Campaign Planning

• Announcing Your Candidacy
• Developing A Campaign Plan
• Your Basic Plan
• Get Your Opponent to Do Your Opposition Research
• How to Brand your Campaign on Day 1 – NEW
• Making the Decision to Run
• Quality vs. Quantity

1. Try to choose a date when news may be low.
   You don’t want to compete with a local festival or fair, the arrival of some dignitary, a holiday. Weekdays are better than weekends
2. Don’t announce before you have your campaign plan and budget in place.
   You should have at least an outline of how you plan to reach your 50% plus one vote and also how much money you will need to reach that goal.
3. Test your theme and message before you announce.
   Why are you running for this office? What are the important issues in your campaign?
4. Selecting a location to announce is important.
   It should relate to your message and be relevant to your electorate. This is a major photo opportunity for your campaign. Choose the background carefully.
5. Call a press conference to announce.
   You want to get as much coverage to your event as possible.
6. Be on time. You do not want negative press.
7. Have your own photographer.
   If the press doesn’t show, you can provide a press release and a photo to the media.
8. Prepare a press kit.
   The easier you make it for journalists, the better your chance for coverage. Call the press and remind them of the announcement.
9. Make sure you have many supporters present when you make your announcement.
   You want to create excitement and enthusiasm about your campaign.
10. Be certain to inform the power base of your announcement.
    The power base includes: the party, major local organizations, associations, clubs… You want your announcement to be an event. You don’t want to anger or step on the toes of potential supporters. People in your power base don’t want to read about your candidacy in the newspapers. Even if they don’t come, they want to be informed of the event prior to its occurrence. For additional help in your campaign, check out the Asia Pacific Political Resources Directory.

The purpose of developing a Campaign Plan is to outline how you plan to get a 50% plus 1 majority on Election Day. Developing a campaign plan is crucial to your success.

The plan is your roadmap to Election Day victory. It outlines each step in your campaign from the time you decide to run until the polls close on Election Day.

Problems always arise and campaign plans can be altered. What is important is that you have a plan outlining what you will do to win, how and when you will implement your strategy, and finally how much it will cost to.

Before you begin writing your plan, you will already have thought about the following:
A.   Your Campaign theme.
B.   The several issues you will run on
C.   Events to highlight your issues
D.   Profiling your electorate and highlighting the people and areas likely to vote for you.

NEXT STEP – How will you communicate your message to your people and get the 50% plus 1 majority. You can communicate directly with voters by:
1.   going door to door
2.   writing to voters
3.   telephoning voters
4.   social media.

You can communicate indirectly with voters by:
1. yard signs & bumper stickers
2. radio messages
3. television messages
4. internet (both indirect and direct)
5. social media

In order to communicate your message, you need to raise money. Your campaign plan should consist of outlining the various forms of communication and how much they will cost.

In addition, there should be cost estimates for office space, computer and other office equipment and staff.

NEXT STEP – Once you have your written campaign plan, the next step is raise the funds to execute the plan.

HOW TO RAISE MONEY TO FUND THE CAMPAIGN

1. Candidate
2. Family/friends/associates
3. Candidate solicitation in person and by phone
4. Direct Mail
5. Fundraising events

In addition to guiding your campaign, a well thought out plan can help raise money. You will have a good sense of the costs involved in communicating your message. This is important when approaching your family, friends, associates or strangers. One of the first questions will certainly involve campaign costs. With an understanding of the campaign components, you can speak with greater authority and confidence.

In the frenzy of collecting voting records, financial records, and a variety of other information, it’s easy to overlook one critical piece of opposition research. And the best part about it is that your opponent will put it together and deliver it to you for free.

What is it? Constituent letters! One of the first things every challenger should do with opposition research is collect constituent letters from the incumbent.

The process is simple. Have your supporters send letters to the sitting member’s office asking for information on where the member stands on an issue. Each letter should only address one issue and be written by a real constituent.

If you have time, you might even send a set of letters for every issue you think will come up during the campaign (each from a different person, of course). The first simply asks for the member’s position on the issue.

The second letter should clearly communicate that the author disagrees with the incumbent’s position on the specific issue.

The third letter should be written so that it seems like the author shares the incumbent’s position on the issue.

The worst outcome is that you receive consistent responses, and you have good information on how your opponent articulates each issue.

A better outcome is that you receive contradictory responses. Sure, the member will say the letters were written by interns or entry-level staff, but they will still have the member’s signature and that’s what counts. Having signed letters that say different things is great ammunition for the campaign.

The best outcome is that you don’t receive responses. Imagine how much fun you’d have running against an member who doesn’t think it’s important to answer constituent correspondence. Be sure to carefully document when each letter is sent and when the responses are received.

