The phrase “less is more” is often associated with the famed Modern architect, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, who believed that simplicity and clarity are necessary for good design. One thing we can say with absolute clarity is that today’s nonprofit marketing professionals are expected to communicate with more people in more ways across more channels than ever before.

Last month, I wrote that a comprehensive content strategy is necessary to prioritize the ongoing requests for your time – the antidote, if you will, for the epidemic of reactive, tactics-based decision making that is threatening our sanity and effectiveness.

Rather than grasping at straws or acting arbitrarily, a content strategy helps plan for the creation and publication of all your marketing communications by answering questions such as:

• Who is responsible for creating the content?
• Which content gets published where? Why?
• Does the content reinforce our key messages?

In order to answer those questions, you must know your business and marketing objectives, understand your audience’s needs and expectations, and be able to prioritize accordingly. While this may make things more difficult initially, it should simplify your life in the long run.

Here are a few examples of nonprofit organizations that found more success by doing less.

New delivery methods
Pamela Fogg is the design director at Middlebury College. Last fall, she and her marketing team were charged with facilitating more contact with prospective students throughout the admissions cycle. They were also looking to improve yield – the conversion of applicants to enrolled students.

More printing and mailing was not an option. In fact, the marketing team decided to eliminate the granddaddy of student recruitment, the viewbook. In its place, they developed a series of e-blasts, sent to prospective students about every six weeks. Featuring a seasonal campus banner image and three stories that were being produced for the website regardless, the e-blasts also included helpful admissions links and links to the college’s social networking sites.

“By sending these out, we felt we were engaging our students more throughout the admissions process,” said Fogg. The proof is in the numbers. “Our applications were the highest ever.”

To help with yield, the college set up a site for admitted students that featured five new videos. “The videos were created to showcase our DNA … strengths that were featured in our last viewbook. Those are pretty much the same themes that guide the editorial content we share in all of the e-blasts.”

When admitted students visit campus, the videos play in a loop in the admissions office. Additionally, the college launched Murmur, a collection of personal audio stories. Visitors can use their mobile phones to hear short stories at marked locations all over campus. Results? The college saw a whopping 25% increase in yield.

The entire effort was part of a cohesive communications strategy characterized by frequent, consistent, and relevant content, with smart distribution that leveraged existing assets. “Everything we do gets repurposed, and those videos proved to be valuable fundraising tools as well,” added Fogg.

The changes also had a powerful effect on the bottom line. “The financial downturn was one reason not to spend over $100K on the viewbook, but we also had a better web presence than in previous years. We wouldn’t have done one without the other,” Fogg explained. “We essentially went from four print pieces to one small piece in under two years, resulting in less printing costs, less mailing costs, and less staff time.”

Changing a communications culture
Cammie Croft has been a pioneer in bringing government communications into the 21st century. Originally a member of the Obama administration’s new media team that revamped the WhiteHouse.gov site, Croft recently became director of new media and citizen engagement for the Department of Energy (DOE). Think you’ve got a challenging work environment? Try tackling outdated technology, antiquated rules, layers of bureaucracy, and serious security concerns.

The Energy Department is expected to support cutting-edge research, advance clean energy, and reduce the dangers of nuclear and environmental disasters, but that was far from evident on the old Energy.gov website. Croft’s team needed to rethink how a massive, decentralized department would create, publish, and coordinate its content.

Before moving a single pixel on the Energy.gov site, several months were spent challenging assumptions, building relationships, and setting up systems and processes to handle the new workflow. The DOE team was able to save money by consolidating several outdated websites onto the same Drupal platform used by the White House. Croft established a centralized publishing team to promote the department’s activities and goals and engage its audiences. Team members specialized by subject area rather than media channel to create greater staff versatility.

Research identified two primary audiences. Unlike most existing governmental sites, the DOE wanted to reach ordinary Americans directly. Additionally, the site needed to continue serving niche audiences – specialists involved in energy policy.

The content strategy outlined what types of content would reside on the new site, where it would be located, and how to provide the context that would make it accessible for the general public. “We want to help people understand why energy matters, and what impact it is having,” said Croft in a recent interview. “The key is localizing the data and making it easily available.”

