Photo by Mediocre Studio on Unsplash Making sure your emails reach your subscribers’ inboxes has always been difficult. Apparently, it’s not an even playing field, either, according to a recent study from North Carolina State University’s Department of Computer Science. “A Peek into the Political Biases in Email Spam Filtering Algorithms During US Election 2020,” … Read more
I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that nobody cares about you or your campaign. The good news is that they can be persuaded to care about how you can make their life better. The mechanism for achieving this is something called the Human Action Model. Nobody Cares About … Read more
Creating a compelling video is crucial to any political or activism campaign. But how do you do that? Is there some secret formula? Actually, there is. It’s the same messaging formula I use every day in my marketing business and teach throughout the Digital Activism course. It’s based on the Human Action Model. In this … Read more
Featured image courtesy of Lawrence OP on Flickr If you’ve received an endorsement or been mentioned in a news story, congratulations! What’s the first thing you should do? If you said, “Share a link on social media!” think again. You’re missing out on some key opportunities. What’s Wrong With That? There are several drawbacks to … Read more
Every campaign cycle, you’ll see political candidates register new domains, create new websites, and spin up new social media accounts. It’s a gigantic waste of time and money, yet it’s considered best practice by many political consultants. Imagine if the New England Patriots built a new stadium for each football season or Walmart built a … Read more
There are lots of short and medium-term strategies we discuss in order to be successful at digital activism. But there is one long-term strategy that rules them all: Building assets. Renting vs Owning There are really only two digital assets you own: your domain/website and email list. Everything else–like your Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube … Read more
Before discussing how to create remarkable content, let’s review why it’s important. Purple Cows There are a few people I regularly cite in my work and my classes and marketing thought leader Seth Godin is one of them. In his book Purple Cow, Godin explains how businesses can transform themselves by being remarkable. His book … Read more
I’m speaking with a lot of people who are expressing apathy and helplessness. They’re not voting in local elections because they feel like nothing ever changes. I totally understand that perspective but, at the same time, I don’t accept it. So someone on Facebook challenged me to explain how ordinary citizens can change our government. … Read more
In this post, I’m going to share some of my most trusted and well-worn tools for crafting persuasive messaging. It doesn’t matter whether I’m writing a headline for a blog post, a script for an advertising video, or a political mailer. The process and tools I use are the same. The Human Action Model Everything … Read more
I have a two-word question I use for evaluating marketing tactics and it applies especially well to digital activism. When you’re crafting a headline, posting on social media, designing a mailer, writing a speech, crafting your elevator pitch, or just having a conversation with someone, there’s a simple but powerful question you can ask yourself … Read more
