Don’t speak to them, speak to who they want to be

In a British study, 98% of participants thought they were part of the nicest 50% of the population.  

It’s clearly impossible for everyone to be the nicest but we tend to overestimate how nice we are because we want to be the nice person even when our actions don’t always match.  

We all want to be generous, but that doesn’t mean we always take action. When we remind people of their aspirational selves, of who they would like to be, they tend to live up to it. 

It’s the same psychology that tells us not to label kids with negative attributes because they’ll live up to what we believe about them. The opposite is true as well. 

So speak to people as if they already donated to you. 

If someone subscribed to your email list or follows you, they already care. 

And they want to be the kind of person that takes action on the things they care about

So speak to their aspirational selves.

Here’s an example from an email sent to people who had not donated yet. 

“You uplift others, seek to give with dignity, and care deeply about issues affecting people you may never meet”

Speak to the kind of person they would like to be. 

And they’ll live up to it by taking action.