Incremental improvements
With one thing habitually leading to another, websites always seem to become more complex over time. Because website design and production tends to be iterative in nature, with readily-available analytics and usability testing, they are also prime beneficiaries of a well-planned content strategy. In other words, you don’t need to start from scratch – or tackle an entire site – to benefit.

After finding success with a simplified landing page in support of an admissions marketing effort, the State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego decided to tweak its new admissions home page. The amount of copy was reduced dramatically, based on analytics that showed contextual links were largely ineffective, and the design focused on a short video and a handful of key links. According to Tim Nekritz, director of web communications, the change represents “the continuing evolution in how we handle web content.”

Chas Grundy, while working as Notre Dame’s director of interactive marketing, helped the IT department streamline its website. With over 4,500 pages, the department couldn’t manage the amount of content they had, which led to inaccurate, outdated and redundant information. “Over several months, we used analytics, user testing, and other research to cut content down to under 1,000 pages,” said Grundy. “In shrinking the website, they reduced the number of people needed to maintain it.”

Similarly, after a merger of two departments at Ithaca College, a comprehensive audit and the resulting content strategy helped reduce the number of pages on its Financial Aid site to 1/3 the previous amount. Besides reducing ongoing maintenance, the better-organized, more intuitive site slashed the volume of phone calls from frustrated families and students.

Simplify, simplify
By doing too much, it is difficult to do anything very well. Adopting a content strategy represents an opportunity to focus your messages, reduce your workload, and increase your effectiveness.

How have you simplified your marketing communications? I’d love to hear more examples.

There’s been an explosion at the factory on the edge of town. At the regional hospital, emergency room personnel maintain radio contact with the paramedics en route, bracing for the arrival of a half dozen injured workers. Successful medical treatment is reliant on ER staff correctly identifying and attending to the highest priorities first. This is what’s known as triage.

Every day competing priorities explode on the desks of non-profit marketers, yet it’s the rare organization that has the knowledge and discipline to focus attention on its most effective communications efforts. Instead, most professionals scramble from one thing to the next, unable to confidently make decisive choices or commit the time necessary to do each job well.

How did we get here?
As they say, the first step to getting healthy is acknowledging the problem. Not a single person I’ve ever met disputes the current state of affairs, nor asserts that this is the preferred way of doing business, yet nothing changes. In fact, it seems to be getting worse. So, what’s the next step?

If we can’t get beyond acknowledgement, then maybe we can attempt to understand the forces conspiring against behavior change. I’ve observed frequent variations on the following themes:

• Everyone else is doing it. It’s one of the oldest excuses in the book – the argument that we’re only mimicking behavior seen elsewhere – but it didn’t impress your mom, and it’s not a good enough reason to do things today.
• It’s the latest thing. Ooh, shiny! Whether it’s a fascination with new technologies, attention deficit disorder, or boredom with the same old tactics, the allure of the next new thing is undeniable. Getting results, however, can usually be attributed to spot-on strategy, not a trendy tool.
• We don’t know what works. It’s difficult to isolate the effects of one thing on an integrated marketing effort, but far too many decisions are made without any information – or any plan to measure the results of our efforts.
• We don’t know what our audience prefers or expects. At first glance, what they want is everything … for free. We act as if everyone is anxiously waiting for our up-to-the-minute news, opinions, and flash mob videos. What would happen if people had to opt in instead of opt out of your content delivery? Don’t forget to ask.
• Fear. Advertisers and the media are highly skilled at amplifying feelings of inadequacy – your breath stinks, your life is boring, and no one will ever love you. Did you hear 16 universities have great new Google+ brand pages?!? Take a deep breath, treat reports of your imminent demise with skepticism, and chart your own course.

Adopt or adapt
It’s often difficult to accept our limitations, it’s so … limiting. The ability to make a clear-eyed assessment of one’s strengths and weaknesses is an incredible advantage when it comes to focusing time and energy.

