Number 3: Research
Research can unlock magic. I don’t know of many nonprofits who use research to unlock the power of persuasion.
I’m not talking about quantitative research. Yes, it does have its place when measuring things like awareness and intent. It’s great for benchmarking, spotting a problem and making charts for great presentation slides.
I’m talking about good old qualitative research. In depth interviews or focus groups. Qualitative research will help you mine or validate an insight that distinguishes your organization. An insight is actionable truth. Find that truth. As David Ogilvy put it “Truth Well Told.”
Here are a few additional reasons that qualitative research can help.
Preparing for research requires you to think hard about what exactly it is you’re trying solve, learn and accomplish.
It requires that you put in the hard work of developing effective stimulus that participants will respond to. I like this stimulus to take the form of concepts…words and images on one slide that represent your central idea. Phrasing matters.
It requires you to listen very hard to what’s said and understand the nuances about what resonates and what doesn’t.
And if you listen hard and are on to something it’ll tell you when you’ve hit a home run.
One of my favorite examples of effective use of research in the nonprofit world comes from St. Jude.
Several years ago St. Jude’s revenue had flatlined. New CMO Emily Callahan conducted some qualitative research to get to the bottom of it.
“We found out that to know us is to love us but those people didn’t understand us,” she said. “They knew we did some good things for children, but why were we different. We found a little insight in that research: our authenticity was off the charts. When people saw a beautiful child undergoing treatment at St. Jude; that was the key for us. The stories are sitting right there and we just had to figure out a way to get it right.”
When it initially pushed out messages showing the children under treatment, the response was lukewarm.
“When we tested [those messages] you know what people gave us in research? A golf clap,” Callahan said. “That was just the emotional side, and that wouldn’t be enough. It wasn’t until we added the what and the why that we truly broke through.”
That was the missing piece of the marketing message for St. Jude; that it pays for all travel, food, and housing for its patients and families and it follows their care through life.
The rest is history. St. Jude now raises over $2 billion a year, mostly from small donors.
It’s an incredible proof point about how research can pinpoint big opportunities for your organization.