Choosing the Right Tactics and Channels

When developing an advocacy program, how do you know which channels and tactics to use? For example, will you put energy into a blog, an email program and Linkedin? Or will you invest heavily in video and start a Tiktok or YouTube channel? 

The answer will be different for every organization and it should be based on a simple idea: you should use the channels that your audience uses, and communicate with them the ways they choose. If you want to connect with like-minded people, you have to hang out in “places”—we’re talking about the digital world—where they congregate and use the mediums they understand.

For example, if your nonprofit advocates on issues that impact the elderly and your audience is older, Facebook might be a good avenue because it is a more mature platform with an older user base. If you advocate on student debt and your audience is younger, maybe Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit are a better fit because of their audience demographics. 

Whatever direction you head, it should be a carefully considered decision. 

Don’t Try Everything at Once

Trying to use every channel at your disposal is rarely a good idea. The result is often that you spend a lot of time and energy fueling channels that don’t have a meaningful impact. 

A better idea is to focus on a few channels, execute your campaigns well and then add to that list over time.

There are some standards that most organizations follow. For example, email is a workhorse in the advocacy world. Organizations large and small all embrace email because it is a low cost medium with universal adoption (almost everyone has an email address). While it's true that email’s efficacy has declined over the years, it is still a part of most programs. 

Most advocacy programs also embrace some form of social media—generally more than one—primarily because it is a low-cost way to reach large numbers of people. It has also become a market expectation. A nonprofit operating in Washington DC, for example, will almost certainly have a presence on X (formerly Twitter) because that is where policymakers and advocates often communicate. But overall, social media allows nonprofits to get beyond their list and recruit people to the cause. 

A Basic Program

So, what does a basic advocacy program look like? At a small nonprofit, it might look like this:

• Website. The team puts out educational content on the site once a week, with a call to action. Most often, this will be blog posts, but it might also include infographics or some DIY video.
• Email. A monthly email newsletter published on a low-cost tool like Mail Chimp showcases the content, repeats the call to action and helps build community. The newsletter is fueled by a small, organic list of supporters, perhaps a few hundred.
• Social Media. An Instagram, Facebook and/or Linkedin account—perhaps all three—amplifies content and the call to action with a few posts each week.

An Intermediate Program 

This might might include everything in the basic program, with some additional components:

• More Frequent Email. Weekly emails call out new content as it is published and report success stories. A larger list of supporters, perhaps several thousand, fuels the effort.
• More Complicated Action. Program-building activities such as asking supporters to sign a petition and other campaigns that call for action might be included.
• Paid Social Promotion. Paying to promote social posts gives the program additional reach on the platforms it embraces. This can help recruit new supporters.
• More Advanced Content. Elevated forms of content, such as white papers or more professional video, might join blog posts on the website. This might also include training materials to help volunteers get active for the cause.
• Events. Educational events such as webinars that brief volunteers and train them to get active might happen a few times every year.

An Advanced Program 

Larger, more advanced programs do all of this activity, but often embrace more advanced channels, tactics and tools. For example:

• Text Messaging. Text can be far more effective than email, but it is also more complicated. The rules governing text are more stringent than those that govern email, and it requires the help of a vendor or consultant.
• Professional Advocacy Software. This provides list segmentation, advanced targeting, sophisticated analytics and other tools used by organizations that are communicating with thousands of people every week. These tools also minimize manual work and allow organizations to act more quickly.
• Monitoring Tools. Legislative tracking and social listening allow nonprofits not only to keep an eye on what’s happening in Congress, but also in state legislatures and city councils around the country. Action alerts, via email or text, can tell local volunteers when it is time to get involved. Quorum offers software that helps organizations manage their advocacy work in key areas of legislation, and is the industry’s leading CRM for grassroots advocacy work. 

Of course, advocacy can get even more sophisticated. Some organizations recruit “grasstops” ambassadors and train them not only to advocate in their own communities, but to hold their own events and recruit supporters. Large nonprofits have these ambassadors in every state and most major cities. There are even organizations that use artificial intelligence tools to create messaging and power their advocacy in new ways.

But for most nonprofits, that’s a future vision. The best strategy is to start small, master the tools you have, and execute a basic strategy well. There’s always room to grow.