A start-up company doesn’t begin by operating on a global scale. A novice hiker doesn’t attempt to tackle Mount Everest. And a single musician, no matter how talented, can’t match a symphony orchestra’s depth of sound. Each, on its own, is capable of great things, but it would be foolish to suggest they are capable of the same things as someone with greater resources and expertise.

Can non-profit organizations, notoriously understaffed and underfunded, afford to be early adopters in marketing communications? Does it make sense to rush to produce the next great smartphone app, dive headfirst into multiple social networks, or add new distribution channels when ongoing commitments are barely getting produced? Something’s gotta give.

There’s no shame in staking out a more deliberate strategy of agile adaptation. Let others be trailblazers in technology – or marketing communications – and aim to be a smarter second (or third) to market. It’s a model that’s worked pretty well for Apple Computer, among others.

Making better choices
Intensive training and hours of practice helps emergency room doctors and nurses make dozens of rapid-fire decisions on the spot. More significantly, these medical professionals have a crystal clear filter through which to weigh their options – which patient outcomes will most benefit from immediate attention.

For marketing communications, that filter is a comprehensive content strategy. Content includes all the text, graphics, video, and audio you produce. Content strategy, as defined by Brain Traffic’s Kristina Halvorson, is “the practice of planning for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content.” Without a clear strategy, every decision is made piecemeal, without consideration for how it supports business objectives and meets your customers’ goals.

In order to begin planning, and then executing, your content strategy, you need:

• Analysis of existing content. Who creates it, where does it go, who maintains it, and what goals is it intended to address? Understanding your current situation is the key to designing a better way.
• A plan to measure results. If you’re going to fail, you need to fail quickly and learn from the experience. Making the same mistakes over and over again is an expensive way to do business.
• Audience insights. Numbers won’t tell you everything. There’s no substitute for listening to the people your organization is attempting to serve – through web usability testing, surveys, focus groups, phone interviews or casual conversations.

You also need good writers and designers, disciplined thinkers, and leaders who help colleagues understand and stay true to the organization’s marketing communication goals. But you already have that, right?

A glimmer of hope
The current non-profit communications model leaves many professionals feeling like a hamster on a wheel. By cultivating a more contemplative, less reactive way of doing business, handling the onslaught of requests for your time and attention can become less arbitrary. Just remember to polish your diplomatic skills before telling a co-worker their project is not a high priority!

There’s a lot to be said for knowing your audience, knowing their expectations, and knowing what you’re capable of producing well. Next month, I’ll look at a few examples of organizations that actually improved their effectiveness by doing less – or at least doing things differently – thanks to the guidance of a clear content strategy.

Until then, please share your examples here.

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A humorous look at project prioritization:

As I completed the rounds of my early morning workout, one thing struck me about the news stories silently blinking at me from the big screens placed strategically throughout our neighborhood gym. There was an abundance of stories on holiday shopping. Will consumers spend more? Are retailers happy? What does this mean for the economy?

Missing in all the hype, which seems to come earlier and grow greater by the year, was any mention of the upcoming holiday, Thanksgiving, which is treated as a mere speed bump on the way to something far more exciting – the next big purchase.

From an early age, we teach our children to have good manners, to say “please” and “thank you.” During this season, of all seasons, we should pause to consider how we’re thanking those who have helped us this past year.

Tokens of gratitude
Ask and ye shall receive. In the nonprofit world, fail to properly thank your generous benefactors and you shall not be so fortunate next time.

Above all forms of donor recognition, the handwritten thank you note still reigns. Including success stories – not just quantifiable results – provides an emotional reward for your donors and builds trust that their money made a difference.

Building on that idea, Terry Axelrod, in his book The Joy of Fundraising writes: Most donors don’t need plaques or trinkets, which often cause them to question your spending priorities. Donors want to see what their gifts allowed you to accomplish – specific facts and stories of how they changed the lives of real people.

Personal recognition
How well do you know your donors and their motivations? Generally speaking, people give to your organization because they value the work you do and believe their support will yield positive change. But general knowledge isn’t enough.

