Found 26 topics tagged ‘Advocacy 101’

The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that leads us to overestimate the knowledge of our audience. If you allow this curse to infect your writing, you may unwittingly leave supporters feeling confused an alienated. To...

I’m not saying don’t do heroic things. Keep that up! But when you’re telling your supporters a story of injustice, there’s only space for one hero—and it’s not you. Let me explain... Every story...

Sometimes, the purpose of an email can be simply to inform. But often, we’re trying to get someone somewhere. An action page. A donation form. A video... When your email has a destination, be protective of...

How can you simultaneously meet the needs of both long-term and fledgling supporters in ways that don’t patronize or confuse anyone? Let’s apply common ground messaging theory to answer this question. Triggers: Long-term supporters value long-term...

SPOILER: it’s not good. Sure—you know you’re writing an email to 5,000 people. But your task is to make your reader feel like you’re writing only to them. When ‘broadcasting’ language slips into our writing,...

Imagine you’re seeing a 25% open rate on your emails. That means whenever you send a broadcast, 3 in every 4 recipients will be unfamiliar with what you sent last time. Some recipients will be new to...