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From emails and social media to banners and printed brochures, there are many methods that organizations rely on in order to communicate with their members. With so many options, how can we make sure we are communicating the most effectively?

Brighten Up Your Marketing

Do not be afraid of colours! Strategically incorporate contrasting and stand-out colours into your society’s communications. Remember to maintain brand consistency and focus on using these colours in a way that will grab your member’s attention. This does not mean you should change the background of your email template to bright orange, but rather use these colours as a tool to emphasize important items. Add a captivating colour to make a point and to divert attention to a certain area – section headings, for example.

Include Pictures And Keep It Simple

We heavily rely on visual cues to generate interest and grab our attention. We are 80% more willing to continue reading if the item includes images (1). A great tool that helps you create colourful visuals is Canva.com. If you aren’t already using Canva, then you should be. Canva even offers a free For Work Plan for non-profit organizations. Canva is easy to use, includes a variety or layout examples for different types of social media posts, has free stock images are available, and you can customize the dimensions of your project.

Images help to avoid communicating with too many words and offer the opportunity to break up large blocks of text. When you open up an article and only see text, how likely are you to read the entire article? When your communications include photos, infographics, or other visual elements you better engage your audience and keep their attention on what you’re trying to say.

Keep It Interesting And Track Your Progress

Remember to be consistent with your communications and focus on the items that your members care about most. Use the tools available through your email distribution service to keep track of the open and click rates for your email marketing campaigns. You can keep track of the data over the course of a year and create a summary of engagement. This will show you what your members are interested in and engaging with the most and allow you to better target your communications towards those interests.

Submitted by Veronica Dabrowski and Lynsey Mellon, Malachite Innovations and Trends Committee.

 

Sources:

(1) Green, R. (1989). The Persuasive Properties of Color, Marketing Communications.

Useful Links:

  1. Example of ISBER Newsflash – http://www.icontact-archive.com/Dptky8jk3SsI6jLqUGqXSeOW9hc_o8Dv?w=3
  2. About Canva– https://about.canva.com/
  3. Canva for Non-Profits – https://about.canva.com/canva-for-nonprofits/
  4. Free Stock Photos – https://www.pexels.com/
  5. Why your Brain Craves Infographics – http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/
  6. Why you Should Include Images in Your Marketing – https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/33423/19-reasons-you-should-include-visual-content-in-your-marketing-data.aspx

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