting on with it. It may be an urban myth but the people who came up with the idea of organising climbs over the Harbour Bridge at Sydney, New South Wales were faced with one excuse after another from the City of Sydney and North Sydney Councils till they asked for all the reasons they could possibly think of for not allowing the climbs. They gradually knocked them away one-by-one till there was no good reason left for not going ahead. The Bridge Climb is now a major tourist attraction that pays for the routine maintenance of the Harbour Bridge.

Is Inbound Marketing your Harbour Bridge Climb? In our last blog we looked at seven typical excuses that hold up inbound marketing in not-for-profit.

 “Our Trustees Won’t Spend Money on Technology”

The web long since stopped being about technology. It is really about content and information underpinning promotion and awareness raising. However the same instinct remains with many trustees and board members – we should only spend on the mission, rather than the overheads. However that didn’t stop organisation printing leaflets, or brochures or appeal envelopes or producing tins to shake. The web is now the come of many other things. Marketing software and web integration is certainly an investment and needs a business case – and in an ideal world that case would be funded entirely from purpose developed grant aid. Consider using an external resource to help you build the case and the funding appeal so that 100% of donations ARE spent on the mission.

“People Won’t Fill in Forms”

They certainly won’t if they want information that they believe is more valuable to you than to them – like you Annual Report or Case Studies that tell the story of how you help. All sorts of people willingly provide information in return for something of value that you can provide. You demonstrate that value by providing useful information within your online content. Sharing the right information is important. Adding forms and landing pages to your site quickly proves this thinking wrong.

“We’ll end up asking too often by email”

It’s true that if you only bombard your contacts with donation appeals they will get tired and unsubscribe quickly – and that would be a shame. So don’t! You need the right combination of content and useful information that educates, enlightens and enthuses your audience mixed with a ‘soft-sell’ of information on how to donate and what it will enable you to do. The donate button might always be present somewhere – but readers will forgive that if it isn’t always the main purpose of the mailing.

“We concentrate on one or two annual appeals”

It really isn’t a question of one or the other. As not-for-profit moves toward events that are ‘moments’ in the virtual world, such as Movember, the importance of social networks, content strategies and inbound marketing to support appeals makes more and more sense. Try thinking about how content and inbound activity can support and enhance the build up to an annual event.

“We don’t have time to create new content”

Perhaps not. Activity expands to fill the time available and those of us who have worked in not-for-profit know that staff don’t spend their time sitting round with nothing to do. There’s even pressure on our time to think. But take a step back for a moment. Think about the content that you already have – on your current site, in newsletters, in magazines, in reports and studies, in the output of government departments or of the European Union. The fact is there is more content out there than you realise. The think a little about the news agenda – anniversaries are always a good start. Pretty soon you have the outline of an editorial plan just based on re-using what is there already.

“Our audience is not on Facebook”

Perhaps not – but maybe it is on Instagram, or LinkedIn or Twitter or watching YouTube. The fact is it is out there somewhere and only by asking your supporters and a little worthwhile trial and error will you know what’s best. Focus on the social networks that produce the most traction. Remember that social networks grow and change constantly. Ruling these channels out would be a big mistake.

“We’re Just Not Ready”

Nobody is ever ready but everyone kind of is! This is the most common excuse of the lot. You almost certainly have some of the essentials and in a technical sense being ready is easy – you have a website, a social network account and you know how to send an email. You have people too, so you are more ready than you think and you can get going but to do it well you do need to prepare a little then commit. You’ll need to optimise your website, you’ll need quality content, you’ll need to mug up on how emails can work and you need to understand the value of blogging in not-for-profit, easy ways to write better not-for-profit blogs and plan an editorial schedule. Most of all you need to know what you want to achieve and how you are going to execute you goals – an inbound marketing strategy. Assessing the readiness of your organisation is another key use for the skills of an external consultant who can set out a road map toward a fully functioning inbound strategy.