Is this a first-time donor or a regular contributor? Is the donor increasing their gift this year or returning after an absence of a year or more? Do they prefer receiving personal phone calls or electronic communication?

Everyone probably knows a terrific gift giver, the kind of person who makes a mental note in a casual conversation and then surprises you months later with an especially appropriate birthday present. Knowing your donors, finding out why someone is giving and affirming that in follow up communications, ensures a level of personal attention that makes recognition meaningful.

Distinct and appropriate
Your donors, and their reasons for giving, are as unique as your organization. Every time you communicate with your supporters, including but not limited to thank you notes, represents an opportunity to reinforce that distinct mutual interest.

Good designers often help illuminate and advance an organization’s mission through the clever repurposing of appropriate materials, as with the San Francisco food bank that used the bottoms of empty cans to build a donor recognition wall, the AIGA exhibition that doubled as a fundraiser for a program that taught painting and life skills to at-risk youth, or the paper recycler that used scraps of their own cardboard shipping boxes for an annual report cover.

Showing appreciation for and sharing information with your supporters is an ongoing responsibility that shouldn’t be limited to an organization’s fundraisers. In successful organizations, it’s a pervasive culture that influences everything you do.

It feels good
Finally, while you’re at it, don’t forget to thank the many board members, staff, volunteers and colleagues that help make your job meaningful and rewarding. Remember, when someone says thanks, they make you happy, but research shows they make themselves even happier. In her book The How of Happiness, psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky describes a dozen strategies to increase personal happiness. The first? Express gratitude.

Be the change you want to see in the world. – Mahatma Gandhi

We live in turbulent times. It seems as if every institution, belief, and convention is under pressure from an insistent, uncertain and unsentimental future. Fortunately, throughout history, passionate people have responded with innovative ideas that make the world a better place.

Traditionally, nonprofit organizations inhabit the void between governments and corporations, but even that model is beginning to shift. New players are seeking new roles in pursuit of their passions.

Catalysts
Every day, designers work with nonprofits and community groups to raise awareness, inspire donors, and increase understanding of issues they care about. But the whole notion of the client/designer relationship, and what kinds of things designers are (or should be) involved in, is evolving.

As AIGA president Doug Powell noted in addressing the association’s members, “Designers are no longer content to be intermediaries between information and understanding – we strive to also be agents of social change.”

Design, in its most valuable role, isn’t employed solely to promote an idea or initiative, but to help shape it from the ground up – to make change happen.

Think like a designer
Designers are uniquely equipped to tackle complex problems. Though often recognized for beautiful or clever visual concepts, it is a designer’s approach to thinking about a problem that makes them well-suited to venture into new arenas.

The ability to conjure something out of nothing in pixels or on paper is fed by an active imagination that is equally capable of developing new solutions to societal problems. Designers are willing to consider different perspectives, anticipate the consequences, and risk trying new things. This fearless opposition to the status quo is vital to any social change effort.

A designer’s ability to think – both to shape a program or organization and its marketing efforts – can be a distinct strategic advantage.

Inventing the future
Whether due to an impatience with traditional efforts to make change happen, the empowerment of new technologies, or the desire to contribute to society in more meaningful ways, designers are involved in the social change sphere with increasing frequency.

When designers are given the opportunity to have a bigger role, real change, real transformation actually happens. – Yves Behar, One Laptop Per Child

There are many different models for merging design and social change:

• Emily Pilloton and the team at Project H are using the power of design and hands-on building to transform public education in rural North Carolina.
• Mark Randall and Andréa Pellegrino formed Worldstudio to help turn clients’ “do good” goals into action that drives positive social change. Additionally, the firm has launched several self-driven programs such as The Urban Forest Project and Design Ignites Change.
• Corporations are providing new funding models for ambitious do-gooders, including the Pepsi Refresh Project and Sappi Paper’s Ideas That Matter program.
• Other organizations are beginning to document and celebrate the impact of design on society. AIGA San Francisco launched cause/affect, a biennial juried competition and exhibition recognizing projects that support social good. GOOD presents an ongoing digest of socially-relevant design activity.
• And some designers, like Steffanie Lorig at Art with Heart in Seattle, and Sue Crolick at Art Buddies in Minneapolis, have completely abandoned design careers to launch their own non-profit organizations.

