I won my first city council campaign last year in Amherst, Ohio, and I’m planning to take my own advice by doing a city-wide lit drop in June/July.  I thought it might be interesting for Killer Campaigning fans to see every single step that I take to write, design, print and distribute my campaign flyers this year.

The thing that I always do when designing campaign literature is settle on a theme, or message, for the piece.  It’s okay to focus on more than one message in your literature, but I strongly suggest that you limit yourself to no more than three topics.

For instance, it’s okay to highlight “Experience, Integrity and Values” in your flier, but don’t expand beyond that.  Illustrate each individual topic with a few sentences of exposition, but don’t get to long-winded.

Remember: the more you write on political campaign mail and literature, the less the voters will read.  I’m always flabbergasted at how many local election candidates cram their campaign literature with as many words as they possibly can.  90 percent of voters are just going to toss these pieces in the trash as soon as they look at them.

So it’s important to state again: Keep the words on your political campaign lit to a bare minimum!  You need to practice brief, powerful writing that gets to the point, highlights only a few concepts, and allows the voters to easily digest your message.

For my 2010 off-year door card, I want to focus on three simple things: 1) thanking the voters for electing me last year; 2) making it clear that I’m proud to have the support of people in every political party; and 3) giving my constituents contact information so that they can reach me.

Rather than a “point and exposition” style, this campaign door card is probably going to be in the form of a short, personal letter to the voters.

I wrote those three ideas on a piece of notebook paper, then sat down to type out a rough draft of the message that I want to appear on my door cards.  Remember, I’m trying to keep it as short and snappy so that I don’t lose the voter’s attention.  Here’s the draft I have now:

Dear Neighbors:

Last year, I walked more than 400 miles and knocked on thousands of doors to introduce myself to the people of Amherst. It was an amazing experience, and it made me appreciate how lucky we are to live in such a wonderful community.

I’m walking the entire city again this year to personally thank the people of Amherst for electing me to City Council. Thanks to the support I received from Democrats, Republicans and Independents, I was honored to be the top vote-getter in the council-at-large race.

As your City Councilman, my #1 priority is keeping Amherst safe and beautiful for our families. Your needs will always be more important to me than politics, and I hope you will call me personally at xxx-xxxx if you have any concerns.

Thanks again for your support! My family is so proud to call Amherst our home . . . and to have you as our neighbors!

As I said, this is is just a rough first draft, and it will likely change as I design the door card and polish the text.  It’s a little too long for my tastes right now, and will probably take up an entire side of the flier, so I may end up shortening it considerably.

My next step will be to start designing the door card layout using Adobe Photoshop, and I’ll cover that in the next post in this series.

Related posts:

1. ‘Do Not Mail’ List: Political Campaign Bulk Mail Opt-Out Registry?
2. Targeted Direct Mail, Postcards, Flyers in Political Campaigns
3. Door-to-Door Political Campaign Literature & Post Office Mailboxes

Most people don’t know this, but the United States Post Office is allowed to fine you if you leave any kind of correspondence inside a mailbox–or even touching a mailbox–that you haven’t paid for postage on.

I found this out the hard way last year during my first campaign for city council.  I was under the impression that the law only stated that you couldn’t put campaign literature inside the mailboxes, so I made a habit of sliding my door cards in between the mailboxes and the house.

This apparently ticked off a particular letter carrier, who yanked all of my literature on his route, threw it away and filed a report with the USPS.  I ended up having to pay a fine that was north of a hundred bucks.

In most cases, placing your political campaign literature on the outside of a mailbox won’t get you into hot water with the United States Post Office, but all it takes is one mailman who’s having a bad day to decide he’s going to report you.  It’s better to just keep your fliers far away from mailboxes and put them in the voter’s door, or under the doormat.

Related posts:

1. Campaign Flyers, Door Cards, Brochures, Literature?
2. Door-to-Door Campaign Tips for Local Election Candidates
3. Political Campaign Yard Sign Post on CandidateSigns.com

That’s just what one city councilwoman in Spokane, Washington would like to see.  According to this article in the Spokesman-Review, Councilwoman Amber Waldref sponsored a nonbinding resolution asking the state Legislature to create a registry that would allow people to decline all bulk mail from the U.S. Post Office . . . including political candidate mailers.

