Turn a small splash advocacy campaign into a tidal wave using ActionButton

Achieving advocacy success today is all about scale. The difference between waving signs on a corner and getting legislation passed comes down to one thing: turning supporters into advocates. When supporters share your cause with their networks, you don't just reach more people, you reach the right people.

What is ActionButton?

ActionButton makes it simple to embed powerful, interactive engagement tools like polls, petitions, and letter campaigns directly onto your website or blog. You can share on social media or send directly through text or email. Every button is designed for immediate action and easy sharing, so you can grow your supporter list while making an impact. You can spin up a branded button and share it in minutes.

ActionButton also integrates with your NationBuilder nation. Anyone who interacts with your button gets entered into your database, where you can set up automatic triggers to assign point people, start supporters on an email series, assign to path steps, and more. If you don’t have a NationBuilder account, you can still download all the information supplied by your supporters.

Why peer-to-peer advocacy works

When someone shares your petition or letter-writing campaign, it's a personal endorsement. A button shared by a friend is more convincing than a dozen emails from a stranger. Think about the difference between a friend recommending a product versus seeing an advertisement. Social proof goes a long way.

Supporter-led sharing taps into the passion and trust that already exist in personal networks. When someone engages because a friend asked them to, it creates momentum, multiplying the passion your community already feels for your cause. Peer-to-peer sharing reaches communities you can't access on your own, bringing your issue into group chats, DMs, and timelines where real influence lives.

Harnessing the full potential of NationBuilder and ActionButton, including distributed leadership, social capital, and communications tools, advocacy groups experience a 14.5x surge in new signups. Your most powerful messengers aren't ads or algorithms. They're people.

The power of visibility

An obvious but often-overlooked truth: if your call to action isn't seen, it isn't taken. Buttons work best where people are already paying attention. Whether they're embedded mid-article or shared across social media, their strength lies in visibility. Every view is an opportunity to build trust and grow your audience.

actionable, a premium feature of ActionButton's enterprise partnership, has seen this effect firsthand. By placing buttons in high-traffic or contextually relevant spaces like news articles, you meet potential supporters where they are at the moment they're ready to engage.

The partnership with GM, for example, placed buttons within relevant news articles on Refinery29. These buttons saw up to 5% engagement rates—50x normal banner ads!—by applying creative insights in real-time. The campaign also achieved significant brand lift on metrics like awareness, consideration, and favorability. Audiences were more likely to think of GM as an innovative tech brand than an auto brand after engaging with the actionable campaign.

Real-world advocacy success

Take the Beagle Freedom Project, an animal rights group founded in 2004. BFP uses several "urgent take action" pages that highlight the importance of their cause, include ActionButtons for reaching decision makers, and provide tools for supporters to spread the message.

Their page calling out retailer PetSmart for buying animal-tested products includes an informational video and a press kit for passionate supporters to raise further awareness. By embedding buttons where supporters are already engaged with content, they create a cascade of action that multiplies their impact.

Optimize placement & design

A well-placed button isn’t a decoration—it’s a launchpad for your advocacy campaign’s success. Following a few best practices can maximize the impact.

Placement tips

• Mid-blog or article: Catch readers when they’re most engaged. Let your visitors see the content they came for first, then encourage action when they’re ready.
• Landing pages: Make your ask the focal point. Every page on your site should consider your supporter’s journey and lead them to take action.
• Social media: Leverage the full power of network-based action. You can use a high-quality screenshot of the button or the built-in social share prompts.

Alternative placement options

• In your email signature. Every email you send becomes an opportunity to drive action. 

• Community forums or subreddits. If the topic aligns, you can embed your button in a post or include a link in your bio on platforms like Reddit, Instagram, or Discord.

• Event landing pages (NationBuilder, Eventbrite, Splash, etc.) Embed it on a page where people are already signing up or attending—it's a great moment to inspire action.
• Digital press kits or media pages. Add your button to your press materials—journalists and influencers love an easy way to see and share a campaign.

Design tips

• Use contrast and clarity. Your button should stand out. Use your branding colors to stay consistent with your brand identity.
• Keep the copy short, specific, and inspiring. Your want to make sure your community knows exactly what you need them to do. 
• Always preview the mobile experience. Most traffic comes from mobile.

Pro tips for maximum reach

Great content gets clicks. Great placement gets results. For maximum reach in your supporter network and beyond:

• Add a strong, emotionally resonant call to action directly above the button.
  
  
• Follow up with those who take action to keep them engaged.
  
  
• Use analytics to understand where engagement is highest and double down.
  
  
• Ask supporters to share. Don't assume they will.
  
  
• Don’t forget about texting. For supporters who have shared their phone number and consented, SMS and MMS can be extremely useful in getting traction for your cause, almost always outperforming email and social shares.

Conclusion

Your cause deserves more than a small splash. It deserves engaged supporters ready to create real change. The most successful movements of our time don't grow through traditional advertising—they grow through authentic, peer-to-peer connections. When supporters become evangelists, sharing your cause with their trusted networks, you don't just increase your reach. You increase your credibility.

ActionButton removes the barriers between caring and action, making it simple for supporters to engage and even simpler for them to bring others along. Whether you're fighting for policy change, raising awareness, or building a movement from the ground up, the tools exist to change the headlines. 

To learn more about ActionButton combined with a NationBuilder plan, check out the feature page on NationBuilder.com.