Challenge and opportunity
Making social change happen, as anyone in the non-profit world can attest, is not a career for the faint of heart. As San Francisco designer Arvi Raquel-Santos put it, “Designers want to create change. They want to help and contribute to society, but how can they create work that matters while trying to make a living in this profession?”

There is no clear path to that goal, but one thing is certain – working for free is not a sustainable business model. Designers must assume a broader role in business, social and cultural environments by forging new relationships and applying old skills in new ways. We must expand our networks, identify and seek support from those who can help our ideas become reality, and grow accustomed to ambiguity and longer time frames – projects are often measured in years, not weeks or months.

Just last week, AIGA launched Design for Good to help ignite interest, encourage connections, and accelerate and amplify design-driven social change. As more designers become recognized for their contributions in this new arena, the hope is that more organizations will seek out our involvement.

It’s an exciting time to be alive. The needs are urgent and many, the opportunities great. And, as the old Apple ad reminded us, the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Related content:
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Following up on this summer’s one-question survey of non-profit marketers – What is the single biggest problem you face today? – we recently flipped the question upside down and asked:

When you’ve been successful, what went right?

Our first finding? Significantly fewer people responded to this survey – about 20% as many as the first one! I know that everyone who received the survey has experienced marketing success, so why are success stories harder to come by? Digging for meaning, I wondered:

• Are painful lessons simply more memorable?
• Are we predisposed to obsess over and seek solutions for our problems?
• Does this problem-solving focus blind us to opportunities for success?

Elements of success
It’s safe to say that when we feel successful, it’s because our actions have reshaped a difficult, or less-than-optimal circumstance. We rarely celebrate business-as-usual – hooray for maintenance! We want people to do something.

When it comes to accomplishing a task, we’re of two minds. There’s the part of the assignment that appeals to the rational side of our brain, and the part that appeals to our instinctive or emotional side. The examples of successful marketing cited by our survey respondents touched on both. Common themes included:

Clear direction and planning
There are very few projects that can be handled alone. The more complex the project, the more people involved, the more important it is to clarify individual roles and communication goals. The rational mind likes nothing better than a clear-cut objective, plan and process. People attribute much of their success to being well-prepared.

One potential pitfall to this mindset is “paralysis by analysis” – if you look long enough and hard enough you never leap at all! To counteract this, define the specific initial steps to take, identify the desired outcome (paint a captivating picture of what success looks like), and then get out of the way. It’s foolish and counter-productive to attempt to plan every last detail.

Ample motivation
Have you ever made a big decision using nothing but logic? Face it, when there’s a battle between our hearts and heads, heads lose. Provide too much information and eyes glaze over, but connect to our emotional nature – pain, pleasure, passion – and we respond with feeling.

Whether it’s getting team members on board or provoking an enthusiastic response from your target audience, developing trust and empathy are keys to generating action. One respondent noted a significant increase in her department’s marketing success closely followed a period of relationship building with an internal client. Another said her greatest successes involved “nailing the message so that our target audience takes action.” I guarantee those successful messages touched an emotional chord.

Does your audience have an emotional stake in the outcome?

Supportive environment
Marketing success isn’t easy or inevitable, and virtually impossible without the visible support of an organization’s leaders, but we can improve our chances by making it easier for our target audience (internal or external) to behave as we’d like.

Consider any satisfying experience, especially one that is usually a hassle or even dreaded. It’s as if all hurdles and headaches have magically disappeared. Except it’s not magic. It’s an obsessive attention to making an experience easier (consider Amazon’s one-click ordering or Southwest Airlines’ no baggage fee policy).

When things don’t go as planned, instead of assuming “they’re all idiots” consider the situation. What barriers can you remove? It’s likely you’ll find ways to support the needs of your audience by paving the way to the behavior you seek.

