The majority of political campaign law violations that get candidates into trouble on the on the local level have to do with money and donations.  Most states have specific rules regarding what candidates are allowed to accept from donors and how they should report contributions.  Unfortunately, some local political candidates either don’t know about their state’s campaign ethics laws, or they choose to ignore them.

If you plan on running for office, it’s worth learning as much as you can about your state’s election and campaign laws and how they apply to your particular race.  Short of reading the laws yourself, the best way to do this is to ask advice from other locals with campaign finance and ethics experience: political party leaders, former candidates and elected officials.  Regardless of the size of your community, there are always a few people who know a thing or two about campaign laws, or who can point you in the right direction.

Since accurately reporting contributions and expenses are often the most difficult part of following ethics ethics laws, it’s a good idea to get someone with experience to sign on as your political campaign treasurer.  While laws differ in every state, your treasurer is often allowed to sign campaign checks, take and track donations, complete your campaign finance reports and turn them into the county board of elections.

Surrounding yourself with people who have campaign experience is a great way to make sure that you follow all political campaign and election ethics laws.  Don’t be afraid to ask if you aren’t sure about the proper way to handle a financial issue, since the consequences can be dire if you don’t follow the rules.

Donations and expenditures, though, are not the only things that you should be aware of when reviewing campaign laws.  Requirements for political campaign disclaimers, campaign bank account management and other important elements all vary slightly from state to state, so make sure you brush up before launching your election effort.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that a small campaign law violation will go unnoticed and won’t lead to any consequences.  Even seemingly harmless election ethics violations (or honest mistakes) can be taken advantage of by your opponents, who might be looking for any opportunity to send bad publicity your way.

Taking the extra time to ensure that your political campaign follows your state election laws isn’t just the right thing to do as a candidate; it’s also a good way to cover all of your bases and make sure that your political opponents aren’t given the opportunity to report ethical lapses in your campaign.

Related posts:

1. Political Campaign Disclaimers for Local Election Candidates One common mistake made by new candidates in local elections...
2. Election Strategy: Starting a Political Campaign Committee There is one thing that political candidates in both small...
3. Start a Political Campaign Bank Account: Checking or Savings? If you’re a local election candidate who is running a...

Hello, I love your website and have already every single one of your posts. You emphasize the value of personalization in local campaigns in many of them. Could you spell out exactly the methods you have used to personalize your race. For example, I am interested in knowing how you would personalize direct mail (i.e. examples of the language you include in various types of DM), how you identify a topic for personalization with a voter, etc. The longer the list the better. Pretty much anything on the personalization front that goes beyond simply hand-signing your signature and the address on the envelope (things that all local campaigns should already be doing in my book).

Thanks for the compliments, Nick; it’s good to know the tips we post here are helping you.  You ask a great question, since I do feel that personalizing your campaign is one of the most effective strategies you can use to win a local election.  I plan on introducing some specific personalization strategies in future posts, but I’ll give you some quick examples of methods I’ve used to add the personal touch to campaign materials like direct mail.

First, let’s mention an important point: the larger your district/war/city/county is, the more difficult it will be to effectively practice personalization.  Since adding the personal touch to campaign materials means spending more time on each piece than you normally would, the amount of time you need to do it correctly can end up being enormous.

There’s a reason why statewide and congressional races often employ a mass-production, impersonal strategy: because there simply isn’t enough time in a single year to personalize a campaign that is targeting tens- or hundreds-of-thousands of voters.  While you can personalize these efforts as much as possible by having volunteers call voters in phone banks or knock on doors for you, casting a large net with your literature and message is really unavoidable.

As a local political candidate, you need to determine exactly how much effort you can afford to expend on personalizing your campaign, and when to implement the mass-produced, assembly line approach instead.  If there are 5,000 registered voters in your district, then you could conceivably write a personal card to each one of them if you give yourself several months to do it.

If there are 50,000 voters in your district, however, you would be making a big mistake by spending too much time on that kind of a labor-intensive project.  While you might end up filling out 5,000 cards, that’s only a small percentage of the electorate . . . and that time could be better spent raising money that could pay for several targeted mass mailers.

I’m sure you get my point: while personalization is great to use in a small-to-medium-sized local campaign, it’s not the best strategy in a large one.  The tips I write about here might work for me when I campaign for city council Amherst, Ohio,but they’d  be a huge mistake for someone running an election effort in a much larger city or district.

Micro-Targeting With Targeted Political Campaign Direct Mail

Your question about personalizing direct mail is something that I haven’t covered on Killer Campaigning yet, and it’s an important topic.  By definition, direct mail–or “bulk” mail–can’t really be personalized down to the individual voter; in order to qualify for a lower postage rate, your bulk mailings must all be identical, with no hand-written messages included.  In most cases, you need to send 200 pieces or more to qualify for the bulk mail rate.

