A practical review for nonprofit and political leaders on how to simplify strategy, deepen supporter relationships, and thrive in the age of AI.
What to Know:
- Only 3% of website visitors are ready to act today; ignoring the other 97% loses long-term support and revenue.
- Most direct response campaigns focus on just 1% of viewers while alienating the remaining 99%.
- Expensive branding efforts often generate zero measurable return on revenue.
- AI-powered platforms now surface content based on usefulness and relevance, not keyword hacks.
- AI won't replace you, but someone who uses AI better will.
There are times when I read a business book that seems to have been written for people just like us, not tech guys in sweatshirts or corporate executives with multimillion-dollar advertising budgets, but organizers, tenacious activists, and people who are trying to make something happen with little time and even less money.
That's how Allan Dib's Lean Marketing struck me. This book isn't filled with fancy jargon or superficial ideas; it cuts right to the chase with practical advice. And it reminded me of something I’ve always believed but haven’t always practiced: marketing is about relationships.
Not impressions. Not algorithms. Not some clever hashtag that trends for two hours and disappears. Rather, just being there, every time, for those who have already expressed their concern. Anyone running a political nonprofit or trying to develop grassroots power will find great resonance in this book, which will touch on delicate subjects in particular.
Stop Ignoring the People Who Already Know You
Here’s something I circled in red in Lean Marketing and then practically screamed across our team meeting:
“Only a tiny percentage, typically about 3 percent, are ready to buy today. If all you’ve got on your website is a ‘contact us’ page or some other weak call to action, you’ll lose the other 97 percent and a heap of revenue in the process.”
For those of us in politics, swap “buyers” for supporters, donors, or volunteers—and the urgency only grows. Dib is merciless on this point, and he’s right to be. We obsess over new names like it’s some kind of acquisition addiction. I’ve seen it play out in nonprofit campaigns again and again: chasing the next donor file, the next influencer shoutout, the next big buy—while our existing community just sits untouched in a dusty CRM.
Another shot of truth:
“They care about the 1 percent of people who saw their ad and clicked. They don’t care about the other 99 percent and burn a lot of goodwill in the process.”
That line hit hard. It’s not just about reach or clicks. It’s about what you do with the 99 percent. Dib lays it out plainly: we’ve been squandering potential by not nurturing our list. We should be segmenting by behavior, offering real value, and sending smart follow-ups, not just hammering people with asks.
And “real value” doesn’t mean a throwaway PDF or a lead magnet designed to trick people into a list. Dib emphasizes the importance of providing something that stands on its own; it should be something practical, useful, and specifically tailored to your audience. Whether it’s a toolkit, a how-to guide, or a short explainer video, your first offer should leave them better off before you ever make an ask.
Then he goes in for the kill:
“You incinerated huge sums of money on a marketing or branding agency, and all you had to show for it was a shiny new logo and some pretty design. Impact on your revenue: approximately zero.”
That’s gospel for a grassroots shop like Campaign Now. We’re not backed by Wall Street PACs. We don’t have six-figure ad budgets. But we do have a list built from town halls, petition drives, canvass shifts, and community grit. And Dib’s warning is clear: if you’re not talking to that list, someone else is.
And if you’re still managing supporters in spreadsheets or skipping segmentation altogether, Dib has another blunt directive: get a CRM. Now. Whether you're a campaign or a community nonprofit, you need one place where all supporter behavior lives. Without proper tracking, you risk relying on guesswork and wasting valuable time pursuing individuals you have already contacted but failed to follow up with.
Content That’s Worth Reading (Or Watching, Or Clicking)
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: your content isn’t special just because it’s mission-driven. That hit me square between the eyes while reading Lean Marketing. We’ve all been guilty of assuming our cause gives us a free pass to be boring. But the internet doesn’t care if you’re fighting voter suppression or pushing for clean water—if your newsletter reads like a press release and your social feed looks like a filing cabinet, you’ve already lost the room.
We’re not out to become influencers, but like it or not, as grassroots campaigns, we’re behaving more like media companies every day. That means crafting content that earns attention: stories that spark emotion, provoke thought, or simply matter to the person reading. No fluff. No filler. No one-size-fits-all blasts.
It can be overwhelming to manage everything across multiple channels. Dib's advice? Start small. Focus on mastering one or two key areas, such as email and SMS or events and direct mail, and then expand your efforts from that foundation. A scrappy, consistent effort will always outperform scattered, half-finished experiments.
Our goal isn’t just to reach. It’s resonance. And sometimes that resonance comes in a surprisingly analog form: direct mail. Dib doesn’t shy away from old-school tactics. He contends that when executed effectively, through storytelling rather than traditional sales copy, mail remains effective. It encourages a more deliberate pace, provides tangible value, and conveys a sense of care that digital communication often fails to achieve.
