Kivi Leroux Miller, President, NonprofitMarketingGuide.com You work so hard on your newsletter, and you really want people to read it! But most nonprofit newsletters are (let’s be honest . . .) boring and self-centered. Kivi will share tips on creating newsletters that your supporters actually look forward to receiving.

1. Stop Interrupting Your
Supporters and Start
Attracting Them!
Kivi Leroux Miller @kivilm
Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com
Content Marketing for Nonprofits.com
www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/254588221
A New Approach to
Nonprofit Newsletters

2. SERIOUSLY?
It’s newsletter
time again
already?

3. Most nonprofit comm is like this
Interrupting . . .

4. When it should be like this
versus Attracting

5. What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing for
nonprofits is creating and
sharing relevant and
valuable content that
attracts, motivates,
engages and inspires your
participants, supporters,
and influencers to help
you achieve your mission.

6. Or simply put . . .
Communicating great stuff
that attracts people to you,
rather than interrupting them
with what you desperately
want them to read.

7. Aren’t we already doing that?

8. Goals are too vague . . .
April 2013, 600+ nonprofit participants in online survey
at NonprofitMarketingGuide.com

9. Yet Newsletters Take a Lot of Time

10. So how do we
turn this around?
4 Simple Steps

11. 1
Set the Right Goal
for Your Newsletter

12. Newsletter Format
≠
“General Public”
Communications

13. Better Goals:
Solidifying Relationships and
Building Trust
•
•
•
Making Supporters Feel Good
Helping Participants Do More,
Do Better, Educate Themselves
Improving Your Reputation with
Influencers

14. 2
Write it for a
Specific Group of
People

15. It’s Really About Them,
Not You

16. Think of Your Newsletter as a Gift . . .

17. There are good gift
givers . . . and bad
gift givers.
What kind of gifter
are you?

18. The Good Gifts . . .
The Word “You” – It’s all about them!
Timely, Specific
Results They
Helped Produced
Great, Dramatic Stories
about Specific People
How-to Articles

19. The Bad Gifts . . .
To-do list narratives
Too many topics, angles
Processes
Long series of events
Emphasis on organizations,
not people

20. Consider Segmenting
Gives people what
they really want.
Segment by:
•
•
•
•
Geography
Personal/Professional
Interests/Programs
Frequency

21. 3
Promise
and
Deliver

22. Write directly to
your reader,
as one person to
another

23. Tell more “post hole” stories.
flickr.com/photos/andrewkelsall/4288654496

24. .flickr.com/photos/49385074@N08/4521436562
Build Anticipation!

25. “Spine care” raised $5,000.
“Zawadi” raised $50,000.
Ten fold increase from
one edition of the
newsletter to the next,
simply by switching from
corporate storytelling to
donor-centered
storytelling.
Thank you, Tom Ahern, for the example.

26. Thank you, Jeff Brooks, for the example.

27. A Good Donor Newsletter Format . . .

28. Single focus,
plus more
newsy content.

29. A Good “Newsy” E-Newsletter Format . . .

30. A Good “Member” Newsletter Format . . .

31. 4
Make it
Easy to Read
and Absorb

32. Sticky Microcontent is Essential
•
•
•
•
•
From Line
Subject Line
Headings
Subheadings
Bolded and Linked
Text
• Call to Action

33. How Often?
Quarterly distribution of print newsletters is
most popular (40% of those publishing a print
newsletter), followed by twice a year (33%).
66% of nonprofits that send email newsletters
do so at least monthly (8% weekly, 11% twice a
month, 47% monthly)
August 2012 Survey of 419 Nonprofits by NonprofitMarketingGuide.com

34. How Long?
The most popular length for a print newsletter is
four pages (33% of those publishing a print
newsletter), followed by eight pages (23%).
The most popular format for a nonprofit enewsletter is one main article, with teaser
summaries and links to other articles (38% of
nonprofits publishing an email newsletter).
August 2012 Survey of 419 Nonprofits by NonprofitMarketingGuide.com

35. Send Fewer Words, More Often

36. Think Cocktail Party Grazing,
Not Seven-Course Meal

37. “Uh-Oh . . .
We’ve been
talking about
making it longer
and doing it less
often”

38. “But what
about all
those long
lists of
supporters
and
thankyou’s?”

39. Ready to Start Attracting and Stop
Interrupting with Your Newsletter?

40. Kivi Leroux Miller
@kivilm
Fb.com/nonprofitmarketingguide
Fb.com/contentmarketingfornonprofits
kivi@ecoscribe.com
Available here today,
25% off and signed!