Melbourne-based copywriter? Efficiently create readable, attention-grabbing copy? Ready for a large project? Reject the overuse of rhetorical questions and fragments? Good.
Inner South Community Health Service (for which we are developing a stupendous new website) is seeking a copywriter. They are a smart, passionate nonprofit.
Here is their current site which Hootville will be replacing.
Here’s the aptly titled copywriting brief: WRITER BRIEF
What does ACFE stand for? We’ll tell you: Adult Community and Further Education. Who is emceeing the 2012 ACFE metropolitan provider conference on October 18 and 19? We’ll tell you: Brett de Hoedt. Now you know.
Brett will be donning Akubra, moleskins and Driza-Bone for a May jaunt through regional Victoria delivering Online Savvy 101 to members of the Hume region Family Violence Alliance.
Brett will present the sessions wearing headwear similar to this.
The three sessions will take him to Benalla, Nagambie and Beechworth training about 20 folk in each town. It’s time to saddle up the old Honda and mosey up the Hume.
In keeping with this non-metropolitan setting Brett will be conducting the all-day sessions exclusively in his best Russell Crowe accent.
Analytics Savvy 101
Tuesday June 12 from 10am to 11.30am. (Five places left – book soon.)
Got a website? Of course. Got Google Analytics? Sure. Look at your Analytics regularly? Kinda. Constantly use Analytics to improve your website’s perfomance? Well…
Place your website into analysis.
Well it’s about time your all important online investment was given some adult supervision. Learn how to get the most from Google Analytics in our 90m webinar
Analytics Savvy 101 Tuesday June 12 from 10am to 11.30am agenda.
Join Jean Hailes Foundation for Women, University of Melbourne, Community Sector Banking, Cancer Council Victoria and more. Your website is surely your biggest communications tool. It’s also the easiest to dramaticaly improve. Google Analytics helps you do this.
Hootville is holding a rare public Media Savvy 101 workshop in Melbourne Wednesday June 6, 10am to 4pm. It’s our first such workshop since 2010. We already have Bush Heritage Australia, Brotherhood of St Laurence, Victoria Legal Aid, Barwon Community Legal Service and Reseach, Edit, Write attending. Why not you?
Where the hell is everybody?
We guarantee an energetic, nonprofit-specific, highly practical workshop lead by Brett de Hoedt that will gain you media coverage that would otherwise go begging – or worse go to someone else. There will be lots of time for Q&A and learning from your peers.
Here’s what’s on the agenda.
Fee: $550 per person inc GST includes workshop, 30 or so pages of notes and four weeks of post-workshop, on-call coaching and advice. Morning tea, coffee and tea and beverages provided. This fee is a fraction of a private Media Savvy 101 workshop. Places are limited.
Our excellent nonprofit venue: Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare, Level 5, 50 Market Street, Melbourne. It’s a great space on the corner of Market Street and Flinders Lane, close to public transport and parking.
Bookings: email brett [@] hootville dot com with the names of participants along with your billing details and you shall be rewarded with an invoice.
Queries: Call Brett 03 9017 1062.
Want a Media Savvy 101 for just your organisation? Who would blame you? Call Brett 03 9017 1062.
Want this in Sydney, Brisbane, Perth or Adelaide? Call us and we’ll see. If you can pull together a couple of bookings, we can do the rest. Let’s make magic happen people.
Sure beats consulting for 9 months on a proper policy.
Policies bore us at Hootville. And the world of social media – a vibrant, irreverent, hyperkinetic space – is not suited to rules and regulation.
Thus we think this alternative may appeal. These come in pads. Rip ‘em off and fill ‘em out when required, we say.
Find them, and plenty of others of the same ilk here.
Here’s one thing we see too few of: testimonials.
What’s so special about them? Well for one thing, they minimise WTWSTWTWe live in a time of endless claims from endless sources. Most claims – we’ll save you time, make you money, we are worthy, we can lower interest rates, I never sexually harassed that staffer, we will turn back the boats, this tax will save the planet – are met with WTWSTWT.
WTWSTWT = ”Well they would say that wouldn’t they.” You want to avoid that response.
Young folk can be pretty quick with the WTWSTWT, though not in so many words.
The more marginalised your audience, the less likely they are to take the word of an institution. (AKA: you.) Generally speaking, a socially excluded audience displays lower trust and greater cynicism.
They might however take the word of a peer – which is where testimonials come in. Think of them as a substitute for word-of-mouth.
It can be as simple as this.
Here’s a series of simple example and damn good ones at that; from Break Thru Employment Solutions.
Use testimonials every chance you get. On your site we try using testmionials from donors, bequestors, volunteers, employees, clients, family of clients, patrons, stakeholders, the Minister – whoever . Use them early and often.
We think that if you can orchestrate testimonials on video they will be more powerful still. Testimonials also allow you to show, not tell, your audience about your values.
Good marketing distinguishes the brand and connects to your targets.
