a nice touchstone that you can return to if you feel like a project is going astray at any point.
Here are common questions in a creative brief worksheet:
What is it? What is the deliverable?
What is the goal or purpose of the communications piece?
What is the single most important thing it should communicate?
Who is the communications piece for (specific participant or supporter groups, for example)?
What is the specific call to action?
Is there a specific voice, tone, or style for this piece that should be reflected in copy or design?
What gap is this piece filling in our existing communications line-up?
How will success of the piece be measured?
Who is the primary decision maker on this piece? Who else is working on it?
What budget and additional resources will be made available?
What are the deadlines for the first, intermediate, and final drafts?
You can find much more detail and examples of Big Picture Communications Timelines, editorial calendars, and creative briefs in my book, Content Marketing for Nonprofits: A Communications Map for Engaging Your Community, Becoming a Favorite Cause, and Raising More Money, as well as at NonprofitMarketingGuide.com
Example: How to Use These Three Planning Documents Together
By using these three planning documents together, Melissa Cipollone, the communications strategist for Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, has greatly improved the efficiency of the organization's publication production process.
“I start the planning at the beginning of each year, where I work with all of our staff to create a Big Picture Communications Timeline for the year,” said Melissa. “Then I schedule creative briefings with staff as needed, where we work together to fill out a creative brief.” This guides their brainstorming process and focuses the conversation on important decisions such as the purpose of each publication, its intended audience, its backward production timeline, etc. “We also clearly define roles, such as who are reviewers, who are approvers, who will design the layout, etc.,” said Melissa.
Next, she adds the production timelines to a shared Google editorial calendar, so everyone involved in a production can see the agreed-upon deadlines. “Having a shared editorial calendar also lets me easily show others where we might encounter bottlenecks or conflicts with other planned projects,” said Melissa.
Finally, she initiates a production and editing process that includes clear steps. These are: (1) creating an outline; (2) reconciling a “global” draft, where they only focus on the content and structure of a piece; (3) reconciling a “local” draft, where they hone in on sentence-level edits; and (4) copyediting and proofreading to polish everything up.
“Creating a streamlined planning and production process has helped me work more collaboratively with our staff, and reduce conflicts,” said Melissa. Before, staff would realize that their visions were misaligned after a lot of time was already spent on a draft, or they wouldn't account for the time needed to allow peer reviewers to participate in the production process. “It's certainly not a fool-proof process, but it's helped us tremendously,” said Melissa.
NONPROFIT MARKETING THE QUICK-AND-DIRTY WAY
Although drafting a comprehensive marketing strategy and communications plan that answers the scores of questions posed here is ideal, the reality is that this kind of thoughtful, well-researched, and well-considered plan is out of the reach of many organizations, perhaps including yours. You may not have the time or staff cooperation to pull it off. If so, you'll turn instead to the quick-and-dirty approach that focuses on the three most important questions in nonprofit marketing:
Who are we trying to reach? Define your targeted communities or groups. Get as specific as you can about your target audience. Everyone or the general public aren't good answers.
What's our message to those people? Explain what you want them to do and why they should do it, or why they should care.
How do we deliver that message to those people? Pick the right channels to deliver your message to your target audience.
Nonprofits without communications staff always have the answer to the third question. We need a flyer! We need a billboard! We need to be on Snapchat! Your challenge is to always introduce the first two questions into the conversation: Who is this for and what do we want to say to them or ask them to do?
Once you get those basics into the conversation on a regular basis, you can add two other questions:
So what? This gets to the “why?” question for your target audience. Why should this message or call to action matter to them? What's in it for them to follow through? Think of these questions from their point of view, not yours. This is how you build out the messaging that goes with your call to action.
Why now? Even if you have convinced your target audience that your messaging and call to action make sense, they still need a nudge to do it now. How can you create some urgency so people will stop doing everything else and follow through on your call to action?
EXAMPLE: THE AMERICAN RED CROSS'S “DO MORE THAN CROSS YOUR FINGERS” CAMPAIGN
The American Red Cross wants every household to do three things: to get an emergency kit, to make a communication and evacuation plan, and to be informed about the disasters that are common in their communities. That's their product. Fair enough, but how are they going to make it happen?
Although the American Red Cross has the resources to develop comprehensive marketing strategies complete with healthy amounts of audience research and environmental analyses, I asked Mark Ferguson, who managed the “Do More Than Cross Your Fingers” campaign several years ago for the American Red Cross, to share the marketing strategy for the campaign in the quick-and-dirty format.1
Defining the Audience: Moms with Kids at Home
The Red Cross's historical research and experience shows that moms with kids under 18 living at home are especially receptive to messages about disaster preparedness. No surprise there – if anyone is going to care about the nest and the babies in it, it's Mom. But some research also showed that 82 percent of moms say they drive household purchases. So, if you are trying to get a family to organize a disaster preparedness kit that will most likely require some purchases, reaching out to the people who decide what to buy makes sense.
Creating the Message: Testing the Campaign Slogan
But what do you say to a busy mom to get her to make this a priority? It was important for the Red Cross to come up with a message that spoke to moms but that also had broader appeal to the American public at large. Even if moms were the target, the message needed to be appropriate for a much wider audience as well. It was also important, said Mark, for the message to start from where people were and to help them move forward with their family disaster planning, regardless of how much they may have already done. Through their research, they knew that about 80 percent of families had taken one of the three key steps (getting a kit, making a plan, or staying informed), and this campaign was about moving them to take another.
To come up with the right message, the Red Cross hired the firm Catchword Branding, which specialized in naming. They provided a thousand possible slogans to