The document provides best practices for online campaigning, including setting goals, tracking metrics, investing in infrastructure, understanding the audience, making the website interactive, gathering voter information from the website, using imagery, emailing supporters about the website launch, offering an online donation system, making donations easy to find, reminding donors why they should donate, helping donors choose donation amounts, managing email frequency and content, offering opt-in/opt-out of emails, making emails readable, personalizing emails, using earned media, driving traffic to the website, not expecting immediate results from online efforts, using other forms of communication, and saying thank you to donors.
1. Best Practices
By Campaign Guru Ravi Singh
CEO of electionmall.com
where everyday is a campaign
2. Content
Campaign Guru Best Practices
GETTING STARTED
PREPARING YOUR WEBSITE
RAISING MONEY ONLINE
E-MAIL COMMUNICATION
DON’T FORGET
3. YOUR ONLINE CAMPAIGN PLAN
TO RAISE FUNDS, AWARENESS, AND VOTES
Just launching a website is not a complete strategy to reach voters in your district. A candidate’s vision,
message, and experience must be communicated in every aspect. Utilizing the best practices below,
campaigns can maximize their ability online to raise money and build a stronger support base.
4. Getting Started
Know Your Goals – Before your e-mail launch, set clear goals and communicate those goals to your
campaign staff. Know how many voters you need to contact to reach your monetary and election-day
goals, and how many times you will touch each person to gain a donation and a vote. Describe those you
want to contact and what action you want them to take.
Keep Counting – Elections are won by counting votes. You can steer your campaign in the right
direction in the same way. Count everything. Install counters on your site. Measure your results. Count
replies. Track your progress. Refining your campaign strategy is how you stay close to voters. Know what
is working for your campaign and what needs to be changed. Not all campaigns are alike. Using a cookie
cutter strategy will most likely backfire on you.
Invest in Infrastructure –- Defining infrastructure at the beginning of your campaign increases your
ability to win. Make sure you have a bulk e-mail provider to communicate with those who haven’t heard
from you before, and a permission-based system to manage on-going correspondence with your
supporters. Understand the technology available to you and design an infrastructure strategy that fits
your campaign. Learn your vendor’s capabilities, and use them.
Know Your Audience – Use what resources you already have to gather basic demographic
information. Start with your fundraising database. Also, gather as much voter data and contact
information for your regional area as possible, using regional party lists, or voter registration information.
By including a brief pop-up poll, or a more extended survey, you can collect more information to identify
what the key issues are and what voters will get behind. Create separate lists to target voters based on key
issues or expected financial contribution.a variety of candidates since 2000.
Singh, described as the “campaign guru, in a USA Today® article, has spoken this past year promoting
”
eDemocracy at international speaking engagements at the European Union Parliament in Belgium, a
United Nations Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, the Public A-airs Association of Canada in Toronto,
and the Personal Democracy Forum in New York and Madrid, plus numerous academic speeches at
universities abroad. During these presentations Singh has encouraged world leaders to use social media
networking sites and establish dialogues with their grassroots supporters. In 2008 Singh was named a
“Rising Star” by Campaigns and Elections Magazine®. One of the most prestigious honors in politics.
The “Rising Star” award goes to people 35 or under who have already made a signicant mark in political
consulting or advocacy. In 2004, USA Weekend Magazine® named Ravi Singh as one of the “five new
powerbrokers whose sites and bytes may well influence how you cast your ballot come November. ”
Singh, the first-born son of U.S. immigrant parents, began his political journey at age 14 when the US
Armed Forces forbid him to wear his turban in a USA Military Academy.
5. Preparing your
website
Make Your Website Interactive — If you are a dynamic candidate, your website
should not be static. Combining some infrastructure into your communications
strategy cuts down on man hours. Add two forms to your site: an online poll and a
feedback form. Polls will help you track the interest level of your site and give
people a reason to return to view the results. The feedback form communicates that
you’re interested in “hearing” not just in “telling” or “getting. Your feedback form
, ”
should also allow voters to sign up to receive more information about your
campaign, to increase future involvement.
Gather Voter Information – Expand your base: your website should automatically
collect E-mails and Mobile Numbers of those visiting your site; use a “contact”
form, and a poll that requires them to enter
basic information to participate. Voter data usually costs money; don’t waste an
opportunity to capitalize on website traffic. Make sure to add these new supporters
to the appropriate e-mail list.
Use Imagery – Websites have become more and more important to both candidates
and voters alike. People give to people. Giving support to a candidate is emotional
as well as rational. Before you talk about donations, make sure you have faces on
your website. Add fixed-sized photos of people to easily change out every 3-6
weeks. Make them small and colorful representing a variety of faces. Also, make
sure your photo galleries, videos, and recent news section are updated as events
occur on the campaign trail.
E-mail all of your supporters to view your site launch – Even more important, ask
your contacts to tell or email someone else about the site and encourage that
person to visit. Get your supporters excited about educating their friends about
their options on Election Day. Be sure the new site is complete and fully interactive
before launch. (You can’t publicize another site launch just because you’ve redone
the presentation.)
6. Raising Money
Online
Offer an Online Donation System – This is an essential campaign behavior. You
must make donating easy. If people have to call or mail in a check, your campaign
may never see that donation. Whether with a credit card online, a check in the
mail or by purchasing a ticket to an event, donors should be able to contribute
exactly the way they want. Make sure your system is compliant with campaign
finance laws. If you don’t have the resources to build your own secure online
giving option, there are a couple of excellent packages you can purchase at
affordable prices that you can just drop into your website.
