This Is What We Do
When an organization is driven to fulfill a mission, it must directly engage key stakeholders and inspire them to action. In a non-profit, these key stakeholders are, first and foremost, donors. In an association or cooperative, they are members. In a business, they are customers. Regardless of the type of entity and its primary stakeholder audience, the same approach can be used to achieve the goal of moving people to act: to donate, to join, to buy.
Step 1: Profile key stakeholders
Learning about your prospect pool is as easy as getting to know your current donors or customers. Through surveys, interviews, and research, we can create a profile of your ideal prospect. Collecting insights on everything from job titles and income levels to their interests, insights, goals, and challenges can help us craft a persona that can be used to build a qualified prospect pool.
Step 2: Build a prospect list
The data that we acquire about your prospects can be used to reach them in a targeted and personal way. Tracking their first name (and last, of course), job title, company name, email, address, cell phone number, college or university, past employers, previous engagements with your firm (did they attend your last fundraising event or listen to your most recent webinar or podcast?)—in other words, as much information as we can—will establish a foundation for outreach that is multi-channel and highly customized to each recipient.
Step 3: Craft compelling stories
The information we collect to create your key stakeholder profiles gives us important insights about your prospect’s mindset—for customers, we will understand their goals and obstacles, and for donors, their passions, interests, and desires to make a difference. In all cases, we will understand their vision—for their company, for themselves and their role, for their community, etc. The answers we obtain combined with our knowledge and conviction about your organization’s mission will become the basis for themes and key messages around which compelling stories are created. These stories will clearly demonstrate why your prospect should take the next step.
Step 4: Make an intentional ask
When we make this ask, we frame it in a different way: we present a clear opportunity. For the purpose of explaining this approach, it’s important to emphasize that to inspire someone to act, we must be intentional and specific about what we want them to do. Download your case study. Sign up for your webinar. Give you a donation. Volunteer for your event. Whatever it is, the prospect will know clearly what to do and how to do it.
Step 5: Adhere to a schedule
While this process is proven to generate results, it requires a commitment to two things: frequency and consistency. We develop a schedule to assure that your prospects recognize your organization and the key messages around which your stories are built. We maximize the numerous channels of communication available through your prospect database and track each prospect’s engagement with your outreach so we can give them more of the content in which they have shown interest.
What we do, simply, can be described this way:
Data + Storytelling + Opportunity = Results
On one hand, it’s a simple formula. On the other, it requires an extraordinary commitment to a deeper understanding of your customers or donors and prospects and exceptional levels of perseverance and persistence to adhere to a frequent and consistent schedule. Underlying our belief in this process is one thing: measurable results.