Dib doesn’t sugarcoat it:
“This brings us to the cardinal rule of copywriting: don’t be boring. You can break almost any other rule except this one.”
That “useful, relevant, and educational” mantra has become our editorial North Star. We’ve tightened our calendar. Before we write anything, we ask: Who exactly are we trying to reach this week? And what would actually be worth their time?
Because, as Dib puts it:
“The reality is people don’t have short attention spans, they have short boredom spans. The volume of available content has massively increased, so why would anyone choose a boring option when more entertaining ones exist?”
This is why Dib pushes the idea of “infotainment” so hard:
“Think of your content as infotainment. Yes, we want to inform, educate, motivate, and so on, but your information won’t get consumed if it’s boring. Think of entertainment as the carrier for your message.”
It’s not about pandering. It’s about packaging. A vital civic update won’t reach its audience if it reads like boilerplate. But put it in a voice that breathes, backed by visuals that don’t look like a government bulletin, and suddenly people pay attention.
Dib also forces you to get brutally honest about who you're actually trying to reach. He calls it the “niche of one”—not a demographic, not a vague cause, but a single, specific person. That’s the sniper strategy. In a digital landscape where everyone is screaming for attention, survival depends on speaking clearly, consistently, and with real value to that one ideal supporter.
The Real Risk Isn’t AI. It’s Being Ignored.
Where Dib is especially sharp is in his take on artificial intelligence. He doesn’t resort to fearmongering—instead, he reframes the conversation entirely. The problem isn’t that AI will take your job. It’s that someone using AI better than you already has.
“AI won’t take your job or disrupt your business, but someone using AI will.”
The outdated strategies, such as using Twitter trends or bloated keyword pages to trick Google, are no longer effective. AI-powered discovery engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini are programmed to serve relevance, not just freshness or volume. Dib points out the broader reality:
“AI is disrupting and will continue to disrupt traditional jobs and industries… AI will destroy some jobs, businesses, and industries but create many new ones.”
Rather than panic, Dib undercuts the apocalyptic takes with wit. He doesn’t deny that the public imagination tends to spiral into dystopian what-ifs—killer robots, sentient algorithms, digital overlords. In fact, he leans right into that anxiety, not with fear but with sarcasm. Dib pokes fun at the dramatics that often accompany conversations about AI taking over the world. For every breathless headline warning that machines will destroy humanity or enslave us into some Matrix-like simulation, Dib offers a smirk and a punchline:
“Whether it takes over and starts farming humans for energy is still an open question… My hope is that this fate will be limited to people who have ‘Futurist’ in their LinkedIn bio.”
It’s classic Dib—sharp, irreverent, and dead-on. His point isn’t to dismiss real technological change but to expose how often we miss the practical implications by obsessing over sci-fi scenarios. The threat isn’t some Hollywood AI uprising. It’s becoming irrelevant because you failed to adapt to the tools that already exist.
His true caution is about mediocrity rather than the machines. If you lean too hard on large language models, you risk writing content that sounds like everything else online.
“These models don’t understand words like humans do. They don’t have beliefs, opinions, or consciousness… They predict the most common patterns, which results in a lot of clichés and generic writing.”
That’s a fatal flaw for campaigns built on conviction and credibility. Dib doesn’t mince words:
“You can’t rely on large language models to do the writing for you if you’re going to produce great writing and, therefore, great marketing. There’s simply no substitute for your unique stories, experiences, and perspectives.”
That is a requirement, not a setback, for campaigns with a clear mission. You don’t need to outspend the Koch network or flood the zone with ads. You need to out-understand your audience. Because in the age of AI, your biggest competitive edge isn’t automation. It’s authenticity.
And part of showing up authentically is simply showing up at all. Many nonprofits are still afraid to email too often, worried they’ll lose subscribers. Dib flips that on its head. If you’re not communicating frequently—with useful content—you’re already losing them. Smart, consistent email paired with text messaging isn’t overkill. It’s what people expect from causes they care about.
“Process-driven jobs and businesses will be gone. This is a good thing. That’s the boring, repetitive, and dangerous stuff.”
And if your message is boring, repetitive, or dangerously generic? AI won’t bury it. People will.
Wrap Up
And perhaps Dib’s biggest push? Do your own marketing. That doesn’t mean going it alone—it means building the internal systems, processes, and capacity to own your message. Campaigns that rely entirely on consultants lose momentum when the money dries up. But those who build a lean, in-house engine keep winning long after election day.
Lean Marketing offers a clear, practical framework for organizations looking to improve how they reach and engage their audience. For nonprofits facing limited resources or declining engagement, the book outlines actionable strategies focused on relevance, clarity, and consistency. Whether you're trying to grow your base or reconnect with existing supporters, the concepts can help refocus your efforts on what matters most. It's a straightforward guide for teams ready to reassess their approach and make measurable improvements.
Get Dib’s book here: Lean Marketing by Allan Dib on Amazon
