The Campaign Workshop Blog

Smart Political Campaigns Should Harness Facebook Live

There are only so many hours in a day, but after knocking on doors and raising money, Facebook Live is something candidates should do on a weekly basis. The ubiquity of live-streaming digital video and Facebook’s drive to increase it on the platform has made it a necessity for campaigns to engage with. Here are some quick tips and a basic explanation of why campaigns should embrace Facebook Live and other online videos. What problem does Facebook Live solve for your campaign?  It can be…

Backlinking Can Help People Find Your Political Campaign Website Faster

So, you’ve built a political campaign website—congrats! Now you want to make sure folks in your community can actually find it. The next steps to build on the momentum for your new political campaign website is to focus on SEO (search engine optimization) and work on a backlinking strategy. The first question you may have is: what is backlinking? One of the most important factors that Google's algorithm considers when determining search results is the types of pages that…

How to Win the Game of Digital GOTV

Digital GOTV over the past couple of cycles has really moved into a must have for every campaign. In the past, GOTV tactics were limited to door-knocking, phone calls, and depending on the level of the campaign, maybe some TV spots. However, in the digital age, there is a whole new set of effective options that you can use to mobilize your supporters on Election Day. Whether you use mobile devices to track canvas crews,…

Cost-Effective Mail Tactics for a Winning GOTV Strategy

There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all political campaign, but there’s one strategic element that no campaign can afford to leave out: GOTV. A strong get-out-the-vote (GOTV) program may get you the handful of votes you need to win your election, whereas failing to make that final push to get voters to the polls may hasten your demise.  While we recommend making GOTV a core element of your campaign plan and budget from the outset, there are plenty of ways to bolster your strategy in…

Talking progressive politics and political technology with Nathaniel Pearlman

Nathaniel Pearlman hosts The Great Battlefield Podcast where he talks to political entrepreneurs and other leaders in the world of progressive politics. He also founded Graphicacy, a company that helps organizations present their data in informative and persuasive ways; Timeplots which sells informative graphic products;…

Donald Green Shares the Latest Insights on Building Effective GOTV Programs 

Donald Green is an expert on campaigns and elections whose research helped pioneer the voter mobilization tactics that serve as conventional wisdom for political campaigns today. In August, Green released the latest edition of his book Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout with his co-author Alan Gerber. Get Out the Vote provides the latest insights from new experiments to help campaigns engage…

Writing a Blog Post is Easier than You Think

This is probably the most meta blog post ever written. A blog post about writing a blog post. However, writing a blog post is not always intuitive for folks. Often, people who are asked to write a blog post for their organization don’t get the direction they need to write an effective post that yields traffic. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect! Become a master blog writer with these tips: All good blogs have the following elements: One headline and multiple subheaders If you notice this post…

Campaign Managers Should Always Be Thinking About Leadership Development to Build Long Term Capacity and Remember That Everyone Has Leadership Skills.

Every good campaign manager is always thinking about how to develop and grow the leadership skills on their team. Everyone dreams of retiring someday, but many campaign managers and organizers often think there will be no one to pass the baton to. We also hear time and again that campaign managers and organizers wish there were more skilled individuals to help with the large workload they are…

Make Sure Your Political Campaign Is Ready to Run Ads on Facebook 

Since the 2016 election, Facebook has been working on making sure that every political campaign that advertises on their platform is verified to do so in the United States and has made their ads more transparent in terms of who is paying for them. This, of course, is a good thing so that we don’t have another situation like we did during the 2016 election where foreign entities tried to interfere. However, it does present a challenge for political campaigns of all sizes. After…

Logistics to Produce a Great Candidate Video

You want to make a great candidate video. But hiring a video crew, even for a few hours, can be expensive. Video shoots also often take longer than expected and it can be hard to manage all the moving pieces. Get organized with some of our tips below and make sure you get the most out of your candidate video shoot. Volunteer Recruitment The first thing you’ll need to make an impactful candidate video is a group of volunteers. Anyone running for office should come across as engaging and warm. The most…

Political Direct Mail Cost: How Do I Know I'm Getting a Good Deal?

How much does political direct mail cost? How can I do it for less? This is a question that is often asked but the answer is not always as clear as it should be. To answer the question, think about cost drivers: printing, mailing and postage costs are the major driving factors when it comes to campaign mail costs. But there is more: the cost of creative, strategy and design can impact the cost per piece of your political mail.  Political direct mail costs vary anywhere from a…

Why and How to Make a Campaign Manager Contract

Whether you are a candidate who decided to run for office and you quickly found out that you couldn’t do it alone or you are a campaign staffer hired to work on a campaign and you want to make sure you know your compensation, having a campaign manager contract or other agreements is critical. As the days get longer and the campaign picks up, it’s easy to forget to formalize the campaign manager and campaign staff roles. Make sure you have a campaign manager contract or campaign staff letter of…

A Campaign Manager Is Worth Every Penny

Running for political office is a daunting task that can be exceedingly taxing without a campaign manager at the helm to help run the show. For first-time candidates in particular, getting a viable campaign off the ground is more than a full-time job. Fundraising call time alone is all-consuming, taking up to three to six hours per day of your time five days a week. With so many moving parts to a campaign, there’s no harm (but rather, lots of value) in investing in a campaign manager. A full-time manager…

Is Your Campaign Team Dysfunctional?

The dynamics within a campaign team can be really stressful, but they don’t have to be. Taking a hard look at your organization and addressing potential dysfunctions is a foundational activity for building a strong, cohesive team. One of our favorite business books is Five Dysfunctions of a Team. It’s an easy book to read, and although it’s a business book, the concepts are incredibly relevant for nonprofits and…

7 Questions with Kelley Dietrich on Campaign Trainings

Kelly Dietrich is the founder and CEO of the National Democratic Training Committee, the largest organization in the country singularly focused on providing free campaign training for Democratic candidates, staff, and local leaders. He’s spent more than twenty years in Democratic politics working campaigns all across the country at every level of government. His specialty is new campaign creation,…