WOW before HOW is my new mantra for nonprofit communications. Oftentimes, I think that we nice polite well-meaning nonprofit marketing folks tend to be afraid that our audiences will think we’re bragging or sensationalizing. So we try to avoid that scary risk by explaining the details of our work… and only then do we allow ourselves to say, “Thus, by the process described above, we have been able to demonstrate success in achieving our objectives of X, Y, and Z” where X, Y, and Z are INCREDIBLY AWESOME AND EXCITING but are now buried eye-glazingly deep in a sentence within a paragraph within a section within a document.

What if we had the courage to put the WOW first? What if we dared our readers to be amazed, intrigued, even skeptical — so that they will keep reading to find out HOW it’s possible? Even if they don’t absorb HOW, at least they’ll have seen the WOW. Which is much better than if they get lost in the Forest of HOW and never find their way to the hidden clearing where the beautiful WOW waits for them in vain.

Does this ring true for you? As always, hoping to be useful and hoping to learn!