We’re all about helping organizations navigate request for proposal (RFP) processes, and our advocacy RFP template is a great resource for folks who are looking to hire a consultant or vendor.
Fire My Political Consultant, - Is It the Right Time?
Many experienced campaign managers or operatives can recall a bad experience with a political consultant. Perhaps the consultant didn’t deliver what they promised, they were unresponsive, or they didn’t hit deadlines. Depending on how far out you are from Election Day, this can lead to some tough decisions.
Political Consulting Firms - A Step-by-Step Hiring Guide
Picking a political consulting firms is not an easy decision. This is, after all, going to be your largest expenses, so it’s important that you get it right. Hiring the right consultants cannot guarantee you a win but hiring the wrong ones can guarantee you a loss. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to hire a political consulting firm.
In 2013, I visited the headquarters of Zappos and learned about the impact of core values on company culture. None of the firms I had worked at previously had written core values. When I read their core values after my first visit, I was so impressed I brought my whole team at the time back to Las Vegas (see the photo of us above). Over the years we have developed a list of The Campaign Workshop’s core values that align both with the company culture we want to foster and the staff members we want to attract.
*Originally written by Joe Fuld and updated by Elena Veatch 4/3/18
When you get into politics, it’s hard to resist the all too common tunnel vision of focusing only on politics. But be careful – binge watching Veep or The West Wing is not going to help you run a better campaign or organization; nor will reading solely political books.
The fact is, you are running a business. And while we like to think of politics and business as totally separate realms, it’s tough to run any political operation without a Business 101 crash course. So, take a break from the latest Clinton campaign staffer or Obama aide memoir you are probably reading, and check out some of our non-political book recommendations. Below are ten non-political books that will be helpful to any politico running a campaign, a non-profit, or really any operation.
What Is the Difference between a Political Advertising Agency and a Traditional Advertising Agency?
As a political advertising agency, we work with campaigns and groups all over the country and it never fails that in many conversations, the candidate’s spouse uncle, cousin, works or has worked in advertising. We sometimes compete with traditional advertising firms and I have had folks ask me the question what is the difference between a political advertising agency vs a traditional ad agency? The answer is a there are lots of differences.
The USPS is starting to clean up their data and streamline mail entry so that it is not as manual and paper based. One part of this is that companies don’t need to open up permits at every facility location where their mail is verified, and can instead utilize a “Mail Anywhere” service. Entering mail is all being streamlined to a digital process where fewer eyes look at it and fewer hands touch or physically verify.
How Democrats Can Jumpstart Their Campaigns for the Future
Races are heating up, but there are a number of exciting opportunities for Democrats up and down the ticket. Here are some tips to jumpstart your Democratic campaign:
1. Do a thorough self-assessment. Are you ready to run? Does your family support you? Does your community support you? Have you done your politics? These are important questions to ask and know the answer to before you even file to run. If you can confidently answer, “yes” to these questions, you are ready to jumpstart your campaign.
2. Plan, plan, plan! The biggest mistake a candidate can make is failing to create a campaign plan. Your campaign plan should include a vote goal, budget, timeline, and message. Campaigns themselves are living, breathing animals once they heat up, but your campaign plan should pretty much stay the same.
3. Focus on the right stuff. It’s really easy to get caught up in the back and forth of a heated race and allow that to throw you off course. The best Democratic campaigns stay focused on directly communicating their message with targeted voters and turning them out. Period. Everything else is just noise.
4. Do the work. Running for office is hard. Doing what it takes to win is often even harder. Spending hours on the phone, asking for money every single day, is tough. Knocking on every targeted voters door is exhausting. But this is usually what it takes to win. The best way to jumpstart your campaign is to embrace the work and lean into it. You’re probably running because you want to represent your community—use this time to get to know them and ask them to join your campaign.
Make Sure You Have a Back-up Plan for Your Election Direct Mail
On February 13, 2015 the United States Postal Service (USPS) experienced an outage in its Postal One service. To the uninitiated, this is the service that processes mailings and postage payments. All postal documents for mailings are done electronically through this system. Luckily, this didn’t happen back in October, during the height of election season. But realistically, it could happen, and we’re all wondering: what we would do if it did? How would your political direct mail or even election mail, like ballots or voter guides, get out on time if all systems were down?
Political Consulting Advice: Focus on People, Time, and Money
One of the roles I enjoy most is teaching folks how to run for office and run campaigns. Any campaign training we run usually starts with essential political consulting advice on the three key resources of a campaign. The three main resources you have in any campaign are people, time and money. Below are descriptions of each of these three critical campaign resources.
Hal Malchow Tells Us How Political Direct Mail in the Digital Age Is Still Relevant
Last week we released our first ebook: Political Direct Mail In The Digital Age. The book explains why with all the technology we have, political direct mail in the digital age is still relevant. We explain how you should decide on direct mail and targeted communications strategies for political and advocacy campaigns. We also discuss the cost of direct mail, micro-targeting strategies and how to use direct mail for GOTV.
A Political consulting firm comes in a variety of different shapes and sizes. Each undoubtedly has its own strengths, weaknesses and areas of expertise. However, regardless of the medium in which they specialize, there are a few traits that stand out in any good political firm. Below is a general, but crucial list:
Our team is made up of amazing creative, organizational, and political consulting talent committed to achieving political and advocacy goals. We have worked for candidates and causes, big and small, all across the country.
