Why non-profits need Robin Hood Marketing

June 19th, 2007 Lois Kelly Posted in Books, Marketing trends |

Forget about trying to convert the world to your cause. Transform from missionaries into marketers into mission. Think in terms of customers not converts. Rather than trying to convert people to our cause by imparting vast amounts of information, focus on getting people to take a specific action.

These are some of the pearls of wisdom from Robin Hood Marketing by Katya Andresen, a must read if you’re in non-profit marketing, development or communications. (Or, in my case, on a board of a non-profit.) Every couple of years a fresh, inspiriting voice emerges, and Katya is one of those voices.

Filled with many “aha” insights, practical advice, fascinating case studies and interviews by some of the most interesting people in non-profit marketing, Robin Hood Marketing will help you see marketing through a new lens.

Some things from pages I’ve turned down and highlighted:

We assume that people give to our cause because they value our mission. They probably approve of our mission, but that’s not why they write a check. When we dig into the deeper reasons behind the decision, we find that they are more likely rooted in the person’s fundamental, personal values than in pure ideology.

Good causes need to offer rewards for action because most people are not motivated by morality. Unless people see an immediate reward for an action, they may not act.

Falsely assuming that information results in action is the single deadliest and most common mistake in marketing good causes. People don’t need to know everything; they simply want what is immediately relevant to them.

Good marketing campaigns focus on spurring one audience to a single action.

Wild claims don’t work, but bold ones do. Good causes get themselves into trouble by agonizing over whether it’s fair to make bold promises on their audiences’’ subjective reality. We shouldn’t shy away from making bold claims.