by Katya Andreson
from the Network for Good’s Nonprofit Marketing & Fundraising Tips e-newsletter

Many of you have been responding to this newsletter with great comments and questions. Here are two of the most common things you ask me:

1. How do I communicate to supporters about my new logo/brand?
2. How do I launch my new newsletter or website?

My answer is this: your “new” is not “news.” You should not communicate what is new in your universe. You should communicate what matters to your constituents.

If you have a new logo or brand look-and-feel, that’s nice, but it doesn’t mean a thing to the outside world. What matters to the outside world is how they experience you–an experience that unfolds as the people that work for your cause answer the phone, help others, convey messages, provide services. Think about how to make that new brand come alive as an experience. In other words: show, don’t tell your brand. A logo is not a brand!

If you have a new newsletter or website, make it news by highlighting for your audience:

• What is incredibly interesting IN that newsletter or website
• How your new newsletter or website makes their life easier or otherwise benefits them personally
• What your audience members can they do now that they could not before

Think like a person who writes coverlines for a magazine – what is the tantalizing content or promise that will make people want to open the magazine when they see it in the check-out lane? Or in your case, what will make them want to read that newsletter or go to that website? THAT is what you want to communicate, not simply the fact that you made a change.

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