Let’s start with six of the most dangerous words in the English language: ‘we’ve always done it this way’. Inbound Marketing in not-for-profit is a relatively new way of doing things. Like any new approach it requires change, but the biggest change is a change of mindset. Not-for-profit organisations, charities and NGOs can be among the most innovative advertisers and inventive marketers but just like private sector companies they can also find numerous excuses to put off change to another day.The excuses that we hear in our work, professional and personal, in the UK third sector are pretty typical reasons never to change that can be applied with a few changes to any situation. The danger is that by failing to grasp the nettle of shifting marketing efforts to the integrated digital approach know as inbound marketing good causes run the risk of having to play catch up in an unforgiving world.

1. “Our Trustees Don’t Understand Inbound Marketing”

This is probably right, they almost don’t get it as things stand. But there was a time when they didn’t get the notion of a website, or an email system or even having a computer in the office. However, it is essential for any charity, but particularly smaller charities and ‘not-for-profit SMEs’ that the Trustees learn how you can use inbound marketing to win supporters, members and donors. You also need Trustees to buy in to any move to inbound marketing. That means educating the board. Workshop approaches using external expertise can help broaden understanding and build the business case based on the excellent ROI from Inbound Marketing for not-for-profit organisations.

2. “Our target audience is older and not online”

Says who? It is a dangerous myth that needs to be dismissed. Research in both the UK and USA shows that not only are the target age groups of most charities and not-for-profits online, they are increasingly using mobile devices and talking to their friends on social networks. The perception is just plain wrong – most target audiences are reachable online. Think about who your customer really is. Look at the research, work out where they live online.

3. “Direct mail works for us – so we focus on that”

First of all postal direct mail is far more expensive than it once was. Second, it depends what you mean by ‘works’. Returns from postal direct mail appeals above 1% were considered stella in the days when direct mail was the main route to market for many NGOs and evidence suggests that not much has changed. Even a highly targeted list amounts to a scatter gun approach. Though first impressions might suggest otherwisesocial networks can offer a much more targetted approach. By contrast inbound marketing enables engagement by those who are interested in the work of your organisation. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that those with an interest are more likely to become active supporters or contributors. Take some of that direct mail budget, say half, and apply it consistently to direct marketing then assess the return on investment.

4. “Our priority is raising awareness”

And … inbound marketing in not-for-profit is an excellent method of doing just that, indeed it is central to the whole idea of inbound marketing. Your potential supporters are out there online looking for information about the cause you advocate. If they don’t find you they will find someone else. New and useful content – blogs, infographics, vlogs and trusted information pages – all helps online searchers find your information. It’s also cost effective.

5. “We are too busy to sort out our website”

Research by Public Impact has revealed that many third sector bodies have websites that are out-of-date, out-of-order or which are unable to work effectively on mobile devices. Remember those shops where the window display never changes – those ones where you don’t feel inclined to go inside until one day they aren’t there any longer? By neglecting your web presence you are neglecting the shop window of the organisation. So why doesn’t the website get priority? Often this is because the website has been seen as a cost – something that doesn’t or can’t wash its face. Inbound marketing turns your website into a machine for generating new prospects – so think about the content of your site and what your home page says about your organisation. Does it look like the sort of place you want to invest your money.

6. “We’ve had a blog and we just can’t find enough stories”

This is certainly an issue with which many people have problems. Those problems are largely questions of organisation and, once again, turning the thinking of the organisation outward. First of all there are many thousands of stories just waiting to be told in the third sector – many more so than in commercial organisations. Those stories; successes, needs, the implementation of projects, the production of positive outcomes, are inspiring and engaging. They are entirely appropriate content which most not-for-profits neglect. Content production can be learned with appropriate training or it can be bought in but think about what you have already first and how it can help tell your story.

7. “Inbound marketing is not part of our strategic plan”

Perhaps not right now, but the products of inbound marketing certainly are: new members, more donors, active supporters, improved awareness and there is a budget in the plan for developing these areas. In any case, plans are revised – as part of the plan. It they are not then they should be as a strategy, to be successful, must be a constantly evolving document. Prepare a plan for inbound marketing that meshes with your strategic plan that contributes to the goals of the plan and helps deliver those objectives.

That’s enough excuses for now – but there are more in the next blog on inbound marketing in not-for-profit!