You are not your audience. Five humbling words that explain why so many messages fall flat, emails flop, and web pages

Who are your supporters? And what do they need from you to reach their potential as star advocates or loyal donors? You might

Imagine you’re at a party. There are plenty of new people you could meet and talk to. There’s a guy talking himself up.

Serious question. Success is more than a number. It’s an outcome. An increase in list size isn’t an end-goal; 1,000

What draws people to your cause? What motivated your supporters to take their first action? What did they feel when they first donated?

When it comes to targeting the best supporters for specific activities, many of us are using (or have used) the sub-list model.

Think of a radio tower. Broadcast signals beaming far and wide. Most people think about email broadcasts this way. Please don’t think

The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that leads us to overestimate the knowledge of our audience. If you allow this curse

What if you could say the right thing, to the right person, at the right time (while you sleep)? The future of communications

When you hear of organizations that have amassed millions of online supporters, the first question that often comes to mind is: where

Call it what you will. It’s the idea that when we work together, we’re part of something bigger than ourselves. If achieving

Consider the moment before your supporter decides whether to open your email. They must sacrifice something in order to give you their attention.

Think of digital pipelines as pathways that lead your supporters down progressively deeper levels of engagement. Without designing your pipelines intentionally, your supporters

The education system taught many of us that long words and complex sentence structures are signs of sophistication. Un-learn this as fast

Take your time. In the pursuit of saying more with less, I’ll admit—not every big idea can be reduced to a snappy soundbite.