Show Me You Know Me: Ear Piercing Edition
How I Became a Customer for Life
I recently made an appointment to get my six-year-old daughter's ears pierced.
She was ready. I was as ready as I was going to be.
Then the welcome email arrived — and it completely won me over.
It didn't lead with credentials. It didn't open with a list of services. It started with this:
"Welcome to Rowan! As a mom, few decisions feel more personal than where to get your child's ears pierced. When it was time for my daughter, I researched every option. But nothing felt right...so I decided to change that."
Full stop. They had me.
I always say the golden rule of good communication is "show me you know me" with your ideal audience in mind. And this is such an excellent example.
They led with me. My identity, my experience, my hesitation. And what we have in common.
Because they did that first, I was immediately more open to everything that followed.
So when they called to say the time and location I'd booked wasn't going to work, I was all in on making it work somewhere else.
They saw me for who I am. And that made all the difference.
What this means for your organization
Before you tell people what you do, show them that you understand who they are.
This is where so many nonprofit communications fall short—not because the work isn't worthy, but because the message leads with the organization instead of the audience.
Your donor isn't landing on your website thinking, "tell me about your programs."
They're thinking: Do I trust these people? Is this for me?
Your volunteer prospect isn't reading your appeal thinking about your initiatives.
They're thinking: Do I belong here? Does this matter to me?
When your messaging leads with your audience—their circumstances, their identity, their hesitation—they lean in. When it leads with you, they scroll past.
Rowan didn't open with their piercing technique or their safety record. They opened with a mom who'd been in my exact shoes.
One sentence. That's all it took.
Does your messaging do that for the people you most need to reach?
After a decade as an in-house nonprofit marketer, Jordana Merkin founded Voice for Good to bring her insider knowledge and outsider perspective to help growing nonprofits like yours clarify their messaging to raise awareness and funds for their missions.
Her work with nonprofits includes messaging guides, communication strategy, and copywriting. (Learn more here!)
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