Accentuate the positive
When we focus all of our energy on solving problems – putting out fires – it’s easy to lose sight of what’s working. Eliminating problems, counter-intuitively, may not be as beneficial as finding ways to replicate the successes you’ve already enjoyed.

Ask yourself: What are we doing right and how can we do more of it? Identify situations where the project goal was met and the desired behavior change is happening (e.g., an increase in website visits, a successful event). Celebrate those successes – they’re hard-earned and rare – and share stories with your colleagues. Then, apply the lessons learned to your next assignment.

We seem to know a lot more about what went wrong, than what went right. In your organization, how much time is spent analyzing what IS working?

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Love is in the air. Or, maybe it’s pollen. I’ve been sneezing so much lately it’s difficult to see straight. But, like the nagging of an impatient mother, it’s difficult to ignore the persistent prodding: When are you going to get engaged?

Helpful advice on wooing that certain special someone is cheerfully, though not cheaply, offered by marketing and social media consultants everywhere. There are thousands of customers waiting to hear from you! Participate in meaningful conversations! Build an emotional connection! Be still my lonely heart.

A meaningful relationship
Do you know anyone who is eagerly pursuing a relationship with a brand? They may interact with, be loyal to, and be supportive of their favorites, but you’re largely dealing with an audience of confirmed bachelors and bachelorettes. People are not interested in committing to organizations or brands, they’re playing the field.

“Engagement marketing” is not an oxymoron on the order of an “open secret” or “exact estimate,” but more of a euphemism turned sideways. In an effort to make something unpleasant seem less so, we often use a velvet glove to soften the blow. You’re not getting fired, you’re being downsized. I’m not calling you a liar, I’m just questioning the credibility of your assertions. In marketing it seems we’re using pleasant concepts – engagement, dialogue, community – as cover for the more difficult things organizations need to address.

Such quibbling over semantics may seem petty – there’s nothing wrong with a concerted effort to be more engaging. In fact, it’s imperative in an age where the consumer undeniably has the upper hand. But, in implying that there’s a causal relationship between marketing (at least in the usual sense) and a customer’s desire to get engaged, consultants over-promise and under-deliver.

Making a promise
Much of what is encouraged in the social media sphere – listening, being responsive, participating in two-way communication – is less marketing and more customer service. Essentially, it’s acting like a good human being, treating others as you’d like to be treated.

In the book In Search of Excellence, a self-deprecating executive explains, “I’m not smart enough to know which things are most important, so I just treat everything as if it’s the most important thing.” The lesson is that excellence, by its very nature, is all-inclusive. An excellent organization must provide great products and service – an excellent experience throughout the enterprise. Always.

Building trust is easy. Just start by telling the truth, and then do as you promised. – Eric Karjaluoto

It’s the pervasive and permanent effort across an organization that can be underestimated by marketing folks and the people who hire them. You want your customers to love you? As Beyonce sings: If you liked it, then you shoulda put a ring on it. Live up to your promise – engagement doesn’t happen in 140 characters.

What are you willing to do?
You can declare empathy for a social cause, or volunteer your time to help solve it. You can tell someone you’re funny, or actually make them laugh. Profess deep compassion for the environment, or make purchases that demonstrate your values. Actions speak louder than words.

The activities that drive personal connection with an organization are operational in nature – they have little to do with marketing. As someone who makes his living as a design and marketing consultant, I won’t tell you that marketing is unimportant. It’s not easy to do well. And it’s especially challenging when an organization can’t deliver on its promise. Before you start thinking about the next campaign, first consider how you can design a better experience for your customers.

Engagement cannot be broadcast or found on any media channel. It’s personally delivered every day, one at a time – like a love note.

Related content:

Speak Human by Eric Karjaluoto
It’s Not About Engagement

As the sun rises on the western frontier, a quiet but confident manager directs his charges through rugged terrain. The days lead to weeks, the seasons come and go, and our hero concludes another successful campaign – only to begin anew the next morning. Meanwhile, back at the office, the hairballs are piling up, the litter box needs cleaning, and Princess has shredded the drapes again.

