I couldn't help but smile when I received this email from change.org. I smiled because I realized: "they've got me".
I would like to show you how change.org persuaded me to share a petition on my facebook and twitter feeds. Which isn't that easy.
I sign a bunch of petitions to plea for a more just, healthy and sustainable world. But I often refrain from sharing these petitions with my network. I too feel the reluctance of being 'that guy'. The one who is always in campaign mode.
So I mostly just sign. And when asked to share this petition with my network to 'tripple my impact', I usually close my browser.
Change.org also asked me to share the petition straight after signage. But their genius move was sending this email some hours after.
This email is a simple masterpiece of persuasive design and persuasive copy. And it's all built around the brain ninja principle called 'commitment'. The urge to finish what you've started. To complete the job.
See, what normally happens after you've signed a petition, is that you feel like you're done. You've finished what you came for.
When being asked to 'share your petition', you feel like you're going the extra mile. Like you're granting a favor. Ofcourse you understand that sharing your act would be completely logical. And it would 'triple your impact'. But psychologically it feels like a different thing.
That's your irrationality playing up.
This email, however, tackles that cognitive bias head on. It challenges my feeling of 'being done', because it installs the feeling that I've 'just started'. It does this both in copy and in design:
- "Your signature is a crucial first step...'
- "Complete the checklist below..."
- A very minimalistic but incredibly eye-catching checklist design, including a first completed step
- The unticked boxes of the uncompleted tasks which are staring right back at you
- The copy for your email to friends and family boxed and ready, with a clear instruction to copy and send it
- A seamless experience to posting on facebook and twitter, by just clicking on the checklist task
This email has a clear goal, doesn't beat around the bush and has just enough motivational copy to win you over.
Hail to change.org. I've shared the petition.