Some quick advice on communicating science

The paragraph below comes from this week's Nature. It's an excerpt from an interview with Robert Gifford, who co-authored a report from the American Psychological Association on psychology and global climate change.

What five elements make up an effective message?

First, it has to have some urgency. Second, it has to have as much certainty as can be mustered with integrity. Third, there can't be just one message: there must be messages targeted to different groups. Fourth, messages should be framed in positive terms. Evidence from a recent thesis I co-supervised shows that people are less willing to change their behaviour if you tell them they have to make sacrifices. If you tell them they can be in the vanguard, be a hero, be the one that helps -- that works. Fifth, you have to give people the sense that their vote counts and that their effort won't be in vain.

There you have it. The advice comes in the context of communicating about global climate change, but I'm going to paste that paragraph somewhere where I see it frequently, because the advice applies to communicating any message.