To the Point: Don’t Write Crappy Content

Remember "Green Eggs and Ham," the famous children's book by Dr. Seuss? Sam wants X to try his new breakfast. When X refuses, Sam keeps trying to serve it up in exciting new ways — on a boat, on a plane, in a house, on a train — until finally X tries it and thanks Sam for his persistence.

We have a similar content strategy for nonprofit marketing. The only difference is no one is thanking us for repurposing bad content. For all the talk these days about new marketing tactics, we've forgotten that there really are only two tools that fuel our communications efforts: words and images. Our goal is to put these items together in exciting ways to weave compelling narratives. The problem is if our copy is crap, new and exciting delivery mechanisms can't change that fact. Creating great 
content is both art and science. Here are some steps you can take to improve yours.

1. Write to one person
This is one of the best pieces of advice I've ever received. Having a single person or persona in mind (e.g., 60-year-old married woman with no children) when you write helps you know what to say and how to say it. Many nonprofits write to the "general public," and that makes their copy sound vague.

2. Use active vs. passive voice
Forgot Rhetoric 101? That's OK. Here's an example of active vs. passive voice. Passive voice: "Our nonprofit is being helped by the efforts of our donors." The technical active-voice version of that would be, "Our donors' efforts help our nonprofit." Better, just by virtue of being written in the active voice. But better yet would be to punch it up and say, "Our donors are kicking butt and raising lots of money for our work!" It's active not only in the grammatical sense, but in the general sense of the word, as well. Even unembellished, active voice is direct and powerful, and makes your prose clearer.

3. Make an outline
Outlines are extremely helpful when writing. Try using the universal outline — who, what, why, when, where and how — when building your next PowerPoint presentation, article or annual report.

4. Speaking of stories … tell one!
Much has been written about the power of storytelling to persuade. One of the oldest forms of narrative, stories are easier to remember than isolated figures and facts. They're also easier to tell. To learn more about how to tell better stories, see author, speaker and consultant Andy Goodman's site at agoodmanonline.com/red.html.

5. Edit, edit and edit some more
If you do nothing else to improve your writing, start editing your copy, and I promise it will improve. Here's why: Writing is not a one-shot deal. It takes a lot of refining to write clear and compelling copy. Perfect your copy by rereading it at least three times before "going to print." Cut unnecessary adjectives, and delete entire sentences and paragraphs that distract from the story or fail to 
reinforce your main point.

6. Add images
Words are just one part of a two-pronged tool set for 
creating great content. Images that reflect an organization's mission are equally important, as they add an emotional dimension to your copy. The good news is sites like Flickr make it possible to find beautiful and compelling images, often for free. Make it a practice to use images in your copy, and see what happens. Just be sure to give the proper attribution to the photographer and get permission when required.

Bonus: Use metaphors
Metaphors are an important part of every writer's tool kit. They can make your writing come alive and help you create a deeper connection with your readers. However, using metaphors is tricky because sometimes they just don't work. Instead of choosing obscure references, use universal themes — e.g., David and Goliath, the Horatio Alger story, etc. — to reinforce your point. On the other hand, avoid using cheesy metaphors that are overplayed, like reaching the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. If you're not sure whether or not a metaphor is muddling your narrative or making it better, run it by a colleague.

Crappy content is crap regardless of where you use it. At best it will confuse your audience. At worst it will cause people to lose confidence in your organization.

Jocelyn Harmon is director of business development at Triplex Interactive (emailforimpact.com) and keeper of the Marketing for Nonprofits blog (marketingfornonprofits.org). Reach her at jocelyn.harmon@emailforimpact.com