[Dalya’s Note: This is an excerpt from my award-winning book Writing to Make a Difference: 25 Powerful Techniques to Boost Your Community Impact. Today we pick up where Dalya left off in Part 1.]

In Part 1 of this article, we discussed both tangible and intangible benefits that your organization provides.  Now I want to ask you: How can you find out more about your constituents’ intrinsic motivations for being involved with your organization?

We know of many ways to gather this information, including simple focus groups, surveys, and observation (see HERE). In the process, you may discover benefits of your service or product that you had overlooked. For instance, constituents may be using your work in ways that you were unaware of. You can then integrate your new knowledge into your growing reader databank.

Once you have some clarity about their relevant needs and interests, you can tailor your messages to emphasize the benefits that are most meaningful. Identifying and promoting the benefits of your product or service also help to further establish your organization’s brand. That is, the benefits you offer should align well with your intended image in your readers’ minds.

Remember that not all your readers will come to your work as individuals. Some of them will represent other organizations, and may have slightly different concerns.

Ask yourself: What benefits would they need to be aware of to make a case for engaging with you? And what would hold them back?

All of these concerns should be on your mind as you write for these intended readers.

 

[Dalya’s Note: This is an excerpt from my award-winning book Writing to Make a Difference: 25 Powerful Techniques to Boost Your Community Impact.]

You probably have noticed that most people who get involved with community-benefit organizations like yours are not looking only for a material benefit to themselves. Sure, they may be interested in the tangible things you can offer them. And they obviously value the work you do in your community. But they are also interested in the psychological and emotional benefits they can gain because of the nature of your work.

This fact defines socially responsible organizations, and you should take it seriously. It can help position your work in the forefront of your readers’ minds.

Your organization’s vision and mission will point you toward uncovering the many unique benefits you offer your clients and customers. For more about how to use your mission in that way, see Chapter 11, “Spotlight your mission repeatedly.”

To start you down this path, I have listed some sample types of benefits, both tangible and psychological/emotional, that your organization may offer to different constituencies. In the list below, I have divided constituents into two categories, but they may overlap at your organization. The asterisks denote benefits that appear in both categories. See how many apply to your work or to any particular aspect of it. Of course, your particular organization will offer many others.

Tangible Benefits

• A convenient opportunity, despite their hectic lives, to make a difference in their community

• A chance to serve as a community resource—to share their good fortune or give something back in a way that matters to them

• Small gifts or subscriptions

• Special recognition for their involvement or accomplishment

• Tax deduction or rebate

• Access to unique expertise that addresses a key problem in a socially responsible manner

• Environmental sustainability

• Interactions with other people with whom they share values, beliefs, concerns, and struggles

• New skills and/or understanding

• Preparation for the future

• Improved health and well-being

• Risk or cost reduction

• Safety for family, friends, or community

• Time savings

Psychological/Emotional Benefits

• A sense that they are part of a winning team that is making the world a better place

• Feelings of being kind, generous, trustworthy, helpful, important, conscious, and contributing citizens

• Improved morale, excitement, or inspiration

• The knowledge that they are doing their part to solve a problem that directly or indirectly affects them

• The knowledge that they are empowering themselves and others to make their own decisions

• Increased confidence

• Feelings of personal dignity

Keep these factors in mind when you are trying to understand your readers (that is, “get inside their heads”). If your written pieces acknowledge and support these needs in your readers, you will be on the way to instilling a sense of your organization as an important part of their lives.  You can do that by naming these benefits whenever they come up, or at least implying their presence.