In spite of an inability to hand-write messages or make individual pieces unique, you can still personalize political campaign direct mail to a certain degree; it’s called micro-targeting, and it can be extremely effective if done correctly.  By micro-targeting, you add the semblance of a personalization to an otherwise assembly-line strategy.

At its core, micro-targeting is dividing your targeted voters up into the smallest groups possible that still share a common interest, political philosophy, background or environment.  If you do a good job of categorizing voters into the right micro-targeted group, then you should be able to send a specially designed mailer to everyone in the group and still make them feel like it personally speaks to them alone.

In local elections, your micro-targeted groups can be as small as a few hundred people; there might be an issue involving the maintenance of a certain street  that will be of interest to voters in that ward, for example.  In larger races, a micro-targeted voter group can reach into the tens-of-thousands.

Members of groups with political goals are great for micro-targeting; if you are a gun owner, for instance, sending a targeted mailer to every registered member of the NRA in your town to let them know that you share their values would be very effective.

I’ll delve deeper into exactly what methods you can use to build these micro-targeted lists at a later date, but I hope this helps a bit.  Thanks again for the great question . . . it will probably take dozens of future posts to explore it fully!

Related posts:

1. Targeted Direct Mail, Postcards, Flyers in Political Campaigns I’m often asked by political candidates what methods and strategies...
2. Secrets for Winning a Political Campaign: Personalization I’ve worked on many different types of campaigns, from...
3. Online Political Campaigns: The Internet & Local Elections We got a question this week from Darren in Arkansas,...

After their first election experience, many volunteers and paid workers decide that they want to go into a career in political campaign management work, which is terrific.  If you’re the right kind of person for the job, professional political campaign management, fundraising and organizing can be a rewarding career.

But a word of warning to young people thinking of starting a career in politics and election strategy: political campaign management work is not for everyone.  While working on a high-profile campaign can be an unforgettable experience, a full-time job in campaigning is stressful, demanding, and often heartbreaking.  It often involves a significant amount of travel, and political campaign consultants can frequently find themselves without a job due to the unpredictability of elections and the quirkiness of candidates.

Regardless of how hard you work as a campaign manager or how flawless your political candidate is, the possibility of defeat looms in each campaign.  You might do everything right on the campaign trail and have the perfect strategy, but a single event or gaff can derail a campaign quickly.  Those derailments can affect your confidence and your reputation in future campaigns, but no consultant is without them; in fact, some of the most famous and successful political consultants in the country have more defeats than victories under their belts.

When it comes to political campaign management work, you often get none of the glory in a victory and all of the blame in defeat.  Politics is a business of big egos, and many candidates don’t like to admit that they need the help of a professional campaign consultant.  If the campaign is successful, you might find that the candidate thinks he could have won without you; if it is a failure, you might find that he thinks he lost it because of you.

One of the reasons why I ultimately left full-time political campaign work is because of the difficulty it presents to someone who wants to settle down and raise a family.  Travel requirements, job insecurity and unpredictable hours all combine to make campaign field work a decidedly difficult career to have if you want to be a dedicated family person.  There’s a reason why many key players in successful political campaigns go on to take full-time government positions; it’s much more stable and reliable.

If you still want to become a professional campaign manager or consultant–even in the face of the difficulties–then you may have what it takes to be successful in the political campaigning field.  I’m thankful for my experiences on the campaign trail, and I’m sure you’ll look back on yours with appreciation, too.  Always be on the lookout, though, for ways to translate your talent in campaign management to a more reliable, stable and lucrative career!

Related posts:

1. Political Counsultants: Local Campaign & Election Consulting What would professional politicians do without campaign consultants?  Political campaign...
2. How to Build a Great Political Campaign Resume We talk a lot about how to be a great...
3. Political Campaign Team: A Candidate’s “Kitchen Cabinet” As a candidate, you’re going to find that plenty of...

. . . so to get to my point do you think it’s possible, if a candidate in a political campaign has nothing more than a great website, and runs the best online campaign possible, could he or she win with nothing more than using the Internet?  Like for instance, if someone was not able to leave their home could they win a political campaign just from their computer.  Personally I think it is possible myself.

It’s a good question, Darren, although I do wonder how a political candidate who couldn’t leave his home would make it to meetings if he won on election day.  But I digress.

Websites and the Internet have become a much more important aspect of successful political campaigns in recent years, especially with the advent of online social media and fundraising tools.  As a political candidate, having a great online presence can help you raise money, reach more voters, and mobilize grassroots support . . . even in smaller local elections.

