One of the surprising things for most non-profit executives is to realize is how hard it is to get out their charity's name and message. Large corporation manage to buy visibility for their brands simply by purchasing large print ads, television advertising, radio spots or by dominating certain segments of the social media including ads on Facebook or other social networking sites.
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This, however is quite expensive. For example, in 2016 the 111.9 million viewers who tuned into the CBS broadcast of Super Bowl 50 were treated to no fewer than 62 commercials from 53 different advertisers. This level of participation is amazing with you consider that a tiny 30-seconds of air time cost a record $5 million.
Nevertheless, non-profit charities by and large cannot possibly compete for attention under these circumstances. Instead, their only realistic option if to choose their name, pick their winning slogan and then stick with it for a long-time. Only by consistently repeating their name and slogan will they ever begin to make a dent into the consciousness of their neighbors and potential donors.
This is why I like repeating to my workshop participants one of the most important ideas I learned from working on political campaigns as a pollster and a campaign manager. Your prospect needs to hear your name and message at least six times before they start to remember it. Consequently, one of the clues that you are doing a good job of spreading your charity's name and message is that you will gradually get bored with it. As I like to suggest, it is only at the point where you are starting to get really bored with your message that your audience is finally starting to be impacted by it in a memorable way.
