1 Telling the Right Story Adapting your message to multiple audiences AoA Grantees Meeting Washington, DC January 19, 2006
Mar 27, 2015
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Telling the Right StoryAdapting your message to multiple audiences
AoA Grantees Meeting
Washington, DCJanuary 19, 2006
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What’s Ahead
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What’s Ahead
1. Strategic communications… once more briefly
2. Messaging 1013. Know your audience4. The Art of Persuasion5. Persuade your audience 6. Shaping your message
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Strategic Communications
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Five Steps to Strategic Communications
1. Setting Clear Objectives2. Identifying Audiences3. Creating and Adapting Messages4. Selecting Vehicles/Strategies5. Conducting Evaluation
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Messaging 101
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What are you trying to say?
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Marshalling EvidenceSample MessageEnhanceFitness (formerly Lifetime Fitness) is a low-cost, highly adaptable exercise program challenging enough for active older adults and safe enough for the unfit or near frail.
What’s the evidence (not necessarily the evidence base)?
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Exercise (1)
What’s your message (for an audience you are comfortable with)?
What’s your evidence?
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Know your audience
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What do they care about?
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Primary Audiences
• Aging services providers State and local AAA leaders Executive directors Program directors
• Health care providers Doctors, nurses, social workers, care managers Hospitals Managed care providers and insurers
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Secondary Audiences
• Alternative sites Y’s Senior housing Libraries CCRCs Senior colleges
• Funders Foundations Government – State AAAs, Departments of Health
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Exercise (2)
What’s your message for an audience you are not as comfortable with?
What’s your evidence? What’s new?
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The Art of Persuasion
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Aristotle and the Modes of Persuasion
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Ethos
Based on the perceived credibility of the speaker or the source.
Typical Sources: Testimony (self and others), references and citations.
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Logos
Appeals based on rational evidence.Typical sources: Data, facts, figures
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Pathos
Appeals to personal motives or emotional “truths”Typical sources: Stories, anecdotes, examples
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Mythos
Appeals based on commonly held values, ideas or customsTypical evidence: Narrative to create identification and interest
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Persuading your audiences
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Persuading Aging Services Providers
• Heavier on the pathos, field-based “mythos”• Build ethos for you and program• Connect with their:
Concern for underserved populations Interest in ease of implementation Interest in new member recruitment Concern about cost Interest in better “lives,” not necessarily better
health
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Persuading Health Care Providers
• Go heavier on ethos and logos• Evidence base is helpful.• Provide outcomes from your program, if
available• Connect with concerns about benefits for the
practice• Use short forms – 1 pager, 2 minute video
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Persuading
• Clear concrete language• Concise stories• Compelling data• Shorter forms—one
pagers, information package
• Link to state/national issues
• Organizational benefits – cutting edge, recruitment/ marketing, access to new partners or resources
• Clear concrete language• Concise stories• Compelling data• Longer forms—including
materials, tools• Link to
local/organizational issues
• Practice benefits – ease of implementation, availability of TA, time savings, etc.
Decisionmakers Practitioners
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Shaping Your Message
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Five Steps to Effective Messages
1. Listen in for their frame, values, poetry.2. Marshall your evidence.
-What do you have? What don’t you have?-Remember ethos, logos, pathos, mythos
3. Test and, if necessary, revise.4. Find the right messenger.5. Once you’ve got it, stay with it.
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Strategic Communications & Planning34 West Avenue, Suite E
Wayne, PA 19087
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