I would not, however, want to be the first candidate to test your theory about being able to win a local political campaign by only using the Internet.  While putting together a great online strategy can help tremendously, the fact is that nothing is more important when it comes to winning elections than good old-fashioned shoe leather and elbow grease.

A political candidate website and Internet presence should be used to compliment your other campaign fronts, such as door-to-door efforts and direct mail.  Inviting voters to visit your website and follow your social media profile (Twitter and Facebook, for example) on campaign literature is a great way to get them find out more about your candidacy and your message.  It can give you a “double hit” of publicity, so to speak, if voters who receive your mailers or door cards are interested enough to log on and look you up online.

I also doubt that there is really any way that you could run a political campaign exclusively on the Internet and keep your message from appearing anywhere but online.  How would the voters ever have the opportunity to even find out about you website or social media presence in the first place?  I suppose a candidate could invest in online advertising, local newspaper website banner ads and bulk email lists, but it would be very arduous and expensive to do.

It’s fine to rely on a top-notch Internet presence and online strategy as your local political campaign’s secret weapon, but don’t ignore the more traditional methods of campaigning in the process.  The people who you associate with might get most of their news and information online, but don’t forget that there’s a significant portion of the electorate that still relies on newspapers and word-of-mouth.

Related posts:

1. Using Social Media to Win Your Political Campaign Following on the heels of our recent post about designing...
2. Raise More Political Campaign Money With Minimal Websites Are you a candidate for public office who is thinking...
3. How to Design a Great Political Campaign Website In spite of what some tech-savvy web designers and Internet...

We created the forum to let political consultants, campaign managers and election candidates talk shop about strategies that win elections.  In addition to the political campaigns forum, we’ve also included a political campaign jobs board where interested parties can post and ask about election jobs and campaign work.

Hey, want to do a quick favor for Killer Campaigning?  It would be great if you could help us test the new forum by taking a second to register for a free account and creating a post . . . even if it just says “wow, cool forum!”

If you have any suggestions for new forum group topics, please let us know.  I’m sure the forum will evolve as time goes by and new members help shape the discussions, and we’re looking forward to hearing what you think!

Related posts:

1. Check Out Our New Political Campaign Jobs Board Here’s a cool new addition to Killer Campaigning: our political...
2. WordPress for Political Campaign Candidate Websites We already touched on the more general topic of creating...
3. Celebrating 100 Political Campaign Posts on Killer Campaigning Wow, time really does fly!  It seems like we just...

The reason why is pretty simple: television political campaign commercials are very expensive because they are broadcast across a very large viewership that sometimes numbers in the hundreds of thousands.  If you’re a local candidate, then it’s likely that a large percentage of those viewers won’t even live in your district.  Since the majority of the commercial audience can’t even vote for you, then it equates to a huge waste of money for your political campaign.

Local elections in large cities or counties, however, can benefit from commercials if the broadcast area is contained within your district.  If you’re interested in purchasing political campaign commercial time in your area, it’s best to contact your local cable stations and ask to meet with a representative who can provide you with pricing information.

Many local cable or television stations offer special election season rates for political campaign candidate commercials.  Additionally, cable stations frequently allow you to choose a package of channels where your commercial will appear, so you can focus your advertising on more specific demographics.  A lot of local election candidates choose to run their campaign commercials on local and national cable news stations, since viewers who are interested in the news are usually more reliable voters.

The process of producing a political campaign commercial has become more affordable in recent years, since video recording and editing equipment has become less expensive and easier to use.  I don’t suggest filming and editing your own commercial unless you have the right experience and equipment, but you should be able to find local options that are both cheap and professional.

Just like any other form of mass media advertising, don’t dedicate too much of your political campaign budget toward political candidate television commercials.  While they can be moderately effective and help improve your name recognition and messaging, you can’t win a local election on commercials alone.

Grassroots efforts, direct mail, door-to-door efforts and other forms of advertising are all equally important aspects of a winning political campaign.

Related posts:

1. Online Political Campaigns: The Internet & Local Elections We got a question this week from Darren in Arkansas,...
2. YouTube Political Campaign Videos for Local Elections Until recently, filming and distributing effective political campaign videos was...
3. Local Elections & Political Campaign Newspaper Ads There are many different options when it comes to political...

Political Campaign Website SEO and Keyword Phrases

Search Engine Optimization–or S.E.O. for short–is the art and science of building a website that is more likely to show up in search engine results when web surfers type in relevant searches.  There are two main components of SEO: onpage efforts (stuff you do ON your website) and offpage efforts (stuff you do on OTHER websites).  Both are equally important, but before we talk about them, let’s focus on your targeted keywords first.

