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In the business world, a popular phrase is "A strategy is only as good as it's execution." This doesn't however negate the importance of a strategic plan. For advocacy campaigns, it is no different. If you are going to launch a successful advocacy campaign that increases member engagement, retention and even fund raising you have to have a plan.

So I spoke with Michael O'Brien of MOB Advoacy after we were on a panel discussion "How to Turn Public Policy into Membership Gains" for the Chamber of Commerce Executives of Missouri (CCEM). He gave me these 9 steps as a best practice checklist for organizations who are trying to align an advocacy engagement strategy to their current business goals and mission. 

1. Set the goals. Do you want to impact the legislation, inform the public and shape opinion, or build a list of supporters for future actions? How does this legislation tie into your mission and business goals?

2. Define the criteria and guidelines for which legislative topics you are going to research and track to keep your stakeholders informed. 

3. Survey your stakeholders and advocates to learn how soon they want to be notified of potential legislation and which legislative topics are of the highest interest to them. Know what content your stakeholders want to consume.

4. Research and track the bills that will impact your organization, members and stakeholders. Use legislative tracking software to look at past legislation for an idea of what might be introduced in the future, or look to for ideas for sample language from other jurisdictions that you might want to use.

5. List your resources for financial, technology, and human capital. How much are you going to have to spend and where is it going to come from? What tools do you have to help automate to save time? Which partnerships, affiliates and internal relationships do you have? If you are lacking resources, where will they come from?

6. Develop your messaging. What are the key talking points? Draft sample language for letters and emails to be sent from stakeholders to representatives.

7. Segment your audience based on who will be impacted by this legislation and who has expressed interest in this issue.

8. Create the communication plan for online, offline, grassroots, and grass-tops actions. How many emails, which social media channels, and what web pages are needed? Will you host an advocacy day, a flash mob, or a press conference? Who are your grassroots advocates, where are they located and how will you reach them (online, social sites or offline) and who are your top-level legislative influencers? Advocacy works best when it is a combination of activities at multiple levels.

9. Train your team and advocates on the reasons why this legislation is important, coach them on the talking points for each of your segments, and prepare them for what you expect to come.

Remember that your grassroots activities should complement any direct lobbying activities being conducted by your organization. Your direct lobbying activities start once a bill has been introduced, referred, considered and reviewed by committee.  This is when your organization should be directly involved in crafting the legislative language or providing input through your affiliations with trade organizations, civic organizations or political action committees.

Advocacy is an on-going and ever evolving process.  Sometimes it’s proactive - with organizations working to get legislation introduced and passed. Sometimes it is reactive - with organizations trying to change or defeat legislation that would negatively impact it or its stakeholders. 

The good news is that your members want to engage in advocacy. A 2014 M & R Benchmark study showed that advocacy emails have a 625% higher open rate than fund raising or newsletter emails. The question is not whether your members want to engage in advocacy, it is how you will do it.