Your Fail-Proof Guide to Nonprofit Communication Planning Part Two: Create Powerful Core Messages
Ready to tackle the next step in your nonprofit communication plan?
We’re back with the second installment of our three-part series that’s breaking down the basics of creating a nonprofit communication plan. In our initial post, we completed the first two steps of any successful communications plan—defining your goals and identifying your audiences. Today, we’re moving on to the third step, giving you a primer on my personal favorite part of comms planning: the almighty (and very necessary!) core messages.
When we launch a new communications campaign, we often consider lots of tactics (like media outreach or creating an infographic), and we often have different audiences we’d like to reach, all of whom might care about different things. With all of this in mind, how do we center our campaign around a single, compelling message? How do we connect all of the dots? Concise, consistent and clear core messages can help make all of this easier—and more effective!
That’s why, in today’s post, we will:
Walk through the value and role of core messages
Share best practices for creating core messages
Share our recommended structure and template for drafting core messages
We think you’ll finish this post chock full of ideas (and knowledge!) to create smart, strong messaging for your next campaign and beyond!
Need a quick refresher or missed our first post?
If you haven’t checked out our first post in this series, Part One: Jumpstart Your Strategy, we encourage you to give it a read! We promise it’s a quick and worthy read to get you started on reaching your nonprofit PR goals!
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Getting to the “core” of core messages
You might find yourself asking, “Are core messages really that crucial to my campaign?” Or, “Will core messages actually help us reach our nonprofit PR goals?” Yes, yes, and we’re so glad you asked!
Core messages are truly the centerpiece of your campaign. Having a single, central message helps to:
share what you’re doing and why you are doing it in clear, approachable language;
show your audiences why they should care, what can be done, and how your organization (initiative, program, etc.) is a part of that solution;
ensure that every target audience hears the same, consistent messaging and understands your goals; and,
eliminates confusion in a campaign, helping to build consensus and even momentum, too.
And now, with this hearty endorsement of core messages, we bring you a simplified process for drafting core messages aligned to your nonprofit communication strategy.
STEP THREE: Write your core messages
You’ve already identified your audiences and researched what matters most to them, clarified any barriers that might prevent them from taking the action you need them to take, and where you can best reach your audiences. All of this gives you key information to create effective, data-backed core messages.
Anchoring your core messages—and all of your communications—around the known, shared values of your audiences empowers them to take the action you want them to take. You can think of every communication in your campaign as an opportunity to drive your messages.
Best Practices
Here is a brief list of best practices to keep in mind as you set out to draft your core messages.
Use plain, accessible and visual language. For example, when you’re reaching out to community members and families, you’ll want to make sure your messages are easy to understand, don’t contain jargon and avoid making assumptions about what your audiences already know. (For more information on how to ensure your messages are simple and easy to understand, check out our free downloadable guide.)
Position your organization, initiative or campaign as a solution, or as an institution that can help provide the solution to the barriers you know your audiences face. Emphasize the real-world solution or benefits provided by your organization or through your campaign.
Tailor and build on messages when you know you need to reach an audience that has specific values or needs, but make sure you tie back to the core messages for consistency and campaign clarity.
Keep the messenger in mind. If possible, make sure you have a clear sense of who will be using or delivering the messages. For example, are you creating messages for your organization and leadership to use and reuse? Or, are you also creating messages that you’ll rely on partners (e.g., members, community advocates, families) to amplify? You’ll want to focus on natural, realistic, and culturally competent messages that your key messengers feel comfortable and empowered to use.
If possible, test or share messages to build buy-in or ensure effectiveness. When possible, we recommend testing your messages with a small group of stakeholders (e.g., a funder) or a small sample reflective of the range of audiences who might hear your messages. You can also get valuable insights through your internal approvals process (e.g., leadership or the board). Sharing messages and giving context about the research that went into creating those messages can help build buy-in and ensure that your organization’s messengers are comfortable and excited to use the messages. If you’re working on a larger project, we also recommend focus groups and other research methods that ensure your message is resonating with your target audiences.
Write aspirational messages that are credible and realistic. Research shows that it’s helpful to avoid using fatalistic language or catastrophe metaphors to create urgency. Aspirational messages also avoid pitting groups against each other and focus on the benefits shared by all.
Lastly, and importantly, focus on the end goal. What do you want your audiences to do, think, or feel? Do you have a call to action?
Tell a full story
There are so many ways to create core messages—we’ve seen it all. From boxes to flowcharts to cycles, no matter what framework you use, they all include the same basic components. Below is how we recommend drafting core messages to make sure they’re aligned to your nonprofit PR goals.
Keep in mind that your audiences might have diverse needs and priorities; to be most effective across audiences, your core messages should try to meet them where they are by focusing on what your research showed are the common shared values and barriers.
The Need names the challenge you’re facing.
The Need gets specific about naming what the opportunity (or exact, timely challenge) is, incorporating what you’ve learned or know about what your audiences “need.”
The Overview clarifies your solution at the highest level.
The Overview describes what you know about the current landscape and what matters most to your audiences. Think of this as your 60,000 foot overview of what you are doing to meet The Need. This is your “what” message.
How it Gets Done shares how your organization, campaign or initiative is designing or helping to advance the solution.
The How it Gets Done section gives you language that describes the nuts and bolts of how your organization or campaign is meeting the need. Showing people you have a way to get there is key when it comes to changing minds or asking people to take action. This is your “how” message.
The Vision describes a realistic, lofty goal that you know speaks to the hearts and minds of your most important audiences.
The Vision section rounds out a brief, powerful story that can appeal to all of your audiences and their aspirations. Think woodland creatures, unicorns and double rainbows. What is your vision of a better world that will be created when you are successful? This is the world once The Need is met.
Consider creating supporting messages that back up your core messages. Supporting messages might include data points that give added context or details about any secondary benefits. They might clarify who or what stands to benefit that you didn’t already highlight in your core messages, or even who or what might be harmed if we do not act. In sum, they can help strengthen your case beyond the lead, solutions-oriented story captured in your core messages. This is a great place to include data, statistics or other proof points.
Putting your messages to work for you
It is important that your organization (and any validators or messengers) feel comfortable using, reusing, and repeating messages. Research tells us that consistency and repetition matter.
That means creating messaging that feels relevant, impactful, and natural when speaking to the audiences you know best. You want your core messages to work for you and your campaign—they are a tool, not a rulebook or a script.
That’s right, you’ve only got one more installment left of this series before you’ve got all the know-how and tools for a successful nonprofit communication plan. In our final post, we’ll look at the last two pieces: Tactics and Measuring!
We’ll help you think through what you need to know when it comes to executing your plan with the right tactics to successfully engage your audiences and measuring those tactics to see if you’re succeeding or what you can do to improve.
