If you are a student in my on-line course on how to win an election, you already know why your campaign message is the most important component of your campaign. Today, I’m sharing what those who have enrolled in the course are learning about campaign messaging.
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Absent a compelling campaign message, nothing else you do will matter. It is, for many candidates, their most difficult task. Today I am going to make that task simple and easy.
As you create what I call the narrative arc of your campaign message, think of it as the story you will tell the electorate over the course of a political campaign. Putting it together requires that you first answer a few simple questions.
Why are you running? What threat do you want to stop? What evil do you want to conquer? Who or what is the villain you intend to fight?
Why should voters fear this threat, or evil, or villain? Who or what is the victim? What are the consequences if this evil is not conquered? Who will be denied opportunity because of this evil or threat?
What is the hope you can offer? How will you resolve the threat, fear, or evil that you identified. All stories have a hero, and it is OK if it’s you. Who or what is the hero in your campaign story?
If you are the hero, what about your background, or your experience, or your journey makes you uniquely qualified to fix the problem?
These are the elements of a campaign narrative; they are the elements of any good story.
A threat, evil, villain, fear, victim, hope, opportunity, resolution, a hero.
Once you know the answers to the questions I posed, you are on your way to constructing what we call the narrative arc of your campaign message. In fact, once you know the answers, it’s easy.
If you’d like to know more about my online course, watch my free, 3-part video series on how to win an election.
Political consultant Jay Townsend works with smart, passionate candidates who want to run for office, win elections and make a difference. He has successfully helped candidates learn how to run for the U.S. Senate, how to run for Congress, how to run for Mayor and develop a winning campaign marketing strategy.
How to win an election:
Running for office and knowing how to win an election is a challenge, especially for first time political candidates just learning how to run for office. Discerning the fine points of how to campaign, raise political contributions, and execute a political campaign strategy often requires the help of someone who has served as a political strategist or who has experience as a political consultant.