As an election candidate, you want to make sure that your political campaign website shows up in the search engine results for a specific subset of web surfers: namely, people in your district who will have the opportunity to vote for you.  When putting together your SEO plan, the first step is to figure out what “keywords” and “keyword phrases” these people will likely be using to search for information about your political race online.

Ranking In Search Engines For Your Own Name

The most obvious keyword phrase that you’ll want your political campaign website to rank highly for in the search engines is your own name.  If people in your district type your name into a Google, Yahoo or Bing search and your site is listed on the third page of results, they will likely never get to your webpage at all.  Virtually no one goes beyond the first page of search engine results when they type in a given keyword phrase.

So, how do you make sure that your political campaign website shows up high in the search engine results for a search on your name?  The first step is to make sure that your domain name–or website address–has your name in it.  My own personal campaign website, www.PhilVanTreuren.com, didn’t take long at all to rank number in the search engines for a query on my name.

If you have a more common name, like “Bob Smith” for example, you aren’t going to be able to get your hands on a domain that consists of your name only.  Instead, consider lengthening it to something like “BobSmithForCouncil.com” or something similar.  Just make sure that your name is spelled out in the domain, since that is a very powerful component that search engine algorithms use to rank sites for given keyword phrases.

One important thing to keep in mind, though: DO NOT make your domain name too long, or it will become confusing for people to remember and could even hurt you in the search results. “BobSmithForClevleandCityCouncil.com” is far too lengthy.

On-Page SEO and Keywords for Political Campaign Websites

Wanting to rank high in the search engine results for a query of your own name is pretty obvious, but how do you define other keyword phrases that voters might use to look for information on your race?  In addition to the candidate’s name, you will want to make sure your site ranks high for terms having to do with your state, county, district or city and the office you are seeking.

When designing a local election candidate’s website, I always try to weave my targeted keyword phrases into the text throughout the site–especially on the homepage.  The inclusion of your targeted keywords in the content of your campaign website is another way to help it naturally rank well in the search engines.

While you should try to write for your readers and NOT for the search engines, make sure that you keep SEO in mind when adding content to your website.  Be sure to mention the name of the office you are seeking, the name of you city or town, and any other relevant phrases that you think people might type when searching for information about your race.

Additionally, when setting the Meta Title and Meta Descriptions for your site, make extra effort to include as many of those targeted keyword phrases there, as well.  A homepage Meta Title that reads something along the lines of “Bob Jones for Cleveland City Council” is great, since it mentions the candidate’s name, the city he is running in, and the position he is running for.

Off-Page SEO and Linkbuilding for Political Campaign Websites

Having a political candidate webpage that is optimized perfectly for the keyword phrases you would like to rank for is great, but it won’t do you much good unless you do some off-page search engine optimization, as well.  Off-page optimization has one very important component: linkbuilding, or obtaining links on other websites that point back to your website.

The more links that are pointing back to your campaign website from other domains, the higher search engines will rank your site for its relevant keyword phrases.  While the average website only has a few external links pointing back at it, older and more popular site can amass tens of thousands of links, which makes for a lot of “link juice” and higher search engine rankings.

You don’t need to worry about getting tens of thousands of external links pointing back at your political campaign website, but you do want to try to get as many as you can.  The “low hanging fruit” of linkbuilding are local web directories, community websites and other online resources that will give you a free link if you provide them with your website information.

Additionally, you can contact local bloggers and request that they link back to your website on theirs.  In order to make the request more appealing, you might want to offer to write a guest post on their blog in which you can link back to your website, or ask if they would be interested in doing an online interview about your campaign.

There are many different ways to build links back to your political campaign site, and with a little work you should be able to get dozens of backlinks within a few weeks.  As your backlinks grow, you will notice your website slowly climb in the search engines for relevant keyword phrases–which will mean more visitors, volunteers, donors and votes for you on election day.

Related posts:

1. WordPress for Political Campaign Candidate Websites We already touched on the more general topic of creating...
2. Raise More Political Campaign Money With Minimal Websites Are you a candidate for public office who is thinking...
3. Political Campaign Website: .com, .org or .net? Naomi writes a question for Killer Campaigning over on our...

It’s true that the average newspaper reader is more likely to vote than someone who doesn’t keep up with the news, which makes political campaign print ads a  more effective buy than billboards.  But  newspaper ads have many of the same problems that campaign billboards have: namely, you’re paying to put your message in front of a lot of people who will never have the opportunity to vote for you in the first place.

