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"In the chaotic nature of our lives, there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of priorities that come before social change. These include paying the mortgage, keeping the kids safe, getting a promotion, caring for an ailing parent, holding a marriage together, etc. Worrying about a social change issue is, quite frankly, a luxury," says Pam Scott, founder of The Curious Company- one of many experts featured in Discovering the Activation Point. This new publication provides helpful strategies for getting people to act, in support of a particular cause, despite their busy schedules and other pressing concerns.

How To Get Your Audience to Care:

1. Frame the Message to Tie Into Their Values/Priorities
   Package information so that it aligns with your audience's existing values. When environmentalism was framed as good stewardship, more faith based organizations began caring about the environment.

2. Make it Personally Relevant
   "Show them relevance" says Frank Luntz, founder of The Luntz Research Companies. For big issues like malaria or global warming, social change organizations should reframe the big, impersonal, too-big -to-get-a-handle on-issues in a way that people can relate to.

3. Make A Personal Connection
   Show your audience how they are personally affected by an issue

4. Get People Personally Involved
   Show them what they can do. Marty Kearns, executive director of Green Media Toolshed says: "We must find ways to absorb the drive, creativity, professionalism and talent of the public into our campaign efforts." This will obviously vary by issue. If you're launching a global warming campaign you may want to show the effects of lowering thermostats, doing laundry later in the day, carpooling, etc. If you're addressing other issues little actions such as phoning an elected official or signing a petition can show your audience how to get involved.

5. Give Them A Personal Reward
   No matter how stimulating or compelling your message or plea is, an audience will not be persuaded to act unless it feels like there will be a return on their investment of time, money or energy. The perceived benefit should outweigh the perceived sacrifice. Also, be careful not to pick the wrong reward as it may not encourage the actions you think it will. For example, the Red Cross tried paying people to give blood but this reward did not increase blood giving. The creators of this reward later discovered that people were willing to give blood to save a life but not for money. Clearly, finding the right reward is important in encouraging certain behaviors.

6. Decide What Emotions You Want To Evoke
   Some advocates never consider what emotions their campaigns are trying to evoke and unfortunately end up with undesirable results. Consider the following example: Initial attempts at decreasing smoking among young people tried to evoke fear by showing blackened lungs, while subsequent more successful attempts evoked anger and focused on the tobacco industry’s manipulation of young people. Being mindful of the emotions your campaign elicits pays off.

Top Tips for Getting People To Act:

When requesting support for your cause, remember these do's and don'ts:

Do:

• Ask the decision maker(s) how many supporters are needed to get their attention/change their behavior.

• Target the audience with the greatest influence over your decision maker.

• Focus on those people you can actually persuade. Convincing people who are against you to change their opinion is the hardest way to win.

• Give your audience a reason to act. Share information in a manner that makes your potential supporters tune in, instead of tune out (See "How To Get Your Audience to Care"). People are less likely to act when they are unable to relate to a situation.

• Spend time researching what is personally relevant to your audience. Visit www.CommuniationsLeadership.org to find more tips and techniques for performing qualitative audience research.

• Give them hope for positive change. Hope is a powerful incentive for bringing a person to an activation point. "The stronger the hope, the more likely the action" states Kristen Grimm, author of Discovering the Activation Point.

• Be careful of sending a message devoid of hope. By constantly focusing on the absolute worst case scenario or the pervasiveness of a problem, potential supporters may either panic or dismiss the problem altogether.

• Quantify the end goal and benefits of supporting your cause.

• Know your target audience’s comfort zone. This way you’ll know if what you're asking them to do is well within their comfort zone or way outside. When attempting to get people out of their comfort zones, ensure the benefits outweigh the risks.

• Ensure what you’re asking people to do fits into their lifestyle. If you want to move an issue up an audience's priority list, make it relevant to their lifestyle. Race for the Cure used to ask people to pay a registration fee and run or walk a race. After realizing, this didn't fit everyone's lifestyle, participants were allowed to "Sleep in for the Cure" and still pay a registration fee. Their adjustment paid off with even more participants and the same can happen with your advocacy campaign.

• Ensure your audience understands exactly what happens when it acts. The result must be something that is worth the risk. Sacrificing personal time or risking a lot becomes a little easier when you know that your actions may make your life better.

• Account for your audience’s other priorities. If you're asking parents to become more involved in your cause, then providing childcare will take into account one of your audience's top priorities.

• Remind your supporters that they are good people for taking action.

• Celebrate both big and small wins. Relish the victories along the way. Be careful of rushing right into the next challenge or focusing too much on the shortcomings of the most recent accomplishment. Piecemeal victories show supporters that they are moving closer towards the goal.

• Continue to make your campaign personal. Whenever possible maintain human contact with active supporters via email, letters, etc. to reinforce their active participation.

Don't:

• Call during dinnertime

• Mail cooker cutter appeals

• Ask for money without thanking them for their last gift

• Misspell names

• Provide too much in-depth information. Potential supporters may feel overwhelmed and helpless about an issue when too much information is provided.

• Stick your label on potential supporters. It's tempting to think that people who support your cause consider themselves advocates or activists but some may actually cringe at the use of such words.

• Focus on the worst case scenario for your issue If the worst case scenario doesn't happen, your credibility may be damaged.

• Pester potential supporters 24/7. There are good times to contact people and even better times. If possible, waiting for a key 'activation moment' when people are more apt to take action (such as approaching coworkers for donations for the homeless during the holidays). If potential supporters are contacted almost every day about "the sky falling", they are likely to tune out or stop believing your claims.

• Invoke guilt upon potential supporters. Self-imposed guilt typically motivates people to become involved in addressing a problem, not guilt inflicted from the outside. Messaging that assumes, for the most part, that people are doing the best they can to be responsible and conscientious tends to be more successful.

• Be afraid to give supporters tasks they can actually do. People are more likely to take action if they are asked to do something easy and reasonable with demonstrable results. For some people, a sense of accomplishment from completing an easy task may give them even more incentive to tackle other tasks.

• Ask supporters to take too many actions on behalf of your cause. Studies show that when people are given too many choices, they often fail to make a choice to do anything at all. Instead of giving people multiple ways to conserve energy, give them one. Once there has been follow through on one task, then add another.

• Don't forget to have fun!

Closing Comments:

The tips listed above were drawn from the successful and unsuccessful case studies described in "Discovering the Activation Point". Not all of these methods can be used by every group, since every target audience is different. Regardless of those differences, understanding who you're trying to persuade, the existing barriers to advocacy as well as the right time to approach potential supporters will provide invaluable insight when creating an advocacy campaign. For more information on persuasion strategies and other tips that will help you plan your next advocacy campaign, log on to www.CommunicationsLeadership.org.