Creating an Effective Print Publication

Howard Levy — Fri, 03 May 2013 18:35:20 +0000

In Part One of this series, Long Live Print: How Nonprofits Are Harnessing the Power of Publications, we looked at how different organizations were accomplishing their goals through print magazines and newsletters. In this article, we discuss some tips for creating an effective print publication.

1. Write For Your Audience

It all starts with your audience. You need to determine who your audience is, and write for them. Most organizations start with their needs, don’t think about why someone would be interested in what they are writing about, and consequently, miss an opportunity to connect with their members, donors, and volunteers. The more you understand about your audience, the more you can develop content that will appeal to them, and write in a way that will be engaging to them.

2. Have a Specific Purpose for Each Article

When crafting your content, determine why you are writing each article. For example, each of the following articles would be written completely differently.

Informing your clients about a new service so that they can use that service.
Educating your members about an issue of concern to them.
Persuading readers to adopt your point of view on an issue.
Engaging your audience to take an action, such as volunteering or signing a petition.
Entertaining your readers with humorous anecdotes that delight.
Inspiring your donors with an emotional appeal to give.
Building credibility for your organization with evidence of your successes.

3. Include a Clear Call to Action

Know what action you want people to take as a result of reaching your publication, and make it easy to do so. Include phone numbers, email addresses, URLs, and contact names in the appropriate stories, and including form, and reply envelopes to facilitate responses, if appropriate.

4. Structure Your Publication for Maximum Impact

Make sure to structure your publication in way that best conveys your information. Think about the flow and sequence of the pages to provide a meaningful experience for your reader. For example, instead of random articles throughout the publication, you can organize your content into thematic areas that help your donors understand the impact that your organization is making in different communities or with different populations. Consider anchoring a spread with one main article with related smaller sidebars or newsbites, rather than having many pieces competing for attention.

5. Convey Your Organization’s Personality

This is one of the biggest lost opportunities for nonprofits to connect with their constituents — writing in a human way that demonstrates the passion of the people powering your cause. Avoid clinical jargon and institution-speak and write with personality to help your audience understand what makes your organization unique and worth following. Your copywriting style should reflect the style of your organization — for example, a policy organization reaching business executives and legislators may have a more academic tone than an after school arts organization.

6. Use Good Design Principles

Like it not, people do judge a book by its cover, and people will judge the professionalism of your organization based on the look of your marketing, including your publications. Good design can help your reader access your content in more ways, draw them in and inspire them, and communicate more cogently, in addition to creating a professional impression for your organization. Some best practices in design include:

layout that provides a central focus and hierarchy that leads the reader through the material, using images effectively to tell your story
a harmonious palette of colors that work well together and convey the appropriate tone,
typography that facilitates reading rather than confusing it
branding that is consistent with your website and other marketing materials
quality paper and printing production that conveys a good impression.

With with a targeted objective, proper planning, and solid writing and design, and you can turn your publication into a communication powerhouse that that builds visibility and support on many fronts.

This article originally appeared at Ventureneer.com.

The post Creating an Effective Print Publication appeared first on Red Rooster Group.

Project InCite Reports Showcase Learnings About Innovations in Israel Education

Howard Levy — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:42:03 +0000

CLIENT: The Jewish Education Project

Red Rooster Group was retained by The Jewish Education Project to introduce the agency’s new name and roll out its brand. Formed by the merging of the Board of Jewish Education of New York (BJENY) and Suffolk Adult Jewish Education Service (SAJES), The Jewish Education Project fosters innovation and new approaches to Jewish education. Red Rooster Group is handling the agency’s marketing needs.

Project InCiTE Reports

To inspire innovative ideas in teaching young Jews about Israel, The Jewish Education Project established a fellowship program. After twenty fellows were awarded grants to implement their educational initiatives, the organization wanted to share the results with their donors and the public to showcase the organization’s role in inspiring the next generation of innovative Jewish educators.

Two reports emerged from this process — one about the fellowships, and one about the overall process and leanings about Israel Education. We designed the books in a wire-bound format to be easy to read and to showcase The Jewish Education Project’s brand. In addition to the reports being showcased on the website, and being very well-received, they provided the springboard for the organization’s fundraising event showcasing innovators in Jewish Education.

Donor Brochure

To excite donors about supporting The Jewish Education Project, we created this brochure around the concept of “Redefining Jewish Education,” showcasing give ways in which the organization was pushing the envelope and inspiring others to re-think their idea of what education can be. The brochure is cut at an angle and features short-folds to entice people to open it.

Benchmarking Report

What inspires innovation in congregations? This benchmarking reports explores the results of a survey of over 100 congregations to help other congregations understand their own propensity for innovation. We designed this nonprofit publication as an extension of the agency’s new brand image.

Gala Event Invitation

Since The Jewish Education Project promotes innovation, the invitation to their annual gala had to be unique. With the theme of “Celebrate Pioneers,” we developed a pull out card format that revealed five key points about the organization. The last circle revealed a QR code for the event website. The invitation provided a great way to create an interactive experience with paper.

Banners

We created these pop up banners to provide instant brand recognition for the organization’s events held in other venues, such as their Summer Institute held at the UJA-Federation of New York.

Express Innovation

Express Innovation is a core program for The Jewish Education Project. We developed the brand for this program to unify the program to the parent organization and designed a workbook describing innovative learning models for congregations.

LOMED Handbook

LOMED is another key program for the agency that required a brand update. The new LOMED logo gracefully integrates the English and Hebrew and ties the logo to The Jewish Education Project. We created this workbook as an easy to use guide for schools and congregations to re-invision the way they provide educational services.

Jewish Futures Conference Brochure

Our challenge was to create a brochure that features 8 pages of information on one sheet of paper in a cost effective manner. Given the limited budget, we needed a creative solution that would still highlight the innovative nature of the conference. We developed a brochure that accordion-folds back and forth revealing all the contents of the brochure from the front panel. This format proved to be a very successful for the conference in which people would constantly be referring to the brochure for information, and allowed the brochure to be produced within cost while providing a high-tech image for the organization, as well as tie into their brand.

“I had an excellent experience working with Howard Levy of Red Rooster Group. The project was a bit complicated — we were creating a new program and brand within an existing program and brand — and Howard and his staff immediately understood the challenge and presented creative and practical solutions. Their designs reflected the message and vision of the new program and were highly attractive — all of my colleagues were very impressed with the new material. Red Rooster Group’s production time was equally as impressive. They turned raw material into finished polished pieces at a very quick pace which made life so much easier for us. Working with Red Rooster Group felt like they were on our team. They went above and beyond what was asked of him. They even reached out to us the day of our big orientation to check if there was anything else they could do to essentially help us succeed. I would work with Red Rooster Group again in a heartbeat.”

— Abby Pitkowsky, The Jewish Education Project

LINKS

Red Rooster Group is a New York based graphic design firm that creates effective brands, websites, and marketing campaigns to increase your visibility, fundraising, and communications effectiveness. Contact us at info@redroostergroup.com.

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