Anyone who has worked in the non-profit realm can confirm the difficulty in getting everyone on the same page, much less moving in the same direction. In fact, research shows fewer than 1 in 7 employees can state their company’s strategic goals. Cathleen Benko, the report’s author, notes, “If you can’t articulate the strategy, you can’t make smart decisions about which projects to take on.”

Furthermore, in another study, less than half of respondents say they understand the steps their organizations are taking to reach new goals. Is it any wonder no one knows what the marketing department is up to?

Continuing education
Despite the likelihood of inadequate budgets and overworked staff, perhaps the most underappreciated deficit in non-profit marketing is the amount of time available for internal communications.

Is there a gap between how you see yourself and how others see you and the projects you’re leading? Everyone has war stories about egregious violations of logo standards and eleventh-hour requests that defy the laws of physics. In fact, the time spent putting out those fires is one of the reasons it’s difficult to be seen as more than an order taker.

There is no quick fix presentation to win over internal audiences. It’s an ongoing process, better performed in small groups, or one by one. But be sure to start at the top. Without visible endorsement at the executive level, your efforts face a nearly insurmountable challenge. Everyone needs to understand that marketing is a priority.

Just as you shape compelling messages that elicit responses from external audiences, you must educate colleagues about what you do, how you do it, and why it’s valuable. In the presentation below, we counseled one of our clients to apply many of the same branding principles used for the organization to shape internal perceptions of the marketing department.

Provide structure
Defining the process by which projects get produced is a key to establishing your expertise and authority. Build trust in your leadership by assuring colleagues, “When we’ve been successful, this is how we’ve done it, and this is how we’ll do it for you.”

A piecemeal approach to marketing is never effective long term. It signals to others that there is no plan, no method to your madness – anything goes! Most often, people are asking or expecting you to be a tactician: “I need an invitation for my fundraising event by next Friday.”

Taking your time at the beginning – as carpenters say: measure twice, cut once – is important to diagnosing the root cause of the marketing problem. Some may even squawk about all the questions you’re asking. To them you might reply: “In medicine, to prescribe without diagnosing is considered malpractice. In marketing, it shouldn’t be common practice.”

Giving structure to your work helps guide expectations and timelines, and leads to more consistent outcomes. Broadly, it should look something like this:

1. Project assessment – diagnose the problem
2. Strategic recommendations – prescribe a plan
3. Tactical execution – create the work
4. Project review – refine as necessary
5. Creative extension – roll out related material

Tacticians treat symptoms. That invitation will make your colleague feel better, but will it treat the cause of their problem? Strategy is not about what you will create, but how you will meet specific goals. Your most valuable deliverable is not the invitation, but the confidence to move forward.

Focus feedback
One of my favorite articles on project management is named “The $50,000 Comma.” Citing the creation of an annual report as an example, several different scenarios illustrate that when you make a change has a bigger effect on your project’s completion date and budget than what you change. In other words, include the right people at the right time.

If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.
– Charles Kettering

It’s important to gather broad input early, but grow increasingly specific about what type of feedback you seek as the project moves along. Never ask open-ended questions: “Do you like this? Let me know what you think.” Instead, frame your request for approval: “We agreed on XYZ (strategy and goals). Here’s how this project addresses those issues. Have we succeeded?” This approach leaves far less room for people to express opinions on tactical choices – color, photos, font size – and focuses their attention on more relevant concerns.

Tame the beast
Cats are generally warm and friendly, but can be unpredictable and difficult to control. Human beings aren’t that much different. By following the practices described above, it is my hope that you and your “herd” can build a productive and mutually beneficial relationship. Happy trails!

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When our boys were much younger, sometimes my wife would ask me to watch them at home while she went to a doctor’s appointment or ran errands. With my laptop, I can get work done virtually anywhere, so this was not a problem – or was it?

Almost invariably, I would lose patience after one too many distractions from my diminutive “clients.” My frustration was that in trying to simultaneously get work done and be caretaker for my children, I was doing neither task very well. And, in truth, only one of these two can actually be done “later.”