The Spokane City Council overwhelmingly defeated the ‘do not mail’ registry proposal, and several employees from the Spokane Post Office (and owners of local print shops) showed up to voice their opposition to the resolution.  That means that a bulk mail opt-out list won’t be coming to Washington State anytime soon . . . but the idea has been gaining traction in other parts of the country.

So, what do you think?  As a political campaign candidate, consultant or manager, how would your election strategies change if a large segment of your targeted voters were allowed to ‘opt-out’ of receiving bulk campaign mailers?

You’ve heard us say this on Killer Campaigning many times: a well-planned targeted direct mail campaign is one of the most effective things that a political candidate can do to win votes in a local election.  I doubt that a ‘do not mail’ list will ever become reality in any of the 50 states, but it would be a huge game-changer for political parties and candidates if it ever did.

Related posts:

1. Targeted Direct Mail, Postcards, Flyers in Political Campaigns
2. Writing a First Draft for Political Campaign Lit & Mail
3. Democratic & Republican Party Websites List: All 50 States

When you’re that invested in election day of a particular year, it’s often hard to believe that anyone in your community might not know what date they are supposed to vote.

Well, believe it: most people you meet on the political campaign trail in a local election won’t be able to tell you when election day is.  It might be the most important day of the year to you, but the average voter doesn’t have the inclination to keep track of the primary election date or the general election date.

And yes, the dates do change every year.  While general election day is always on a Tuesday in November, it’s not always on the same date of the month.  Here’s the rule: the general election is always held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

That’s not an easy system for the average person to remember, even if they are proud of exercising their civic duty to vote in a local election.  But as a candidate for political office, it’s up to you to make sure that your target voters get reminded as many times as possible when they need to get to the polls and vote.

Here’s a rule I like to follow with all of my political campaign literature, advertising and press releases: if there’s any room at all to do so, always boldly remind your readers when election day is.

If you’re doing your job as a candidate and getting your political campaign materials in the hands of people who are likely to vote for you, then your voters will (hopefully) be slightly better educated about when they should go to the polls.

Although it might start to seem too repetitive to you, make sure that you consistently remind your voters when the election date is.  Even if it only gets a few more of your voters to the polls, that could mean the difference between victory and defeat on election day.

Related posts:

1. Get Out the Vote (GOTV): Increase Election Turnout
2. Primary & Special Election Day: Don’t Forget to Vote!
3. Election Polling & Candidates in Local Political Campaigns

Most candidates in smaller local elections think that building email lists is the kind of stuff that’s limited to huge campaigns with big budgets.  The truth is that there are simple, cheap ways for local candidates to build effective email lists–and I know because I’ve done it for my own campaigns.

The secret that I use to build and manage killer political campaign email lists is called Aweber, and I’m going to tell you exactly how I do it (one requirement: you have to have a campaign website to use this secret email list-building tactic!)

Aweber is a super cheap service that lets you create professional sign up forms for your campaign website, collect the email addresses of voters who visit your site, and send out an automated series of emails to them.

You can see one of those eye-catching Aweber sign up forms touting our newsletter in the sidebar of this website.  Aweber makes it super easy for you to make your own sign up form, choose from tons of styles and colors, and even gives you tips on how to design the form to get more people to enter their email addresses.

Step One: Build & Publicize Your Sign Up Form

Here’s the first secret to using Aweber to win your political campaign: sign up for Aweber and put the form in a prominent place on your site.

Make sure your form invites visitors to sign up for your “official newsletter,” and give them a convincing reason why they should enter their email address (for instance, “sign up for our official newsletter and find out what our campaign is doing before everyone else!”)

You could even entice people to sign up for your newsletter by offering free admission to a future campaign fundraiser or event . . . which will help you both build your voter email list and get more bodies at your fundraiser.

But don’t just wait for voters to find your site online and sign up for your campaign newsletter! You need to be aggressive in marketing your website and newsletter offline, too.  Put your website address in a prominent place on your campaign literature; send out a press release announcing your new campaign email newsletter; send out a targeted mailer inviting people to visit your site and sign up . . . whatever you need to do to increase the number of people on your Aweber list!

