Tuesday 14 October 2014

Leaflet Part 1: How to write a leaflet that will be irresistible for people to: a) Pick up, b) Read & c) Act on

This is part 1.

Would you like to write a leaflet that people will

  1.   Pick up,
  2.   Read, &
  3.   Act on      ?
I would.. 

and these three articles show my effort to do so.
I hope you enjoy learning from them


I may edit it in future remove some of the glooooooimier parts.. Have to be positive you know. But for the moment here it is at it is.

Are you sitting comfortably? then I will begin

Eons ago, in the mists of time, before most people had personal computers, never mid laptops, tablets or smartphones, a Leaflet on Biodiversity was written for CEL (Christian Ecology Link).

 It was an extra leaflet to be added to those in the the Sustainability Pack  (1994) - a whole set of different coloured A5 leaflets for use in churches on a variety of sustainability topics: orange for Recycling, green for Ethical investment, pink for Sustainable economics, and so on. In those distant days many people had not made the link between their faith and care for the natural world - natural capital that is being lost and will not be available to our grandchildren. (Plus ça change..)

The set of leaflets was welcomed in many churches... well, by some churches .. well, by the green activists in a few.

The biodiversity leaflet was updated slightly and you can see one archive version   on CEL's old website.

Fast forward 20 years to to 2014.. by which time another 30% (ish) of the world's biodiversity has gone.

(Forest burnt down, species rich haymeadows reseeded, streams polluted, rivers deoxygenated,  invasive species eating or outcompeting native species, wild animals poached, wetlands drained, genetic variation in potential food crops lost, world population increased 40% by 2 billion,)
.
This is a chance to promote the CEL Rainforest Fund. Could you help?
We are seeking 100 churches to raise £100 each  for "Habitat Conservation Projects" .. to show that Christians do care about keeping the variety of life or future generations on this planet.(rather than us all living in concrete and eating soya beans and green algal soup.. my pessimistic view of the  future). .. And to show our gratefulness to God (..however we perceive God..) for having created it.

Well, two weeks ago, not quite a church, but with several churches represented within it, Settle Spinning Club has just raised another £35.. in the same week that the Living Planet Report 2014 declared that
"in the last 40 years, the population sizes of vertebrate species have dropped by half"

"Perhaps," I thought "Perhaps I could write a press release about the £35 that had been raised and link it to the WWF report. (teeny weeny small, I know, I know, I know, but not bad for the little Spinners Group.. What has any other church (that I have heard of) -(that you know of?) done recently?).

"But," I thought, "but, it would be good to have an up to date Biodiversity Leaflet that I could quote - one with with the correct facts about our organisation, its membership subscription fees and, from the 1st Jan next year its new working name "Green Christian".

So   AIM Number 1    was born: :
To produce a new Biodiverstiy Leaflet based on the old one.

It would look respectable and have up to date facts in it (especially our new subscription rate)

It would have its tittle very,very, very high in the front page so that if stacked its name would show above the leaflet in front (See an old display of leaflets:)


There would be a triptych version (A4 folded in 3), because often when I go searching for a place to put leaflets there are only narrow slots available. (An A4 sheet of facts would not be suitable, or legible from a distance.)


So I went ahead and did this.

I had achieved point 0 of this title .. to write a leaflet.
It looked respectable and would  show that the church had a leaflet on biodiversity (whether or not you knew what biodiversity meant)

But how could I make it so that people would actually ......

      ***      PICK -  IT  - UP ????   ***

Read on to Part 2 to find out about audience research to find this out:

Part 2 










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