Make Your Contribution Page Easy to Find – Don’t try the patience of your poten-
tial donor. Create a recognizable button or link making the donations option
accessible on every website page. Place it in the upper right area of your website.
Also, link directly to your donation page at least twice in each e-mail. Simplify and
be clear about what you are asking on the donations button/link (e.g., Donate,
Join, Membership, Contribute). When asking for money, you must be bold and
direct; people respect honesty.
Remind Your Donor Why He’s Giving – On the giving page, offer one reason why
people should contribute in one sentence or slogan. Keep it personal. It is not
about what an organization needs but what people need. The more pressing the
need, the better your chance is to raise money. (“Help now to raise $2,000 so that
I can communicate my health care plan on Cable TV”). Donors like to feel in con-
trol of what their money is being used for. E-mail communication is an opportu-
nity to build a relationship and to create an online advocate that will do more for
your campaign than just give a check.
Help Donors Decide How Much to Give – Now that you have their attention, pro-
vide pre-set money amounts from which to choose. Don’t lose them here by
making them come up with dollar amounts. Allow people to press their button of
choice to select a donation of $25 - $100 - $500 - $2000 or whatever the range is
for your campaign. Offer a monthly subscription option that will allow a supporter
to give a smaller amount on a monthly basis to make it more affordable.
7. Email
Communication
Never, Never, Ever Spam – You are not selling insurance or a dating service;
respect your voters by taking your e-mails seriously. Online fundraising is about
creating, building and strengthening relationships; not sending messages indis-
criminately just to send them. Sending e-mails in an improper or inconsiderate
fashion can actually isolate you from your voters by teaching them that your
e-mails
aren’t worth reading. Focus each e-mail around a specific subject that applies to
your voters; don’t send multi-topic e-mails. Time each message to target the right
voter at the right time; targeting arrival time of key e-mails keeps voter interest.
Plan and Manage Frequency – Lay out a delivery schedule for your e-mails and
stick to it. Only in the last weeks of a campaign or during a controversy should
you send more than one or two emails per month to supporters. Many e-mail
programs offer the ability to schedule out your entire e-mail campaign months in
advance. Be aware of when to remind voters about Absentee ballots, Early voting,
and Election Day.
Offer Opt-In/Opt-Out Opportunities – Make it easy, even for your supporters, to
subscribe and unsubscribe from your lists. Make sure that your vendor supports
this capability and will track those who unsubscribe. If voters feel it is their choice
to hear from you, they will be more likely to feel a responsibility to read your
e-mails. Supporters will stay with you in thick or thin if you offer them choices,
listen to them and meet their needs.
Make it Attractive and Readable for Everyone – HTML email makes your message
visually attractive and appealing, puts a face to your name, and can incorporate
branding and imagery that matches your website and materials. But remember
that some of your demographic may be using older email programs. Always
embed a plain text version that can be read by all voters.
Personalize – Emails are about building relationships. Make sure that the
recipient’s name appears on the first line of the message: “Dear Marc:” This is the
beauty of technology and why web-based tools lend themselves to an interaction
with democracy. Barack Obama’s e-mails include the recipient’s name in the sub-
ject line of every e-mail, such as “How Matt can help Barack reach today's goals.”
8. Don´t
Forget
Use Earned Media – If you are doing an event with lots of PR, make sure the
media knows the need, the urgency, and the opportunity to give online. This is
VERY important and will help bring in new donors. It is similar to making sure
that your volunteer staff are wearing campaign indentification such as candidate
t-shirts and buttons. Don’t miss this opportunity.
Drive Traffic to your Site – Use online advertising such as google and yahoo key
ad words to help voters find what they’re looking for. Make sure that when voters
search for issues that are important to them, your name, or topics regarding your
local community, that your targeted ads appear. Use this to build awareness,
name ID, and attract volunteers and donations. Make sure to track the metrics on
what ads and issue campaigns generate the best results.
Don't expect immediate results – It takes 6-12 months of effort to get donors and
web visitor prospects comfortable with online giving. Invest your potential voters
in your campaign story, and show them by your communication that you take
their representation seriously. This is a relationship-building process and illus-
trates how a campaign begins from the ground up. Don’t stop building your base
and asking for more support!
Don’t forget other forms of communication – Methods such as Direct Mail, Online
Advertising, and Robo Phone calls also remind people to get out and vote, or
even to donate funds.
An example “Get out the Vote” robo phone call script:
Hello, this is [first and last name of candidate], calling to remind you that early
voting starts tomorrow. Whether you vote now or on [election date], make sure to
research your choices beforehand. I am the only candidate for [office] that has
lived in this community for over two decades, and who understands [hot local
issues] the need for local educational reform and the importance of preserving
our green space with zoning controls. We have seen three terms of inaction with
[opponent name]. Help me move [community name] forward, by casting your
ballot for [candidate name] this election. Thank you, and have a good night.
9. Say Thank You! Whenever you receive a gift online, create a human connection. Follow up every gift with
a thank you email. Some systems will generate this automatically. Every online giver should also receive
a personal phone call as simple as "Just to say thanks." Keep your campaign personal. Saying thanks
means you not only value the gift but the giver. Remember, even your “Thank You” should include details
on continued needs for financial support. Make sure to keep track of donors’ giving history.