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...

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...

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...

Your reader trusts their own mind way more than they trust yours. No offense but it’s true. Knowing this, try to avoid ‘telling’ people what to think. That includes making assertions that some things are cruel,...

How tempting is it to ‘bust myths’ and confront your opponent’s ridiculous claims head-on!? Hint: very. Proceed with caution—countering false claims can unintentionally reinforce them. However, if you can reframe the conversation, you get to own it...

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