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Getting a message across to the public is crucial for a nonprofit. For Sandra L. Beckwith, as she writes in her book Publicity for Nonprofits, a successful message means both creating it and testing it, just as with a mailing, for example.
An organization should combine what it knows about its audience with what it knows about the topic, and this should be a group effort. Then the following sequence should occur:
* Creating draft messages. Create as many as you can and keep all of them. Look at them to see which ones are vague and which resonate.
* Testing the draft messages. Test the short list from the drafts with a target audience to find out what works and what doesn’t. Ask the audience specific questions about what the message means to them, if it motivates them, if there is anything that confuses them. Listen carefully to their responses.
* Refining the messages. Some messages may need to be dumped, but others may need varying degrees of tweaking. Make any necessary adjustments and move on with a message that strikes a chord.
* Testing the final messages. When you have selected a final message, test it with a larger sampling of people.
* Adjusting the final messages. If there are problems with the final message, make adjustments and test again until it is right.
