I've spent much of my career working on getting my message across. Specifically, what you should say to get people to donate something, try something or buy something. Sometimes I've succeeded and sometimes I've failed, but over time the same four critical components emerge again and again.
I've concluded a great message at its essence packs four complementary purposes into one powerful whole:
- It connects with other people based on their values
- rewards them with a benefit they seek
- asks for a specific action to get that benefit and
- sticks with us in a memorable way.
- Connect to things your audience cares about. I mean core desires like saving time, feeling good about themselves, helping others, etc. You want to always answer the question, why should someone else care? Why is what you're saying personally relevant?
- Identify and offer a compelling reward for taking action. What benefit will result for the people who listen to what you say? Good rewards are immediate, personal, credible and reflective of audience values.
- Have a clear call to action. Good actions are specific, feasible and are easy for people to visualize doing. So much of messaging falls down on this point. Make it extremely easy to get on board with what you’re asking of them.
- Make it memorable. We don’t want simply to make an impression; We want to
make a lasting impression. What makes something memorable? It’s memorable if
it’s different, catchy, personal, tangible and desirable. But a word of
caution: memorable elements should always be closely tied to our message. Think
of all the advertisements that were so funny or memorable that we told a friend
about them, but when asked what product the ad was for, we were not sure. We
don’t just need a memorable idea or picture; we need an idea or picture that
makes our product or cause memorable. Tell a vivid story or use a unique
messenger to drive home points 1-3.
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