Twelve organizations, including NYSDRA, joined forces in the coordinated New York Dispute Resolution PAC. Based on the participating CDRC's traditional service areas, 34 NY counties were covered in the campaign, a service area representing over 12 million residents. These residents collectively perform searches that fall within the 255 monitored conflict contexts many millions of times over each year, providing ample exposure for PAC organizations and their eclectic messaging, and ample data from which to measure the resonance of those messages. For some organizations and for select services, this messaging extended statewide or even regionally. Campaign partners from Minnesota and Virginia also participated and are represented in the lessons learned detailed throughout.

Modeled after the categorization structure of conflict-related search terms from the Conflict in America research project, PAC ads were structured to assess the performance of thousands of different messages. For example, the New York Peace Institute (organization) was able to create an ad for their service (theme) of mediation (category) that specializes in family issues (sub-category) related to parent-child conflicts (ad group) that was approached from the teen's perspective (sub-ad group) and employed a humorous tone (style). This approach could then be replicated across NYPI's entire programmatic portfolio to suss out which messages worked best for each service and audience.

Using AdWords advanced targeting tools, PAC ads were capable of reaching highly specific and relevant audiences, such as, previous donors, attendees of a CDRC's basic mediation training, or even attorneys who had helped represent parents in Individualized Education Plan (IEP) hearings. By focusing on these micro-targeted audiences rather than broader population-level outreach, the resonance of the related messages and the follow-through of their recipients on the included calls-to-action were significantly increased.

The days of dispute resolution generalists are beyond bygone. The market increasingly rewards depth over breadth. Are you an arbitrator or a restorative practitioner? A parent-child or personal injury mediator? Someone who organizes community forums or corporate compliance trainings? By trying to be all and more, you misjudge the market and your value. Instead, practitioners today are called to specify their specialty; to hone their skills in vertical stacks rather than sprawling horizontals. Thankfully, the landscape is broad and ever-expanding, and choosing a practice area that compliments both interest and ingenuity is increasingly possible.

Knowing one's interests is but the first step. You must also know the interests of your market and how the twain do meet . For example, while the PAC initiative ran ads for nearly every specialty practice area identified above, only those highlighted in orange received substantial interests within the markets PAC ran. Sure, more frequent and higher quality nudges toward those unhighlighted areas may have influenced greater take-up, but the costs—financial and opportunity combined—limit the pursuit of an audience that may ultimately not be real or ready. You learn this through testing and re-testing; feedback and followthrough; gift and grit.

"Conflict is opportunity," proclaims dispute resolution practitioners. To the public which they seek to serve, however, conflict is not opportunity at all. At best, conflict is seen as an unseemly condition to be cautiously avoided; at worst, a hopeless, untangleable crisis full of distress and dread. More broadly, conflict itself may not even be "conflict" for many experiencing its throws. Indeed, in market surveys, a solid third of respondents reported currently experiencing and conflicts at all. They reported plenty of ongoing arguments, fights, and frustrations, but no conflict, per se. Our definitions are not shared, our conflict is not theirs, and the opportunity is not obvious.

The dispute resolution field is well-acquainted with high-conflict, post-dispute, formalized, multi-party, professionally referred, late-stage, long-term cases that meet our self-defined thresholds. Those are the bread and butter of florescently-lit staid conference rooms; of cramped day-of-trial courthouse closets. Where real growth exists, however, is in the new, not the known. Are not our skills as equally suited to low-conflict, pre-dispute disagreements? Cannot we serve self-referred single parties? Is there no value in early-stage, short-term conflicts? And ought we not attend to parties when they ask for help, rather than when we tell them its needed? Isn't it time for a resolution refresh?

Conflict challenges our better angels. It also charges our keyboards with an electric negativity. Seeking help through a search bar reveals our truth in those situations: desperate, mean, hurtful, vengeful. We go to the natural: the negative. To be effectively resonant, conflict professionals must acknowledge this natural truth, not obscure it behind neutral walls or words. To be helpful, professionals must go to the heat. Incorporate the reality, the negativity of prospective clients' momentary truths through the text we use to connect. Encourage movement therefrom, sure. But meet them where they are, not where you want them to end up.

Legalese is a losing proposition in advertising. Yet, many mediator websites contain the all-too-common mountainous walls of text; terms and conditions detailing their credentials, process, and theory. Surprise! Nobody reads those. Conflict professionals need to break through those walls, distilling their message to exactly what's needed: quick content that captures attention and converts interest into action. If they're not piqued by the third sentence, a fourth may not help. If they're not sold by the third paragraph, a fourth is just wasted digital enk. Be concise, captivating, (un)common.

Speaking of walls of text, break that mountain up! Only in the rarest of occasions should a promotional site contain everything (or close thereto) on a single page. If you offer multiple specialty areas, create a separate page for each. If you are targeting multiple audiences, craft a unique message—and page—for each. Organize your concise content into quickly accessible pages that contain your message, a call to action, and a way to immediately connect their interest to your inbox. If you must package it together, consider accordion menus, intra-page navigational links, or other techniques du jour to maximize accessibility and facilitate actionable conversions.

The perfect page doesn't exist. Rid yourself of the burden of needing to design or word one. But don't relinquish your attention once it's published. Use your analytics suite to regularly check-in on site performance, explore how visitors engage your site, discover ways to ease the conversion process. Click over to competitors' sites and learn from them what works and what doesn't. The same goes for ad messaging. Not every message will hit its target and not all on-target messages will work for every audience or service. Explore a range of options and see what works best when, with whom, for what service, and to what effect. Constantly pivot, and Get, Ship, Done!

Don't be afraid of mistakes. We all make them, and only the most cricital among us will find them truly unforgivable. (Those folks are likely not going to be the most fulfilling clients anyway.) In advertising, as with websites, (as with life,) keep things fresh. Be creative and try new messages and mediums. If your slogan is a Great-Uncle Milton quip, or your website looks like one of the very first sites published to that newfangled internet thingy, your audience will make some not so flattering assumptions about your relevance to their very timely needs. Be professional, sure. But not at the expense of everything personal or pleasurable. Be brave. Fall down, then get back up. Enjoy the ride. Have fun. Stay young!