It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about? – Henry David Thoreau

Simplify to gain traction
It’s easy to blame employers, colleagues, or fate as reasons behind our never-ending list of daily tasks. However, as we struggle to assess an overwhelming number of choices, we often make no choice at all. If this were a lunch buffet, we’d be the ones waddling to our seat with a calorie-laden tray in each hand. It’s unhealthy.

Just last week a colleague, after being asked by her new boss to describe the top 10 qualities of all great communications programs, shared her list with me. As lists go, it was well organized and comprehensive – in fact, a little too comprehensive. Beneath each of the numbered items on the list were five bullet points (making it a 60-point list). This is hardly a recipe for establishing priorities, but it’s understandable.

In the book, Made to Stick, authors Chip and Dan Heath explain:

Forced prioritization is really painful. Smart people recognize the value of all the material. They see nuance, multiple perspectives — and because they fully appreciate the complexities of a situation, they’re often tempted to linger there. The tendency to gravitate to complexity is perpetually at war with the need to prioritize.

I suggested to my colleague that what her boss wants is not what he needs, “I’d give him your list and then say: But [fill in the blank] is the MOST important quality. Then prioritize your work around that directive.”

After all, while Moses had a list of Ten Commandments, Jesus came along and simplified things. The most important commandment (essentially) is: Love your neighbor as yourself. This simple phrase has guided the actions of good people for centuries.

Move from abstract to concrete
Many non-profit marketing folks aren’t fortunate enough to have a directive as clarifying as the Golden Rule. More likely, they’re saddled with a committee-authored mission statement that provides neither a clear purpose nor a way to measure success. Let’s look at an edited example from an American university:

We are dedicated to the discovery, development, communication, and application of knowledge in a wide range of academic and professional fields. Our mission of providing the highest quality undergraduate and graduate programs is inseparable from our mission of developing new understandings through research and creativity… We seek to serve persons of all racial, ethnic, and geographic groups, women and men alike, as we address the needs of an increasingly diverse population and a global economy. In the twenty-first century, we seek to assume a place of preeminence among public universities while respecting our history and traditions.

So, to recap, this school teaches many different things to many different people in many different ways in hopes of being well regarded sometime in the next century. As Bill Cosby once said, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” In contrast, the following university has chosen to prioritize:

Our goal is to be recognized as one of the top five public research universities in the country.

As marketing professionals, our primary mission should be to clearly identify the purpose of the organization we serve, moving from an abstract concept to a concrete goal around which to evaluate the choices we’re faced with every day.

Invest time wisely
The high-stakes uncertainty of stock market investing provides a reasonably good analogy to the current marketing landscape. A diversified portfolio of investments – rebalanced from time to time depending on age and family situation – is common practice among investment advisors. Similarly, marketers have a variety of communication channels available to achieve their objectives.

Action expresses priorities. – Mohandas Gandhi

Where you invest your money – and your time – says a lot about what you value, your tolerance for risk, and your goals. You wouldn’t place as much trust in a stock tip from your flaky brother-in-law as on the successful track record of an established company, yet many marketers seem eager to chase the latest trend.

When shaping your marketing portfolio, “all of the above” is not a choice. Invest your resources proportionate to the activities that best support your goals. That means your budgeted time can’t add up to more than 100%, and some projects should be abandoned.

A disciplined approach
A relentless focus on goals and priorities is necessary to make better decisions. When in doubt, ask yourself these three questions:

How can I make this less complex?
Our neighborhood print shop has a tiny complaint form on which there is a 1/4″ square and instructions to “write legibly” – humorous, but effective.

How does this support our primary goal?
One goal. One purpose. One measure of success. If you’re struggling, return to the previous question.

Is this the best use of my time?
Honesty can be painful when we have to disappoint people we like and pass on projects we may enjoy working on. If you never say ‘no’ you have no priorities.

What techniques do you use to make good decisions? I’d love to hear about them.

Related content:

If It Won’t Fit on A Post-It, It Won’t Fit In Your Day
Don’t Overthink It: 5 Tips for Daily Decision Making
A Practical Plan for When You Feel Overwhelmed