I’m reading Katya Andresen’s Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes.

It’s pretty amazing…and I’m only 25 pages into the book.

I’m simply floored by her first “Robin Hood Principle”: Focus on Getting People to Do Something Specific.

In her book, she points out that many of us think we need to make donors experts in our cause, teach them all there is to know about the causes of homelessness or rescuing animals or the importance of literacy.

We think we need to make converts. Clones of our self. Mini-me’s.

But here’s Katya’s secret: People don’t need to understand our mission in order to take action that helps advance it.

Doesn’t that sound so sacrilegious? But what would be more helpful for your organization? 100 people knowing and believing in the in’s and out’s of your mission? Or 100 taking one specific action to advance your mission?

So what specific action do you want people to take?

• Write a check?
• Send a letter to the editor?
• Vote on legislation?
• Talk to their elected officials?
• Pray for your organization?

“All of the above” is not a legitimate answer for marketing. Focus on one. To do this, you’ll need to identify your various audiences. You probably don’t want each audience to act the same way.

If we’re going to thrive in the future, especially in a soft economy, we’re going to have to focus on getting people to do something specific.

Make it a goal for the week to identify at least one audience and one specific action.

To read more about this and Katya’s approach to marketing, check out her book at: Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes.

To hear her yourself, tune in to the Ask Without Fear Radio Show. Katya is my guest this week and we’ll be exploring nonprofit marketing more in depth.