Candidate Training - Phase #2

Finally! It’s time to announce your run for office and transition out of the preparation phase into execution.

Pre-announcement Checklist

Before you press that launch button, here’s a checklist for you to double-check:

• Completed “Know Your Strengths” survey

• Understand rules and requirements for office

• Database is preloaded and ready for prime time

• Press list is complete

• Finalized campaign message and branding

• Written and practiced stump speech

• Infrastructure is up and running and tested

• Preliminary fundraising and vote goals established

• Campaign calendar

• Press release, email announcement, and letters to the editor

Minimum collateral (business cards)

Announcement Day Opportunities

You only get one shot at your announcement day, so you’ll want to make the most of your opportunities. The first way to do that is to make sure you are playing offense. This is your first and best opportunity to define your candidacy. If you don’t do it, either reporters or your opponent will do it for you and that’s not a good place to be.

This is also a great opportunity to create content (photos, videos), generate earned media (news stories), motivate volunteers, and collect donations. Try to have a plan in place to leverage all of those opportunities.

Keep in mind that you have three audiences and it’s best if you can address all three as part of your announcement day strategy. First, the press is always looking for stories and content. The more you can give them, the better your chance will be for earned media. Second, unfamiliar supporters will hear your announcement message. Make it a good introduction by following the guidelines we’ve presented here for elevator and stump speeches. Finally, your supporters will be looking for validation. Be confident and consistent with the vision they’ve signed on to.

Announcement Day Objectives

What exactly are you trying to accomplish on announcement day? The first is to multiply your message. That is to say, generate as much buzz as you can by combining your announcement with letters to the editor, showcasing support from other community leaders, and by sending your announcement to your entire email list.

We mentioned that announcement day is a great opportunity to generate content like photos and videos. The good news about modern campaigns is that social media offers the ability to connect with voters in ways that never were possible before. The bad news is that it requires candidates to be more technically savvy than ever before.

Humans are visual creatures. Our brains are designed to remember faces and we respond accordingly. If your campaign can take advantage of this, it will give your social media presence a major advantage.

The more familiar you are with the following tools of the trade, the more and better content you can generate for your campaign:

• Smartphones

• Photography

• Videography

• Useful Apps

Finally, we’ll sum up this entire topic with a simple bit of advice: Make hay while the sun shines! The reality is that you’ll probably never get as much positive coverage as you will on announcement day so take advantage!

Rapid Response Team

As soon as you announce, you should be prepared to respond to negative comments and/or attacks. Many of these will come via social media and comments on news articles. You can use Google to set up alerts that will automatically email you new online “hits” for your name. Create an alert for your name surrounded by square brackets (e.g. [jon dipietro]), as that will tell Google to match your name exactly. This will help alert you to new online articles or content about your campaign.

It’s also helpful to have a rapid response team of supporters willing to come to your aid and defense online. These volunteers should all be very well-versed in your messaging so that they can respond accurately, respectfully, consistently, and accurately.

Additional Resources

Ebook: Photography and Videography

Once your campaign actually begins, what are some the strategies, priorities, and tactics that should earn your attention?

Infrastructure Priorities

Chances are that if you’re running a local campaign, you won’t have any paid staff. If your campaign budget is under $50k, then you’ll be relying on volunteers. But if your budget is between $50k and $100k, you should consider hiring at least one full-time staffer to manage your budget, your campaign calendar, coordinate events, etc. If your budget is over $100k then you can likely afford to hire multiple campaign staff positions who will work out of a physical campaign office.

Your budget will determine the extent of your other infrastructure spending, as well. We’ve already discussed your website and email communication as being priorities that will deliver some of the highest value.

But it’s equally important to know what NOT to prioritize. Be smart with your decisions by:

• Prioritizing fundraising

• Securing future investment

• Attracting new voters

Communications

How and what your campaign communicates to the press, supporters, and voters should be part of your overall campaign strategy. Your message should be well-defined by now. Why are you running? What is at stake? Why are you the best candidate for the job? Your elevator pitch and stump speech should be ready to go now.

So how do you use these as part of your campaign’s communications strategy?

Working With the Press

We talked about planning your announcement and making the most of the opportunity. Even if you did, that doesn’t mean that everyone heard your message or that the press even covered it. Press outreach should be an ongoing strategy throughout your campaign. If you followed our advice and prepared for announcement day, you should have a healthy amount of content you can repurpose. Photos, quotes, letters to the editor, and your stump speech are all components you can use in order to construct an “In Case You Missed It” message to reporters and supporters alike.

Paid Media

Another way to get your message in front of voters is through paid advertising. There are lots of channels available for this purpose. Unless you have a pretty large budget, television and radio advertising will probably be cost-prohibitive for your campaign. Some other affordable channels to consider include digital advertising and direct mail.

The first thing to know is that while there are lots and lots of different digital advertising networks available to you, we’re going to focus mostly on Facebook. There are two reasons for that. First, it is both the easiest and most flexible platform. Second, it is the most ubiquitous platform to reach your constituents.

If you’re a digital advertising professional, there are very good reasons to use other channels like Google AdWords, Display Network, and YouTube. But they require more work and knowledge up-front and on an ongoing basis than does Facebook. The bottom line is that if you’re going to pick just one digital advertising channel for your campaign, Facebook is almost always the best choice.

If you plan on spending any campaign funds on digital advertising, we recommend you read up on these 7 Facebook Advertising Mistakes Political Candidates Make.

