Several previous posts have identified tactics you can use to raise awareness of and increase the effectiveness of your advocacy efforts for your issue or project. 

One tactic you may overlook is right in front of you: traditional media. If you know how to get it, coverage on conventional media – like today’s newspaper or tonight’s 10:00 news – can be an extremely valuable tool, both because your message goes to a large audience and because a presence in the media can help establish you as an expert, boost your credibility and incline people to see things your way. 

Previous Tactics Toolbox posts have identified various methods for identifying potential advocates for your issue or project and have explored ways to move them up the “Advocacy Elevator” into individuals who are proactively engaged in improving your likelihood of success. One post explained how using the telephone can help qualify potential advocates and, again, get them to do more to your support your project than they might have otherwise. Today, let’s see what can happen when we knock on their front door. 

You may be inclined to conclude the rise and pervasive use of email long ago has relegated good old U.S. Mail to “has been” status.

Not so fast.