Remember: you just can’t beat a good targeted direct mail campaign for laser-focusing your political candidate message to the right people.  By spending the same amount of money on direct mail that you would spend on a print newspaper ad, your efforts will be many times more effective.

The problem with newspaper ads is that they are appealing to many local political candidates for the same reason that billboards are.  I like to call it the “look, it’s me!” effect.  Seeing your name and photo in a newspaper makes you feel good as a political campaign candidate, and makes you feel like your accomplishing something.  Unfortunately, feeling good about your campaign doesn’t win a local election; sound political strategy does.

Don’t get me wrong–if you’re a candidate running in a local election, there’s nothing wrong with buying a few column inches in the local newspaper for some advertising in the final weeks of the campaign.  In fact, if you’ve done a good job of paying adequate attention to grassroots efforts, door-to-door campaigning, direct mail and other essentials, newspaper ads are a legitimate way to spend any extra cash you might have on hand.

But spending a significant chunk of your campaign money on newspaper ads isn’t something I endorse as smart political strategy.  Sure, there are plenty of comfortable, shoo-in incumbent politicians who always blow a big wad of cash on newspaper ads, but they win their elections in spite of this strategy, not because of it.

And a word to the wise: this advice goes for newspaper website banner ads, as well.  These Internet newspaper ads might be cheaper than their print counterparts, but it’s still not a wise way to spend your campaign money.  (If you do decide to drop some funds on a newspaper website ad, make sure that it at least links back to your political campaign website or your Facebook Fan Page.)

Like I said, there’s nothing wrong with devoting a small percentage of your political campaign money to buying newspaper ads.  Just don’t go overboard with it, and make sure the vast majority of your cash goes toward more effective advertising options, like direct mail or door cards.

As the print industry continues to lose its readership and smaller local newspapers start going out of business, the appeal of paper ads will inevitably drop even further in the coming decade.

Related posts:

1. Billboards and Elections: Do They Win Political Campaigns? I’ll be honest with you: I’m not a huge fan...
2. Online Political Campaigns: The Internet & Local Elections We got a question this week from Darren in Arkansas,...
3. Political Campaign TV Commercials for Local Elections Most candidates who are running in smaller local elections simply...

All of our other stats are looking spectacular, as well.  As I posted yesterday, our LinkedIn Group just surged past 100 members, and the Killer Campaigning Facebook Page hit 1,100 fans today.  We have about 875 Twitter followers, and our RSS feed is subscribed to by 115 readers.

As we move forward, we’re planning other great new features on the site for Killer Campaiging fans.  Although we’ve installed a political campaign forum on the site, we still haven’t gotten around to developing and promoting it, and will soon.  Additionally, I hope to start posting more YouTube video tutorials before we reach our 200th post.

Please let us know if you have any suggestions for making Killer Campaigning a better resource for candidates looking for the best campaign strategy advice online.  We’re looking forward to the next hundred posts, and are glad to have you there with us!

Related posts:

1. The Killer Campaigning Facebook Page Hits 1,000 Fans I’m excited this morning to see that the Killer Campaigning...
2. 500 Facebook fans and 600 Twitter followers for Killer Campaigning I’m happy to see today that the Killer Campaigning Facebook...
3. Killer Campaigning Article Featured on JohnChow.com If you get a chance, head over to one of...

If you have a LinkedIn profile and haven’t joined our group yet, please take a moment and become a member.  It’s a great place to meet other professionals around the world who are interested in the art and science of political campaigning.

Personally, I’m still learning the ins-and-outs of LinkedIn and noting the different ways it can be used to help political candidates.  As I wrote in a past post about using LinkedIn for campaigns, it’s a more difficult social media tool to utilize for elections than Facebook or Twitter.

As I get more comfortable with LinkedIn and how to best utilize it in a political campaign, you can be sure that there will be more posts to come about any techniques I figure out.

In the meantime, there are plenty of great LinkedIn networking books out there for you to check out, including my favorite: Linked Working by Lewis Howes.  I had the pleasure of meeting Lewis last year at a networking event, and hs book offers some amazing tips on using LinkedIn.

Do you have any ideas or recommendations about how LinkedIn can be used by political candidates to better their chances of winning on election day?  Leave some comments here on Killer Campaigning and let us know . . . or better yet, join our LinkedIn group and start a conversation about it!

Related posts:

1. The Killer Campaigning Facebook Page Hits 1,000 Fans I’m excited this morning to see that the Killer Campaigning...
2. Candidates Using LinkedIn for Political Campaigns? It’s time to look at another popular social media tool...
3. Using Social Media to Win Your Political Campaign Following on the heels of our recent post about designing...