We trained a group of adult education providers in 2011. They struggle to engage one key audience – middle aged men returning to study, after a short formal education and long term unemployment. Talk about WTWSTWT! Testimonials from their tribe might be a small way to break down the barrier.
Background briefing: a category is a type of good or service; say canned soup. Within the canned soup category are brands or products, say Campbell’s Soup.
This soup is like no other. Truly.
Here’s a thought: corporates spend their whole life offering extremely similar brands within a category but claiming that their brand is vastly different and preferable. Think of categories such as toothpaste, credit cards, three door hatchbacks, air travel, funeral insurance, butter, professional sporting clubs or trainers. Most brands within each of these categories are very similar, especially if you compare similarly priced brands.
Each brand in each category has very few tangible qualities or values to differentiate itself with its competitors. Thus these brands spend millions giving the impression that they have unique values or attributes. They mainly point to insubstantiated claims – this brand will make you happy, sexy, respected, close to your family. These brand values are rubbish of course but they work.
Differentiation means that each brand stands out in the marketplace and can attract its share of punters. Punters often fall for this and develop strong affiliations based on little more than spurious advertising claims. Suckers!
Nonprofits are largely the opposite. Many work hard to develop tangibly different approaches to similar problems such as youth homelessness, disability employment or providing foster care to children. Yet few nonprofit brands concern themselves with differentiating themselves from other brands in the same category. (Forgive the marketing jargon.)
Does this hurt nonprofits? Yes. Too many brands which deserve to be leaders in their category market in ways that promote the category as a whole. It also hurts consumers because they deserve to understand that one mental health brand or service is different to another and how – but they assume that they are all more or less the same.
When ruminating over your brand’s values consider that the wisest brand values:
These are not the same as your mission, vision and values – they are something else entirely; we don’t what.
The whiskey, behind the man, behind the bar.
A long time ago whiskey Johnny Walker recognised that differentiation was a problem for them and adopted the tag line: “Ask for it by name.” Smart move. They didn’t want to waste their money encouraging people to drink whiskey. They wanted their brand drunk. You should too.
Maybe it’s time for a Marketing Savvy 101. Ask for it by name.
You know how we at Hootville feel about eNewsletters and eMarketing in general. We are eNewsletter fetishists and proud of it. Squiggle wags his tail involuntarily every time he sends out another edition of the Lowdown and we hope they make your tails wag likewise.
Here’s a question for anyone (canine or human) who edits an eNewsletter: of all the emails a subscriber will ever receive which is the most likely to be opened? Take 10 seconds to think.
1…10.
Your subscription confirmation email. Yep – it’s statistically proven. So this raises the question – are you making the most of this opportunity? Likely answer is: no.
What could you do? Beyond a genuine, non-robotic welcome you could link to the five best articles on your website for some instant gratification, spruik an upcoming event or (this is good) have them take a 2m survey.
We dare you. You will instantly segment your keenest new subscribers.
People who have just subscribed themselves are hot-to-trot so they may undertake a quick online survey. More importantly, the survey may reveal something you could use. You may ask them if they have volunteered before, whether they could provide a suitable opportunity for your public speakers, if they would like a tour of your kennels or if they have a lead for your social enterprise team of office cleaners.
Any response shows them to be interested. The right responses may warrant a phone call. (Ask for permission first.) Let’s say a subscriber receives a polite, quick call from you about any of the above issues. The relationship is already well under way and you’ve certainly given them a connection to keep pening and responding to your future communications.
Deborah Tabart of Save the Koala Foundation is the best thing to happen to koalas since eucalyptus. Tabart has been a media staple for a couple of decades and is the go-to spokesperson on all things koala.
"I'd have a champagne with Deborah," said this marsupial. "But I hardly drink."
Her performance on RN Breakfast Friday was exemplary which is why we’re using it as an example.
2.30m: Is this woman authentic? Comfortable? Across her brief? Passionate? Oh yeah. But tough! She gives credit to the Minister when it is due but wastes zero time pointing out flaws to keep the story alive and place more pressure on decision makers federally and in Queensland.
4.00m: “The Victorian government perpetuates this myth” Don’t hold back Deborah! Great stuff. Challenge your enemies likewise.
4.25m: A direct challenge to the Minister to go koala spotting together - this will be taken up by journalists looking for a story. Names specific locations – sure to hit home with listeners in those areas. Plugs her Facebook, quotes data and invites herself back on the show.
5.30m: shows how she is connected to the issue and her supporters.
6.05m: insults a committee on which she served. Then debunks some large sounding funding. Civilians (people outside nonprofits) get suckered by seemingly large amounts of money – break figures down as Deborah has.
7.10m: “It’s not going to save our koalas”. Now that’s a take home message for listeners.
Combative, tough, entertaining, passionate, Deborah positions herself as a leader. Kudos to you. You could do the same dear Citizen - couldn’t you?
