Recently Facebook was "outed" for playing mind
games with its subscribers[1].
Actually, "outed" is a bit misleading. They've been doing it for years, and it's all
right there in the 9000 words of their service agreement. And guess what they
proved? Negative words create more
negative words, while happy, positive words caused people to comment more
positively. Not exactly newsworthy, but interesting.
Not very original either.
Every marketing person since time began knows that truism. It's called the
psychology of selling. What made everyone a bit queasy is that they did more or
less surreptitiously. Somehow, people missed the point that Facebook sells
stuff, namely advertising.
Think about your favorite merchandise, say aftershave or
lipstick. Do you buy it because the ads say "We know you think you are not
really all that attractive, but our product will make you look better (or smell
sexier) than you are now!" Probably
not. That might be the real
psychological reason you buy the product, but you'd rather keep that part to
yourself. So, the ad reads "Add more excitement with our great new product
– do you dare to be different?
It's the same thing with wooing donors to support your
programs.
Of course you have to frame your message in a way that makes
donors want to get on board, and you do that by being positive and upfront with them.
Tell donors exactly what their money will accomplish. If $5.00 will really provide three meals for
a family of four, be prepared to back that up.
Everyone frames things within their personal experience, and normally,
three meals for a family of four costs more than $5.00 a day. Your donors don't
know that you are giving donated food a value based on your cost to collect and
distribute it, rather than going to the local big box food store and buying it.
Tell them. Once they understand, they may feel more like
a part of the team, not just another debit transaction.
It isn't enough to whine about your eroding bank balance. It
isn't even enough to tell wonderfully sad stories about the people or things
that need help.
Keep it positive and involve your donors on a personal
level. It may seem strange, but on some
level, your donors want to know what you can do for them. Can you make them
feel useful, powerful and needed?
Yes, you have to define the problem and that may involve
some unpleasant facts, but you want donors to feel that there is a light at the
end of the tunnel. Make your actual appeal reflect that.
Try it. You may find
out that it's a lot more fun than writing doom and gloom appeals and way more
productive.
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