“For me, a great story is one that resonates with that audience at a deeper level that's really able to speak to them in a way that gets them excited, inspired, engaged, what have you, about taking that action.”
— Vanessa Chase Lockshin, The Storytelling Non-Profit

Telling Your Story to the Right Audience with Vanessa Chase Lockshin

Session 122

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Vanessa Chase Lockshin knows a thing or two about storytelling. This week, she’s back on Driving Participation to discuss how to use storytelling to really find your audience and connect in ways that are meaningful and impactful. Characterizing a realistic representation of your target audience can help you tell the right story in a way that will motivate the right people to get involved. She and Beth explore how to create the most effective way to communicate with your ideal audience and donor base that will get them excited, inspired and engaged.

They discuss:

  • What is the goal of storytelling for an organization?
  • How do you make sure you’re not telling your story in a vacuum?
  • How many audiences should you really have?
  • What does having a “persona” mean for nonprofits? And once you have this persona, how can you use it to find new people?
  • What is the most effective way to create and use a survey?
  • How can you test your branding?
Resources:
    • The Storytelling Non-Profit website
    • Vanessa’s book: A Practical Guide to Telling Stories That Raise Money and Awareness on Amazon
    • Revisit Vanessa’s previous visits to Driving Participation here and here
    • Rising Strong by Brené Brown
    • Learn more about survey tools, Google Forms, SurveyMonkey and Formstack

Download Full Transcript

Enjoy Driving Participation! If the program is helpful to you, please subscribe in iTunes to have sessions sent to you as they go live. And please consider leaving a review in iTunes as well. Reviews help other organizations find the show and learn from these terrific stories.