Do not make up names. Do not ask the authors to misrepresent their true beliefs. That allows your opponent to claim entrapment when he gets caught playing both sides.

It’s a simple project, but it will take some work to get it organized. At the end of the day, though, you can’t beat a deal that has your opponent doing your opposition research for you.

If you’re running for office in a larger media market, it will be much more difficult to get your name in the news. The competition for news stories is competitive and if you don’t have a strong editorial angle, the producers and reporters will tune you out.

Likewise, advertising in these larger markets will cost your campaign more money – both on TV and in print. So how do you brand your campaign on day 1 if you don’t have the funds of an incumbent?

Here are three strategies you can take on day one that will help voters understand what you stand for – and who you are at the root.

Press Release Strategy

Press releases are not a media strategy. One of the misnomers with press releases is that they will generate news coverage. News rooms are bombarded with press releases, so unless you have an event that is truly news worthy, don’t bet your campaign’s reputation on a press release.

However, press releases can be very strategic when you consistently punch them out and post them on your campaign website. Over time, it will help your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it will give voters a bigger picture of what you stand for. Voters who go to your website and read up on the issues are also most likely to vote, so your branding will be targeted.

One more thing, you should continually share these press releases with local news. Even if the news outlet doesn’t cover a story on your press release, a continual cycle of press releases will begin to put you on the media’s radar.

Social Media Strategy

Research shows Millennials get their news from social media. This generation is not turning on the local TV newscast, or even picking up a newspaper. Yes, historically younger people are less likely to vote, but Millennials are approaching the age when they do vote. This isn’t a group you should overlook.

Make sure you devote resources to social media, and update these channels daily with new content, viewpoints, quotes, photos, videos or even “live” feeds. If you reliably create content on your different channels, it will pay off. Potential voters will learn about your platform via their news feed; your campaign website will rank higher with the search engines, like Google and Yahoo; you can communicate directly with your potential followers.

And just in case you don’t know it, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram are the major social media channels that should be a part of your branding strategy.

Editorial Strategy

Now that you are reaching younger voters via your social media page, it’s time to reach older voters. The opinion pages in local newspapers can be an effective branding tool to reach senior voters.

The opinion pages are frequently overlooked as a branding strategy for politicians. That’s a calculated mistake, even if it’s an accidental move, because editorial editors look specifically for policy opinions. If you have a strong opinion about a policy you will change or create, make sure you target these editors.

And once your story is published, make sure your campaign is leveraging the editorial on social media. When all three of these strategies are tied together, you will best positioned to tell potential voters why you are the best candidate for the job.

Seeking public office can be an exciting and rewarding experience. It can also play havoc with your personal and professional life. If you are considering running for office, you should take the following test. Answering these tough questions will give you a better perspective on many of the elements involved in making that decision.

The big question is: why do you want to run for office?

Do you have a desire for or interest in public service?
Do you have strong feelings on a number of key issues?
Do you feel there is a need for a change in leadership?
Do you think you can do a better job than the incumbent?
Can you answer the question of why you want to run for office in one sentence?

The following are some factors to consider.

Do you have a strong sense of your own worth and believe in yourself?
Can you ask friends, family, associates for money and other assistance?
Can you withstand criticism and have your personal life closely scrutinized?
How does your family feel about your running for office? Are they 150% behind you?
What will happen to your job while you run? Can you put in the amount of time necessary to win?
Can you face the thought of being defeated?
Have you thought carefully about the amount of stress, expense and exhaustion that are part of political campaigns?

Take a moment and evaluate yourself.

Do you like people?
Are you personable?
Do you like meeting people?
Do you speak well in public?
Can you respond quickly and analyse a situation under pressure?
Can you handle frustration?
Are you in good health?

If you answered YES to the above questions, you are ready to think about the next step in running for office. Campaigns take skill and commitment. There is some luck, but mostly it is hard work.

When you get right down to it, your campaign communication efforts are nothing more than good old fashioned direct marketing. You’re sending a marketing piece to voters asking them to “buy” your candidacy.

Just like in the retail world, the success of that marketing piece isn’t measured by how many people receive it or how well it’s designed. Its success is measured by how many people actually purchased the product it was selling relative to the cost of sending the marketing piece.

Ask any successful direct marketer and they’ll tell you that the #1 key to success is the list they market to. In most cases, there is an inverse relationship between the size of the list and results it gets. The larger the list, the worse the results. The smaller the list, the better the results.

The reason is targeting. The more you can break your lists down, the more you can target your message. The more you can target your message, the better your results will be. The same is true with your campaign.