Effectiveness of Your Communications

The order of effectiveness of public [text] communications with MPs is as follows:

#1 HAND-WRITTEN letter mailed in
#2 Typed letter mailed in
#3 As above, but faxed in
#4 Emailed letter
#5 Emailed form letter
#6 petition signature

From the website of 20/20 Vision, B.C.:

There is a large difference in the attention paid to personal, non-form communications as opposed to canned communications...The most effective means of gaining a great deal of attention from the industry and policymakers are: LETTERS: non-form, personally written, from heads of home district groups and individual constituents.

According to our own research, policymakers and administrative offices are not currently consistent in checking and responding to e-mail. There are not the same systems in place for counting, recording, and responding to e-mail that there are for hand written letters.... We have found that sending a personalized letter and following up with an e-mail message is usually effective. Some policy makers do actually read their own e-mail and will respond personally while other offices let it pile up on computers and delete it when no one is looking. Let the decision makers you contact know that you appreciate and support their having e-mail as an option for contacting them and encourage them to use it.'

Effectiveness is also increased if you forward this action alert and encourage other people to use it! Back to Action Letters