Communication Strategies Checklist: 1. Grab Attention
Communication Strategies Checklist: 1. Grab Attention
Communication Strategies Checklist: 1. Grab Attention
1. Grab attention
☐ Formatting: Does the most important information stand out? (Use the f-pattern, bolding, headers, and colors
to emphasize key information)
☐ Relevance: Is the information shared necessary and clearly valuable to the reader?
☐ Appropriate time: Is the message sent when the recipient is likely to take action?
☐ Tone: Does the tone fit the message? Does the message feel personal and positive? Is it blaming the
reader?
☐ Trust: Is the message building a one-on-one relationship? Does the sender sound like they have the reader’s
best interest in mind?
☐ Authenticity: Is the message striking an authentic tone? Do the communication and sender seem credible?
☐ Social identity: Are relevant social identities highlighted and being leveraged?
3. Make it easy
☐ Ease of processing: Is the key message easy to understand? Is there any unnecessary technical language?
☐ Insert graphics: Can you replace text with a simple infographic?
☐ Reduce hassles: Have you made it easy to take action immediately? Are next steps salient and easy to
understand?
☐ Checklist: Are next steps summarized succinctly? Have you broken down complex or lengthy tasks?
☐ Help: Have you offered useful help in completing the necessary steps or tasks?
4. Inspire action
☐ Salience: Have you emphasized the benefits of responding or the consequences of not responding?
☐ Social norms: Is there a popular norm people can follow?
☐ Planning and commitment: Have you prompted people to schedule time to complete complex tasks? Can you get
them to commit upfront?
☐ Deadline: Is there a clear, close deadline? If not, remember to send a reminder closer to the deadline that makes
the deadline salient.
☐ Endow progress: Are easy tasks upfront? Have readers already completed any tasks?
Helpful Links
Abtesting.ideas42.org has great resources for measuring for and comparing the effectiveness of different versions of a
communication or service
bhub.org showcases projects that have used behavioral science strategies and tools to amplify the impact of programs,
products and services.