Dis or Dat – Words Count in Fundraising and in Blog Writing

If a charitable organization were asking you to become a volunteer or donor, which phraseology would be more likely to get you to act?

At our business networking meeting, the Executive Director of an arts education nonprofit organization gave us members pairs of statements. We each were asked to select one out of each pair as our idea of a better way to spur involvement and open pocketbooks.

1. “Program that improves capacity of schools to teach better”  

            or

2.  “Program that improves capacity of students to think better”

     1.   “a novel business model”

             or

     2.   “a great story”

     1.    Statistics on the program leading to student success in later life

                or

     2.    Statistics on ways the art program helped students succeed in their schoolwork today

All of us in the group found this exercise highly engaging.  The results of this informal survey were especially relevant given my own work as a corporate blogging trainer.  Here’s why:

Our group overwhelmingly voted for #2 about benefiting students, not schools. The relevancy of the content in a business blog can be judged only in relation to the end user.  Are you speaking to the need that drove the searcher your way? Drown out unwanted noise and go directly to a “Relax-you’ve-come-to-the-right-place-for help” message.

Hardly a surprise, the vote was in favor of the “great story” over the “novel business model”. Nothing, but nothing, trumps a great story. That's precisely the reason it's so important to use customer satisfaction stories as content for your business blog. No discussion of how novel the structure of this arts organization can ever have the power of one little boy’s pride in his newfound skills.  And when readers encounter our blog marketing content, no claims, no statistics can ever wield the power of "people just like them" praising the product or service.

I coined the phrase “the Sensa Rule” when discussing blogging with newbie blog content writers in Indianapolis. Every single SENSA® ad is focused on a result, an outcome, on the What’s-In-It-For-Them, and not on the product! One key element in successful corporate blogging for business is usable information that solves problems now.

The closer the potential donor or volunteer feels to being able to help bring about the result, the more likely they are to act, our group concluded, opting for statistics on the art program helping students in their schoolwork today.

Dis or dat? Words count in fundraising and in blogging for business.