274 words about advice from beyond the nonprofit world

In today’s post, three powerful examples of how we can gain insights and perspective when we look outside the nonprofit arena.

Much commercial copywriting wisdom is brilliantly summed up in Very Good Copy by Eddie Shleyner. Here’s one of my favorite insights.

Shleyner notes that for a long time commercial ads were created in a “copy first, design second” fashion. That assembly line approach still describes the way most nonprofit messages are created.

Shleyner’s advice: “The best ideas come out of collaboration and teamwork, not isolation. The best ideas come from writers and designers who, from the get-go, think, work and create together.”

Revising your drafts can go in one of two ways. You can labor over what you’ve written, overthink and actually end up weakening your copy. Or you can take a fresh look and strengthen your work. Singer-songwriter Maggie Smith has two great questions that can guide your revisions in that more promising direction.

 “To revise means literally ‘to look again,’ ‘to re-envision.’ What can you clarify, make more concrete, or enliven? What can you simplify or take out?”

How can you identify the parts of your message that aren’t getting the job done?
Novelist Jesse Ball offers one approach.

“Sound gives us clues about what is necessary and real. When you read (your work) out loud, there are parts you might skip over – you find yourself not wanting to read them. Those are the weak parts.”

Hopefully, these insights from outside our field will help sharpen your messages in the weeks ahead. Next week: Navigating the fractured media landscape.