The document outlines the key components of an effective advocacy message, which includes identifying the problem, presenting a plan, garnering support, and making an ask from the audience. Each part of the message should effectively engage the audience and motivate them to take action. Good practices emphasize the need for clarity, conciseness, and tailoring the ask to the audience's capabilities.

1. Art and Design for Advocacy
Structure of a message

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Messages Influence Behaviours and
Policies
Your message is the link between the problem you are trying to solve, your
objectives, and your audience. The message is a lot like a catchphrase or
signature tune for your campaign. It explains, in a simple, direct, and memorable
way, the issue your campaign is tackling, why that issue is important, and the
actions that you want your audience to take to help your campaign achieve its
objectives.

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Messages Are a Campaign’s Public
Presence
Your message is the template for all of your communication with your target
audience. You might add detail to it to turn it into a pol- icy brief or white paper
that can be sent to decision makers. You might make it much shorter so that you
can use its key facts and most dramatic phrases in a poster campaign.

4. The Structure of a Message
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 The Problem—explains the issues that the advocacy campaign is trying to tackle. The problem
can be described using emotive and direct language — your audience has to take it as seriously
as you do.
 The Plan — sets out your campaign’s goals and objectives and explains how the campaign will
solve the problem.
 The Support—tells your campaign’s audience why it is important that they support the plan, why
the problem needs to be solved urgently, and how your campaign’s stakeholders will benefit.
 The Ask—requests your audience’s help to achieve your objectives and goals. Once an audience
understands the problem, how it can be solved, and why it is important to solve it, the Ask is the
key to your message.

5. Structure of a message
Each part of the message breaks down into different components;
each of these components plays a role in helping the message to
influence a target audience.

6. Message: The problem
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 The Problem makes people take notice of the issue you are campaigning on and draws them into
your message.
 The Problem separates into an outline of the issue you are trying to tackle, its causes, and an
explanation of its impact.

7. Message: The plan
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 The Plan separates into a description of the agents and actions you will use to achieve your
goals. It also details any funds you will be asking for, and the timetable your campaign will follow.

8. Message: The ask
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 a clear series of instructions that you want the targets of your campaign to follow in order to
address the problem.
 instructions that make the campaign’s actions appear easy. An audience should believe that they
can help achieve your goal with minimal cost and effort.

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Good practice tip
The Ask must be tailored to the sort of actions that your audience can take—you
should ask your audience to change only the behaviours and policies that they
already have the ability to change. Having identified your target audience, you
should have a good understanding of their resources, social position, and
responsibilities—these are the factors that will determine what your target
audience is capable of changing and doing.

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Good practice tip
The best advocacy messages are concise, persuasive, and clear about the steps
that a target audience should take to solve the problem they identify. Before you
find ways to publish your message and communicate it to your target audience,
you need to understand how an audience will respond to it—you need to test your
message with members of your group and with people outside of your
organisation.