At the recent Public Radio Marketing and Development Conference, two speakers gave excellent presentations that drove home the importance of focusing on your audience and developing messages that are relevant, timely and compelling.

Brian Reich, Senior Strategic Consultant at Mindshare Interactive Campaigns, started his presentation by reminding people to make it “relevant, timely and compelling” He said, “Consumers are exposed to 3,000 commercial messages every day. Your story needs to be captivating if it is to make it through the clutter.

Madeline Stanionis, author of Raising Thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars with E-mail, reminded us that “you must send the right message to the right person at the right time.” She talked about really focusing on who is reading your message. What is his or her day like? How are you going to cut through the clutter to reach this person with your message? She talked about how to make your message timely by tapping into current news and events and using real deadlines.

In my opinion being timely means thinking ahead and moving quickly. When I give presentations I often talk about the fact that I received a fundraising e-mail from America’s Second Harvest on the day that Hurricane Katrina hit. They obviously knew that it might hit hard and if it did they would need to mobilize quickly to get food into the area AND to raise money.

To be compelling you need to speak from the heart and be authentic. Brian Reich said “Build on an honest, authentic story that appeals to people’s personal values.” Madeline Stanionis said “You need to learn to connect with your readers / donors / subscribers…” She reminded us of the importance of making your readers really feel like they are a part of something that matters.

Read more notes from the excellent sessions presented by Brian Reich and Madeline Stanionis on the new DEI Blog. (DEI organizes the PRDMC) Youll find links to download their presentations too.