Every successful political campaign runs on three big cogs — message, money, and advertising — plus smaller ones that have to turn in sync with them. In this video, political consultant Jay Townsend walks through how to build a compelling message, raise money the right way, spend your advertising budget efficiently, and lean on data and influential supporters to fine-tune it all.
In this video, we’re going to talk about how to run a successful political campaign. We’ll cover the three big cogs in your wheel — your message, your money, and how you advertise it — and then some of the minor cogs that have to run in sync with the big ones.
The most important task in front of you as a candidate is crafting a compelling message. Voters wouldn’t phrase it this way, but if they knew how to ask, this is what they’d want to know: What makes you qualified for the job? How do I know your moral code and notions of right and wrong are in sync with mine? What are you going to do for me, my state, my country, or my community? How do I know I can trust you? And what makes you better than your opponent? Your answers to those five questions are your campaign message. A great message that beats your opponent’s puts you in a strong position; a weak or poorly thought-out message makes winning very difficult.
When your message is great, people want to give you money. If you’re articulating a cause that matters deeply to them and talking about how you’ll fix a problem causing them pain, people tend to either volunteer or reach for their credit card, hoping you’ll put that money to good use winning the election.
If you want to run a successful campaign, get comfortable with the idea that you’re going to have to ask people for money. Candidates often have hang-ups about this, but here’s the fundamental point: you’re not asking for money for yourself, you’re asking friends to help advance a cause. If you don’t believe in your cause enough to ask others to help fund it, rethink what you’re doing.
Start with people you already know — family, relatives, and close friends — for the seed capital to get your campaign off the ground. Some of them may be people of means. To find them, scroll through your mobile contact list and identify people capable of giving, go through your Facebook friends (you’ll likely find names you’d forgotten), and check your LinkedIn connections for past relationships or shared experiences. That’s the place to start, but it won’t cover everything you need.
Beyond your personal circle, look at people who’ve given to past candidates for the same office, and community and staff leaders who are used to donating to political candidates. Visit them, explain why you’re running, and ask them to consider contributing.
Once a well-heeled donor has given to you, treat that gift like a kernel of corn — plant it, fertilize it, water it, keep the weeds away, and it grows into a whole ear of corn. Go back to that donor and say, “Thank you for your investment — do you know anyone else who could do what you did for me?” In essence, you’re asking them to open up their own contact list and help you reach people you don’t know.
That donor can help in a number of ways: calling friends directly to vouch for you, writing letters explaining what they gave and asking others to consider matching part of it, emailing their network, or texting friends. All you need to do is figure out which method they’re most comfortable using.
There are other tried-and-tested fundraising methods: one-to-three-page letters explaining your rationale for running, digital advertising, Facebook advertising, text messages and emails, and organized events. Cocktail parties, where a friend invites 15 to 25 people to their home for a small-dollar fundraiser, are common. Dinner parties work well with well-heeled donors, where one of your better supporters invites other wealthy contacts to spend a couple of hours hearing why you want the job.
Celebrity events are another option — I helped a candidate put one together in Arkansas a while back, with a world champion wrestler as the draw, along with the quarterback from the state’s last championship football game. Between those two stars, the event drew 300 people and raised a substantial amount for the candidate’s re-election campaign. None of these methods work well, though, unless you as the candidate are deeply and personally involved in the fundraising effort.
The third big cog is your advertising strategy. The most basic and cheapest tool is a well-built website — well worded, with flattering pictures, a nice video on the home page for people who prefer video to text, and a donate button placed prominently at the top so people can give quickly.
Beyond that, there’s advertising you have to pay for. Digital advertising has become enormously important — one recent presidential campaign spent $350 million across seven swing states, with $200 million of that devoted to digital advertising alone. Other tried-and-true methods include Facebook advertising, persuasion mail, text messages, emails, TV commercials, and radio commercials. For every advertising dollar, ask what’s the cheapest and most efficient way to reach the voters you need. Evaluate every expenditure that way, and you’ll run an efficient, well-spent advertising campaign.
There are smaller cogs that keep the big ones turning, and just because they’re minor doesn’t mean they’re unimportant. To fine-tune your campaign message, you need to know your market — the voters eligible to vote in your election. That means their partisan affiliation, demographics, voting history, age brackets, ethnicity, race, home values, whether they have children in the household, how many seniors live in your community, and the major employers in your district and the wages they pay. Data is critical to sharpening your message.
Another important cog is support from influential people and opinion leaders — people with a following, whose word carries weight in your community. You want them connecting you to other contributors, because nobody ever wins a campaign without the help of other people. Some voters carry more weight than others, and it’s opinion leaders and influencers who fall into that category. You don’t need all of them, but it’s hard to win without any of them.
Here’s the most important thing I’ll say in this whole video: if this is your first time running, do not try to do all of this by yourself. Get help. Start by talking to people who’ve run in your jurisdiction before, and ask what problems they heard from voters, what worked well in their campaign, and what they’d have done differently. Advice from people who’ve actually been on the ground and succeeded is worth far more than trying to figure it all out alone. You cannot know everything you need to know about running a successful campaign on your first try — bring in people who’ve been there before so you don’t waste time making avoidable mistakes.
Q: What five questions should my campaign message answer?
A: Your message should answer: what makes you qualified for the job, whether your moral code aligns with voters’, what you’ll do for them, why they can trust you, and what makes you better than your opponent. A strong answer to all five is what separates winning messages from losing ones.
Q: Where should I start when raising money for my campaign?
A: Start with people you already know — family, close friends, and relatives — found by scrolling your phone contacts, Facebook friends, and LinkedIn connections. From there, expand to past donors to similar races and community leaders, and use major donors as a starting point to reach their own networks.
Q: What is the “kernel of corn” fundraising technique?
A: It’s the practice of treating an initial donor as a seed for future donations: after they give, you ask them to introduce you to their own network — friends they can call, email, text, or write to on your behalf — multiplying one contribution into many.
Q: How should I decide where to spend my advertising budget?
A: Evaluate every expenditure by asking what’s the cheapest and most efficient way to reach the specific voters you need. Options include your website, digital and Facebook advertising, persuasion mail, texts, emails, TV, and radio — digital advertising in particular has become a major share of modern campaign budgets.
Q: Should a first-time candidate try to run their entire campaign alone?
A: No. First-time candidates should seek advice from people who’ve previously run in their jurisdiction, learning what worked, what didn’t, and what voters were concerned about. Trying to figure everything out alone on a first campaign tends to waste time and money on avoidable mistakes.
Jay Townsend has spent more than 40 years advising candidates at every level of American politics. Browse the full library of free campaign resources at JayTownsend.com or subscribe to Jay’s YouTube channel for new videos every week.
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