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,...

If your action email has one job—to get your supporter to click through to a destination—then what’s the quickest way to get them there? In the history of Animals Australia’s (several thousand) email broadcasts, there’s no...

Cognitive biases are powerful mental distortions that affect the way we think and behave. They are so powerful that they can lead people to act against their own best interests. If you understand them, you can...

On the surface, it looks like the purpose of a title is to introduce the content of a webpage. But of course—you know that’s not it at all! Your title or headline’s strategic function is to...

For several years, I drove a strategy at Animals Australia to send ‘thank-you’ emails to action takers that were jam-packed with followup asks. This is not an uncommon approach. And on the surface, it’s easy to...

The education system taught many of us that long words and complex sentence structures are signs of sophistication. Un-learn this as fast as you can! Convoluted language won’t win you any friends in the real world...