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Pat Heffernan

Pat Heffernan — marketing strategist, writer, and founder of Marketing Partners in Burlington, Vermont — writes about strategy, words, and communication to create change.

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2 min read

Avoid Sustainability Language Disconnect: Show Don’t Tell

Signs abound of a growing sustainability language disconnect between marketers’ communications and what consumer and business customers understand,...

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Content Atomization

2 min read

How to make your content work harder: Atomization

Yes, it takes a lot of work to create a stellar piece of content today. And there are no shortcuts. You need to develop the content strategy idea, do...

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1 min read

How to Answer WIIFM or “Do I See Me Now?”

I expect What’s In It For Me (WIIFM), to be crystal clear. And your customers do too.

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Printed brain on a circuit board to illustrate the framing effect

2 min read

Message Framing and Your Brain: Formula for change

If you’re like most change communicators I know, you spend quite a bit of time keeping up on what’s known and what’s new in communication, persuasion...

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3 min read

Paid, Owned, Earned Media: Are You in the Right Place?

You may have heard the terms "paid, owned, earned media" bandied about recently and been curious. You want to know more—understanding where and how...

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2 min read

A 3-Step Guide to Message Triangles

For many years the message triangle has been one of the tools I use most often for clients and for myself. Whenever a major speech, news event or...

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2 min read

Collaboration versus Consultation: What’s the difference?

We were ‘talking shop’ over breakfast recently, as business people are wont to do. After several mentions of ‘collaborative this’ or ‘collaborative...

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4 min read

Forget Saying Climate Change: Words activate frames

When you believe in a cause, it becomes your baby, and one of the hardest things to do is let go of its name. For decades now I have been writing,...

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Changing minds: why repetition and focus matters for changemakers - The wolf you feed wins3.png

3 min read

Message Framing & Your Brain: Why repetition and focus matter

If you are seeking positive change, you know your language choice matters. Your nightmare is to inadvertently use a word that triggers a frame in...

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3 min read

How to Create a Fantastic Infographic for Your Nonprofit

You’ve read the statistics about the power of visuals (especially infographics). You know visual content is more likely to have an impact, to be...

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1 min read

Your Favorite Changemaker Stories: Top 10 Blog Posts 2016

Which Change Conversations blog posts were most popular in calendar year 2016? The numbers tell us what readers liked, and shared, and commented on,...

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3 min read

Crisis Communication Priorities and Protocols

Crisis communication is not something I really want our clients to gain experience with. But no matter what your industry or sector, you have at...

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