advocacy

5 Ways to Boost Grassroots Advocacy Engagement

Does your advocacy engagement need a little juice? Discover how to boost your grassroots advocacy engagement with these 5 effective strategies.


five ways boost advocacy engagement blog

Does your advocacy engagement need a little juice?

Grassroots advocacy engagement is the lifeblood of nonprofits. It can fuel your mission with empathy, compassion, and community-driven action. Beyond just public policy wins, grassroots advocacy plays a crucial role in securing donations, driving event attendance, and maintaining the overall health of a nonprofit's supporter base. By empowering individuals to become advocates, nonprofits can create a ripple effect of change that extends far beyond legislative victories. 

In this blog, we will talk about five effective ways to boost engagement across your grassroots advocacy campaigns so you can score more public policy wins and create a healthier supporter network.

1. Segment Audiences and Get More Personalized

Take a look at your advocacy campaign messaging. Is it too broad?

By trying to speak to as many people as possible, we often lose sight of speaking to our core supporters and create less impactful language. This has an immediate negative effect on grassroots engagement.

Any effective advocacy software like Muster will allow you to do one of the following:

    1. Segment Your Advocates Into Specific Audiences
      • Let's say, for example, you're an education nonprofit, and you have an identifier that lets you know what category a supporter falls into. In this example, you would create audience lists for Students, Parents, Teachers, Admins, etc.
    2. Create Unique Action Pages for Audiences
      • If we're using the same example as above, you would create specific Action Pages for each audience with language and messaging tailored to that specific audience.

An issue will impact each audience differently. Identifying and speaking to each audience's pain points is vital. By segmenting your audiences and speaking to them directly, you're creating a more engaging advocacy experience.


2. Clean Up Email Lists + Follow Email Best Practices

Why Clean Up My Email Lists?

According to MailTrap, 50% of marketers say "quality of email database" is one of the main barriers to effective email marketing.

By ensuring that your advocacy email lists are up-to-date, you can dramatically improve deliverability and open rates, ultimately driving more action from your supporters. Additionally, following email best practices will help prevent your messages from ending up in spam folders, keep your sender reputation healthy, and maximize the impact of your advocacy efforts. 

Cleaning up your email lists is crucial in boosting engagement in grassroots advocacy campaigns. 

Where can I find the quickest wins?

  • Unengaged on inactive contacts.

A high number of unengaged contacts will negatively impact your email deliverability and open rate. It could also seriously hurt your sender reputation. If an advocate hasn't opened an email in the last 5 to 6 sends, remove them from your main sending list.

Consider building a re-engagement campaign to bring these contacts back into the fold.

  • Duplicate Emails

If you haven't cleaned up your list in a while, you may be surprised by the number of duplicates. De-duping your email lists can dramatically impact and reduce the chances of your emails being labeled as spam.

  • Authenticate Your Sending Domain (DKIM) and SPF record

DomainKeys Identified Mail or DKIM is a critical technical step to ensuring your sender reputation is strong and that your emails don't end up in spam folders. Think of it as a digital signature that verifies you. Sender Policy Framework or SPF is another technical step to ensuring your emails are verified and don't bounce or end up in spam.

3. Create an Advocacy Toolkit

Give your supporters the blueprint to become better advocates.

What is an Advocacy Toolkit?

An advocacy toolkit empowers supporters with resources like key messaging, graphics, and templates to drive impactful change and engagement in grassroots advocacy efforts. This proactive approach fosters ownership and dedication, leading to a more passionate supporter base.

How does an advocacy toolkit boost grassroots engagement?

  1. It shows how advocacy is a priority advocacy for your organization. 
  2. It's content that educates and empowers supporters. Supporters may be hesitant to engage in your advocacy because they feel ill-equipped. Advocacy toolkits help address those fears for potential advocates and empower them to act.

United Way Greater Cincinnati Advocacy Toolkit

United Way of Greater Cincinnati Advocacy Toolkit and Resources

Your advocacy toolkit should be a living thing. Update it with new resources, and continually share it via email and social media with your audience to keep them updated.

4. Run More Petition Campaigns

Petitions are a powerful tool for driving engagement. If your nonprofit isn't running petition campaigns often, consider adding them to your toolbox. They allow nonprofits to:

    1. Acquire new advocates
    2. Raise awareness around issues
    3. Create impact to further their mission

Petitions have a low barrier to entry for advocates to get involved with your nonprofit's grassroots work, meaning engagement typically skyrockets. They are also a great way to re-engage inactive advocates.

Muster's advocacy campaigns software enables organizations to create grassroots campaigns that reach elected officials and petition campaigns that collect signatures at no additional cost. 

5. Ask For Feedback From Your Advocates

Talk to your advocates, not at them. Creating a feedback loop is vital to cultivating better supporter engagement and communication. As important as their voice is in grassroots campaigns, it's just as crucial in shaping your communications.

 6 Questions you can ask your advocates for feedback

    • What do you think of the action-taking experience?
    • Are there issues you would like to see us create more campaigns for?
    • Would you be interested in being more involved in our grassroots advocacy?
    • Would you participate in in-person advocacy events?
    • What is your opinion on the value of our advocacy program?
    • How would you rate the impact of our advocacy efforts?

Asking open-ended questions will result in more engaging responses that provide valuable feedback. If there are other aspects of your nonprofit that utilize supporter feedback, such as fundraising, volunteering, or events, look at adopting some of those practices into your grassroots advocacy feedback.

Conclusion

Boosting grassroots advocacy engagement is crucial for nonprofits to drive impactful change and maintain a healthy supporter base. By segmenting audiences, cleaning up email lists, providing advocacy toolkits, running petition campaigns, and seeking feedback from advocates, organizations can enhance their advocacy efforts and create a more engaged community. Remember, the power of grassroots advocacy lies in empowering individuals to become advocates for your cause. Take these strategies and start fueling your mission with even more engagement.

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