BREAZE

A key focus of your campaign should always be how to communicate your message in a way that changes how people think, feel and act about the issue. To do this, you will need a clear communications strategy to help you articulate in the most effective way what the problem is, what the solution is, and what they need to do to help you get there.

A good communications strategy is clear and credible. It is well targeted and kept simple. It must understand its audience, and be relevant to them. It must be memorable, and must have an ask.

Your communications strategy must tell a story, and to do this in a way that is motivating, it needs to make an emotional connection with the audience. This about recognising the values that motivate people such as ‘family’ or ‘money’, and linking your communication to these values. If you want someone to believe your story, it has to make sense and be real to them.

Your communications strategy must also have a well articulated Ask. This is what you want your target to do about the issue. You may have a different ask for each of the targets of the campaign, but regardless of who it is, it must be simple and clear.

Support your communication with proof. This can be facts and figures as well as personal anecdotes. Maybe someone has just released a report that supports your argument that you can refer to. Just because you are referencing facts and figures doesn’t mean that you need to use jargon or difficult language. The simpler your message, the better.

And repeat it. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Repeat. Using too many messages at the same time will lose the impact that could have been had with one clear simple and concise message. Repeat.

Finally, be prepared for opposition. Your opposition will likely try all tactics in the book to undermine you, sideline or distract you, destroy your credibility, divide your supporters, or deny there is a problem entirely. Try to be prepared in advance for obvious points of attack from your opposition.

There is a lot of information about communicating effectively and for campaigns in books and online. Some particularly good books include:

Chris Rose, George Lakoff, Persuading Aristotle.

The Change Agency is a great online resource