What's Your Point?

Before you send that action alert, ask yourself: "what's your point?" If you can't answer that question, then you have more work to do.

Cut the fluff, and get down to the one single thing you want the recipients to do. The message should have one clear call to action - like "sign this petition today" or "come to the meeting Wednesday." Here's a quick checklist for your action alerts:

• State the action at the beginning. WHAT should I, the recipient, do?
• Make it time-sensitive. WHEN should I do it?
• Follow with brief and succinct supporting information. WHY is this important? Provide links to more details for those who want to dig deeper.
• Re-state the action. Reinforce the WHAT and WHEN.

Now, ask yourself again, "what's your point?" This time I bet you'll know the answer.