For some great insights into using direct mail in your campaign, refer to the audio of our interview with BJ Perry of Talient Action Group earlier in this article.

Earned Media

There are plenty of opportunities to generate coverage and publicity without paying for it. This is called earned media.

Newspapers have several means for generating earned media. Of course, you can be the subject of a story. Fostering relationships with reporters makes this easier and more likely, naturally. But you can also comment on stories in the online version of the local newspaper. Letters to the editor are another way to generate exposure for your campaign message. Finally, appearing at public events is another way to rub elbows with reporters and provide quotes that appear in stories.

Chances are good that there are local access cable television channels in your city or town, with shows who are always looking for content and guests. Similarly, local radio shows offer opportunities to appear for interviews.

Of course, social media is another channel that can be leveraged to generate earned media. The more you can post interesting (controversial?) content, the greater your chances will be. You can also read about 14 Social Media Mistakes to Avoid In Your Political Campaign.

Fundraising

We’ve written a lot about political fundraising on our blog. So rather than including all of that content in an already lengthy article, we’ll simply link to some of those posts for you to read:

1. Do I Need to Form a Campaign Finance Committee?

2. Making Political Campaign Fundraising Phone Calls

3. Campaign Fundraising Events: Are They Worth the Effort?

4. Don’t Let a Campaign Fundraising Moment Pass You By

Additional Resources

Ebook: Digital Advertising for Political Campaigns

The final stage in your run for political office is to grow enough support to win your election.

Grasstops

The first area you’ll want to focus on is grasstops. These includes coalitions and surrogates who already command a following in your town or state. Surrogates can include political figures, community leaders, business leaders, activists, philanthropists, etc.

Coalitions are groups of people with common interests who have some stake in one or more of your platform issues. Examples include:

• Veterans

• Business leaders

• Educators and parents

• Law enforcement

• Healthcare industry

• Employers

• Sportsmen/women

• Students

Grassroots

Grassroots represent the voters who will ultimately define success or failure for your campaign. There are several techniques (besides the mass communication tactics we’ve already covered) for connecting with grassroots.

The first is going door-to-door and speaking directly with voters. The practicality of this tactic will depend upon the population density of your voting district. If you’re running in a single city ward, this can be an efficient use of your time. But if you’re in a rural area and it will take 5 or 10 minutes to drive between homes, you’ll be spending way too much time traveling and not enough talking. Use your vote goals and campaign calendar to map out the practicality of this technique.

Another way to meet and greet voters is to show up at public gathering spots. Maybe it’s a local country store where people tend to meet on weekends. Maybe it’s church or even the local dump. Find out where social crowds tend to gather and make it a point to show up and have your elevator pitch ready.

Finally, the telephone is your friend. Reach out to your local political party to find out what tools (phone lists, walk lists) are available to candidates. Voter registration lists are also publicly available.

Growing and Using Your Database

Email is going to be one of the most powerful tools at your disposal for communicating with constituents. For that reason, it’s critical to always be building your list. Use online registration tools like Eventbrite for campaign events so you can collect email addresses. Have sign-up forms on your website and Facebook page.

To kick your email game up a notch, use fields in your contact database to identify voters as supporters, detractors, undecided, etc. This way, your campaign can be more efficient by targeting the folks in the middle who are going to decide the election. You don’t have to waste time with people who will or won’t vote for you no matter what you do or say.

This is another good time to mention vote goals. Your contact database is a good tool for tracking progress toward your vote goal. For example, if you think you’ll need 3,000 votes to win and your contact database has 5,000 names and 2,500 of them have been marked as supporters, you’re in great shape!

72-Hour Plan

We’re now three days away from your election and it’s time to initiate your 72-hour plan:

• Days before the election

  • Use your email database!

  • Reach out to supporters

  • Pitch undecided voters

• Night before election

  • Keep making calls

  • Make last-minute pitches

  • Prepare for election day

• Election day

  • Visit polling locations

  • Speak with the press

  • Showcase your enthusiasm

  • GET OUT THE VOTE!

  • Knock on doors (strategically)

• Election night

  • Think about hosting a party

  • Staff every polling location to track results

  • Plan your reaction

  • Prepare for questions from the press

  • Call your opponent

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

– President Theodore Roosevelt

Congratulations! Our mission at Candidate Boot Camp is to democratize democracy but making it easier for citizens like you to run for office. It’s not a small task, so if you’ve run a campaign we salute you – win or lose!

The day after your campaign there are a few things you will want to keep in mind and prepare for.

If It’s Too Close to Call

If the election is close enough for a recount, you’ll need to check with local and/or state officials to understand the process. This is usually an arduous task that can be quite time-consuming. If you have a volunteer (or two or three) who are available to be present for the recount, that will be a great help. Even better if they’re detail-oriented. And even better still if they’re a lawyer!

If You Win OR Lose

Regardless of whether your win or lose your election, there are several things you need to do. First, thank your supporters. People have invested their time, blood, sweat, and/or trust in you and deserve acknowledgment. Second, connect with your opponent. Offer congratulations or concession but either way, be gracious. Finally, preserve your assets. Those mail lists, yard signs, leftover palm cards, etc. will come in hand for your re-election bid!

If You Win

Stay organized! Your constituents have placed a great deal of trust in you and it’s your duty to meet their expectations to the best of your ability. Apply the same organization and discipline to your office that made your campaign successful.