Part 4 of What on earth is a Rallying Cry?
This is the final part of the ‘what on earth is a Rallying Cry? series. If you missed it, read the introduction to find out why we need Rallying Cries now more than ever. See why a Rallying Cry is so powerful in part 2, and understand the things a Rallying Cry can’t do in part 3.
Here’s the tricky part – there’s no set formula
For years, I’d be explaining the concept of a Rallying Cry to clients, and they would inevitably ask me to show them some examples. And I’ve never been able to definitively say ‘they should follow this structure’. I’m always wary of anyone who promises that you can shoehorn your message into a universal formula like…
[Your USP] + [Your offer] + [your audience] + [Desired state]
Your Rallying Cry will be different to anyone else’s
If you’ve spent time trying to shoehorn what you do into one of these prescriptive formulas, I’m sorry!
But there is good news… there are a couple of things that all great Rallying Cries are – easy to remember and hard to forget. But what does that look like, and why does it work?
Easy to remember
No mental gymnastics
The most effective Rallying Cries are short, with a single focus. Sometimes they feel so simple, they feel obvious. But this is good.
We remember things better when we understand them. And because we’re all busy and distracted (see above) we need something that makes instant sense.
It can be tempting to add long words and extra parts to a Rallying Cry to make it ‘sound better’. But if we make people work hard they’re much less likely to remember it.
Other ways to make it easy to remember
Simple is non-negotiable. But you can also draw on other techniques to help make your message even stickier.
Go unusual or unexpected
Because we both notice (see ‘being remarkable’ above) and remember them more.
Case in point: I couldn’t tell you what happened when I walked up the hill from school drop off last Tuesday. But I still vividly remember my drive/walk home on a March day in 2018. It snowed so heavily, I had to abandon the car and walk home with my then 11-month-old son in knee deep snow.
I could still tell you almost every detail; That I was so thankful I’d not bothered to take my wellies out of the car, that a kind neighbour took me as far as they could in their four-wheel drive Audi A1, or the profound quietness because the snow dulled any sound. Because it was so unexpected (when my childminder called to say come and collect my son, I actually laughed at the idea of that much snow in Cornwall IN MARCH) and unusual, because in the 14 years I’ve lived here, I have never come close to seeing that much snow.
I bet you have various similar stories.
Use metaphor or pictures
By using a reference that already exists in people’s brains, it helps them understand it quicker, and recall it more easily. They can be super helpful to help people recall abstract concepts or complicated explanations.
How an Instagram ad ruined tea (for me)
This Instagram ad ruined tea for me by planting a vivid image in my subconscious. It introduced me to the concept of ‘tea dust’. Basically how most tea companies use the scraps of the good tea, a.k.a. tea dust, instead of the whole leaves that a ‘proper’ tea company uses.
So every time I use a tea bag, the image of dusty tea scraps pops into my head. And if it’s a tea dust kind of tea bag, I don’t really want to drink it. And it explains why I now pay three times as much for tea bags than I used to 🤦♀️
Hard to forget
People never forget how you made them feel.
As the inimitable Maya Angelou wrote:
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou
We want to make people FEEL something. Tapping into someone’s emotions helps them remember it better.
(And obviously we want to make them not feel like poop.)
Watch out for the sustainability trap
Sustainability has an image problem. It’s all about sacrifice and compromise. It’s often a little holier-than-thou. But taking the moral high ground doesn’t work. And quite frankly people are tired of being guilted into trying to minimise their very existence while watching big corporations continue to pollute and exploit at every turn.
If your Rallying Cry does the same it will just blend in with all the others.
Two of my most favourite quotes can help you here:
“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Buckminster Fuller
“Taking the moral high ground doesn’t work. Ethical businesses need to become desirable and sexy as well as deeply trusted”
Mary Portas
What do we do instead? ….
Show them a better future
People are desperate for hope. They are tired of being told off. And tired of feeling like they’re constantly fighting against the tide. If your Rallying Cry can give them hope, it taps into that deep emotional reaction.
Side note: What about fear?
Yes, it’s a powerful motivator. But we’ve been fed too much of it and it has paralysed people into inaction.
The problem with fear is that it sucks the joy out of life. We’ve been conditioned by fear into believing that we have to work harder and buy more stuff in order to live a better life. Except very few people actually become happier when they work and buy more.
That’s not how we do things at Kind Tide.
Joy and hope builds us up, it fills our cup. Fear sucks the joy and drains us of our capacity. And that is not sustainable.
If we want to bring about positive, lasting change, fear is not the way to do it.
Dive deeper:
Part 4b: What now?
Ready to go forth and find your Rallying Cry? Excellent. And conveniently, I have a couple of ways I can help.
Want to know more about the process or work through it yourself?
I’ve got a free email course coming soon that shows you the exact steps we go through to help find your Rallying Cry. Want to join? Ace, you can do that at the bottom of this page (keep scrolling until you see the big coral box!)
If you know you need help to find your Rallying Cry,
Let’s talk about whether I’m the right person to help you find it. Pop an email to [email protected] and we can arrange a time to speak.
Good to know:
- The process takes around a month, but can be as quick as a few weeks.
- It costs £4500
- It’s a mixture of done-with-you and done-for-you – I can’t do this work in a silo.
- You’ll need about 10-15 hours of time to work through the process with me,
and you’ll also need to ask your team and a handful of clients for around 15-20 minutes of time each. - We can also add on copywriting for your website, creds deck or case studies, and train your team on using your new Rallying Cry.
Finally, can I ask a favour?
Would you let me know what you thought of this series? I want it to be as helpful as it can be, so am genuinely up for all and any feedback, good or not-so-good. You can email me at [email protected] or come and find me on LinkedIn.