Adam Schultz

Dear Move-On.org,

I am writing to you as someone who just received a message from you to call my local representatives about upcoming energy legislation so that it won’t include subsidies to support the coal industry by subsidizing liquefied coal.

You made a well informed point about how it is being presented under the guise of doing something good for the environment while actually supporting higher greenhouse gas output. You ,furthermore, stated that it would be with money that should be and was not going to subsidize renewable energy.

Be that as it may, I felt more compelled to write this letter to you about your failure to get me to act than to actually make the calls to my representatives in the Senate.

“Why not?” You might be asking your self.

You made a greatly motivational case to get me angry, you even gave me a reason to act. I went so far as clicking on the link to make the calls to my Senators.

But, you didn’t close the deal for some reason.

Adam Schultz

So what happened? Why did I lose my urge to act?

I got to this page (above) and thought to myself,

OK, so I have to call these people and talk to them about the fact that I don’t agree with this thing that I just learned about.

But, I don’t know a whole lot about it.

I might have to talk to someone.

What do I say to them.

I can just leave a message about it.

Then, what if they call me back.

How long is this going to take.

Do I know enough to talk to a senator about this.

How long is this going to take.

I should be working.

What would I say anyway.

And then they lost me.

I started to think about how interesting the exchange I just had with myself was. Then I cared more about blogging this concept and exploring what went wrong than with taking the action.

How many other people were thinking the same thing I was?

What would it have taken for me (and and the rest of us) to act as requested rather than get distracted and not?

So what would it have taken?

I really don’t know. It’s the kind of thing that once you start to measure it or try to figure it out after the fact, you most likely get it wrong. You know, like Blink.

But that won’t stop me from trying.

The email worked. I felt like I needed to act. The button told me to “click here”, so I clicked. I think it was the landing page that failed them in this case. I think that if they would have assured me that the time commitment would be very low, given me a brief script and supplied me with some follow up links.

The crazy thing is that they have done all of that before and I did it, I acted, I made some phone calls and tracked my progress, the whole 9. Did they just get lazy or did they have a reason for doing it this way?

I’m sure that I am but a small part of their core action taking group and I would imagine that they have studied what works for maximum affect for the group as a whole.

But what if that is the problem? The whole group.

Another idea for consideration,

It would appear to me that they have 3 types of people on their mail list.

1. People who have never acted
2. People who have ever taken action
3. People who often take action

I haver never seen a change in the format of their emails since I first joined a couple of years ago. Even after my first click and call, I still get the same stuff.

It would make sense to me that people at different phases need different messaging.

For me, they know I will act. I care less about the details of the issue at hand and more about doing something to help make change, anything to help make change. If they were able to target that, I would un-undoubtedly be more valuable to them.

How many people do they have on their list that they could get more value out of by being smarter about the way they ask and how they craft their message?

What do you think?

Did you get this email?

Did you act?

What would it have taken to get you to do so?