There’s a certain clip-art turkey that our team has used in successful acquisition pieces. Because it’s successful, you’d think it’d be really fun to talk about and discuss, right?
Wrong.
Whenever we talk about it, the designers on the Oneicity team say the same thing. “I hate that turkey.”
Why?
It’s ugly.
The designers hate using it. But we use it for one simple reason: it’s effective. And why is it effective?
We don’t know…conclusively.
Now, we have a couple of theories (and we’re pretty sure they’re correct), but that’s not the point of this blog post. We’ll talk about those later. The point of this post is: Your communication with your donors isn’t about what you like. It’s not about what’s pretty.
It’s about creating appeals, newsletters, and emails that get results.
Sometimes that means you use clip-art you don’t like. Sometimes it means you write differently in the letter than you would in real life.
Why?
Because it’s not about you. Or me.
It’s about what your donors will respond to.
You never know what’s going to be your ugly turkey for your nonprofit (maybe it’s even another ugly turkey). Just remember: the goal of your communication is to raise money, not necessarily create the prettiest piece.
