Found 17 topics tagged ‘Gaining Attention’

Consider the moment before your supporter decides whether to open your email. They must sacrifice something in order to give you their attention. Either, they’ll need to delay the thing they were about to do next, or...

Great communication is not just about what you say but how you say it. Who says it also matters. You won’t always be the best vehicle for your message. It helps to know when someone else...

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...

Knowing how much or how little to say starts with being clear about your objective. Rarely is it our job to turn readers into subject-matter experts. Mostly, we’re in the business of motivating people to action. If...

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,...

Of all the ‘rules’ out there for writing page headlines, this is the most transformative. If your headline sits on a petition or advocacy page, use it to communicate the ‘pain or consequence’ that follows from...