A quick guide to communicate more compellingly as an advocate.
Tired of being ignored? Read on.
APR 4, 2023
Want to communicate more successfully? Be brief, speak to your audience using their values and language, and assume they have little to no idea about what you are talking about. Depending on what you’re trying to do at that moment, follow up your attention-getting opener with something that piques their curiosity to continue reading/talking/listening.
Make the call-to-action the second or third thing you say so people can take action while you have their interest.
After the call-to-action, provide more information using their values and language about why the call-to-action matters and how it directly impacts them in order to keep their attention.
This is a good place to add in 1 or 2 compelling data points, but since people’s attention spans have shrunk over 50% in recent years and you don’t want to lose their focus, it might be best to put the citation at the end
Personally, from my years working in solar sales and marketing and as an activist, I’ve found that it's helpful to then connect with something more personal like an anecdote that adds some color and reinforces the overall message and draws the reader in a bit further.
Like how on Sunday, when I was flyering about the Safer Streets for Oakland petition, I saw a bicyclist zipping down the street but was able to get him to slow down enough to take a flyer because I got to the curb, waved the flyer and shouted “bike lanes, bike lanes, bike lanes! Get better bike lanes in Oakland!”
And he took the flyer without having to stop. By communicating with him in a way he could receive the message (loudly & concisely), about his values (bike lanes!) and gave him a call-to-action that fit his ability (slow down a bit, reach out and grab the flyer), he and I were able to successfully connect! And though the plural of anecdotes is not data, in my experience, especially from when I used to make over 100 recruitment calls per day, it’s helpful to reference the fact that that anecdote is just one of many you could share.
And since learning how to communicate in a compelling manner is vital to your success when you are an advocate, it is good to emphasize your key point again, and maybe even bring in the call-to-action-again.
After this point, you made your attempt. Hopefully you got your point across and elicited some positive response. Or maybe you didn’t. Unfortunately, from my experience at least, it’s repeated attempts that win the day. So don’t beat yourself up if your attempt wasn’t perfect, if you tripped over your words or had sme typos, by this point in your piece people are generally tuned out so it’s ok to not be perfect and best to wrap it up. The ending is a good place to add more color and potentially tap into something larger that still connects with your main point. Because as Maya Angelou said, “people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”