How to run and manage a Marketing Campaign for Public Office

How to run and manage a Marketing Campaign for Public Office

Key points that I would like to cover and are imperative to any campaign is

• Donations and Fundraising

• Marketing your position while staying current with the issues

• Having a great online presence.

Donations and Fundraising is key to all campaigns in order to be successful and competitive. Running a successful campaign requires a lot of donors and key events to make those donations flow in. Additionally you should have a safe online donation page on your website, able to take credit card donations immediately and easy. You have to document all your events, then make sure that you can share the experience with all the constitutes that couldn’t make it. Video taping these events and posting them online will show your expert fundraising abilities, while sharing all that you do with the World Wide Web, which increases your chances of winning your election.

Marketing where you stand on key issues is another important part of any political campaign. You have to stick to your guns and let people know were you stand at all times. Especially if there are any new hot topics in the news you have to be right there expressing your opinion through all forms of communication; TV, internet, radio, and of course in person. This is crucial to all campaigns, if you come in 3 weeks after a story breaks you wont look to good. There is a great advantage to the first candidate who speaks out about the different current issues affecting your constituants. The early bird not only gets the worm but they also get the press coverage. Additionally if people are searching for those topics your video,article, and viewpoint will be the first results, getting you in front of voters and increasing your changes of winning your campaign.

Most of you already know that having an awesome online experience and presence is crucial to any political campaign or business. Successful campaigns that have a website, blog, YouTube channel, facebook, twitter, and about 4 other social networking sights, increase the chances of winning ten fold. Of course, if you don’t keep it updated on a daily basis with current issues, positions, and informative videos, your campaign might not survive till Election Day! That’s why the most important part of your campaign is being in front of your constituents as much as possible through web, video, blogs, and nightly news. Don't be shy. You must share with everyone what you stand for and why.

Remember information is the key to all successful campaigns, and I hope this information helped you. If you have any questions or would like to know more please feel free to contact me at www.zipinmedia.com/campaigns.

By: Brian Zippin

Fundraising for your campaigns!

Fundraising for your campaigns!

Build relationships with individuals and have them help you. To find individuals to help your campaign that are most passionate and that will do the most to help you, look to your Community Business Leaders/members. Make a list of Top Recruiters, Top Donors, and Top Fundraisers in your community, write them a message and call them to tell them about your campaign. Writing personal messages to your community members will greatly improve your chances of attracting these key people or organizations to your campaign. Once they decide to join your campaign, your next step is to ask them to donate to the campaign and to tell their friends as well. This can be very effective at jump-starting a campaign. Also during your fundraising events make them fun and memorable to you and your constitutes.

Feature the campaign on every one of your affiliate's causes. Featuring your campaign on affiliate causes is the second step of creating a fundraising campaign – be sure to carefully select every affiliate's cause. Since you are supporting these affiliates their views and what they stand for could effect your campaign process. Additionally, these affiliates could be and organization, a business, or cause for something. These people are some of your best contributors through marketing, donations, or time.

Send regular (once a week at least) bulletins/emails about the campaign. To send a bulletin/email, make sure your personal Facebook Profile is linked to your campaign site. Once your Facebook Profile is linked, you can go to any affiliate cause and contact those members that you feel should help you with your campaign.

Using Videos and Photos

Video and pictures are incredibly powerful motivators for individuals to donate to your fundraising campaign. If you have compelling, inspirational videos about your fundraising campaign, you can post them to your cause and send them in bulletins/emails to cause members while asking them to donate. You can also use the URL at the top of the page to spread the word and give people an easy way to promote your video or spread the photo around Facebook and other social networking sites.

Follow-up about the impact of the campaign, what worked, what didn't, how your affiliates can continue to be involved, and what’s next for the cause. Do this by sending emails to the key members with another message to get out in front of the people. Better yet, ask for input from your cause members and most active supporters and get a discussion going. What worked and what didn't work? Was there a member or group that did not support you correctly or caused problems? Did one of your messages that you sent out not interest the people? Did you contact the right people? Answer these questions and more to make your campaign successful for the next fundraiser.

What NOT To Do

1.Don’t link to anything outside the cause, except perhaps a link to more information in the first bulletin/email.

2.Don’t ask them to do 3 different things in the same bulletin/email. Choose one action you want them to take, and link to that several times in the bulletin/email.

3.Do not use your website’s donate page. Link to your cause’s donate page in the bulletin to take full advantage of the peer-to-peer fundraising aspects of causes as well as the viral effects of donating on Facebook. To get the donation link for your cause, click on the Donate button, then cut-and-copy the URL for that page into your bulletin/email.

4.Do not deviate from the message. For the duration of your fundraising campaign, don’t send bulletins/emails about other campaigns, other news items, or other petitions. Make sure all of your messages somehow tie back to your fundraising campaign.

5.Do not make your bulletins sound like press releases. Keep messages short, personal, and casual. Focus particular attention on the title, which will determine whether or not your members open the bulletin/emails.