Step Two: Create Your New Subscriber Followup Email

Effectively using voter email marketing for your political campaign isn’t just about building a huge email list; it’s also about managing the messages you send to them . . . and Aweber does an amazing job at exactly that.  In fact, as soon as someone signs up for your campaign newsletter, Aweber will automatically send them a “followup” welcome email that you design ahead of time.

At the end of your  followup welcome email and all subsequent emails, make sure that you always include information on how subscribers can donate to your campaign, volunteer to help, and the location of your Twitter and Facebook Fan Page (if you have them).

One of the most important features of your followup welcome email should be a promise that you won’t spam your subscriber list with tons of messages . . . and make sure you keep this promise! Sending out more than one email every few weeks won’t get more people to donate or volunteer for you’re campaign; it will just get them to unsubscribe from your list!

Step Three:  Create Automated Campaign Email Series

While you can use your Aweber campaign email list to keep subscribers up-to-date on breaking news and events–which I encourage–you can also use the program to pre-schedule a series of emails that can be set to send out on specific dates.

This is a great feature for a few reasons: one, because it will allow you to save time by writing your voter emails months ahead of time; and two, because it will let you create a series of emails that can follow a progressive theme.

For instance, let’s say that your campaign is focused on the three themes of lower taxes, safer streets and cleaner neighborhoods.  One effective way to use your Aweber email list would be to send out one newsletter that focuses on lower taxes three months before the election; another that focuses on safer streets two months before the election; and a final newsletter that focuses on cleaner neighborhoods one month before the election.

There are endless variations of this example that you can apply to pre-scheduled email automation for your own campaign; just be sure not to send out too many or you’ll risk ticking off your subscribers!

Step Four: Keep Growing Your Aweber Email List Over Time!

Aweber lets you automatically email every one of the people on your list with the click of a button, so it’s a tool that becomes even more useful as your mailing list grows.  Can you imagine how long it would take to send a separate email to 500 people on a list?

That’s why it’s important to keep developing your Aweber email list . . . even after the election is over.  If you do win your campaign and become an elected official, then your Aweber list can help you easily keep your constituents updated on important news.  And if you do come up short on election day, you can use your list to update supporters on future campaign efforts.

By no means does this post explain all of the great ways you can use Aweber to win your political campaign, but I hope it gives you a good idea of how effective the service is.  Remember: the secret to success with campaign email marketing is to start building your list right away so it gets as large as possible . . . so sign up for Aweber today!

Related posts:

1. Subscribe to the New Killer Campaigning Newsletter
2. Win Free Professional Campaign Signs from BuildASign.com!
3. How to Build a Political Campaign Fundraising Donor List

A printed political campaign disclaimer is simply a sentence included on campaign materials that states what campaign committee paid for its creation, the name of a representative from the campaign, and the address where they can be reached.  While it may seem silly to some first-time local political candidates that they have to include their campaign disclaimer on even the smallest materials, the law is in place to ensure a couple of important things.

The first reason that political campaign disclaimers are important is because they help keep track of all materials that are paid for by a specific campaign committee, and help identify mistakes or violations in campaign finance reports.  Secondly, political campaign disclaimers help identify exactly who funds election materials that might present false, slanderous or inaccurate information about political candidates.

Making sure that your election materials follow the rules when it comes to political campaign disclaimer requirements is pretty easy to do (keep in mind that the election laws may be different in your state, and make sure that you do research to find out the specific campaign disclaimer rules that apply to your race).

On printed materials like yard signs, flyers, brochures, literature, mailers, door cards, post cards, hand cards, newspaper and website ads, and any other political campaign trinkets, you must make sure that your disclaimer is printed clearly.  It doesn’t have to be huge, and in fact it’s often better to make sure that your campaign disclaimers is small and doesn’t take away from your material message.

In my case, I simply have to include “Paid for by Vote Van Treuren, Phil Van Treuren, Candidate, 171 Harris Street, Amherst, OH, 44001″ somewhere on my campaign materials.  This political disclaimer includes the name of my campaign committee, the name of a representative of my campaign (in this case, the candidate himself), and the address of record for the campaign committee.

As I mentioned before, the election ethics laws might be different in your state regarding disclaimers, so please check them out before following my specific advice.

Another option would be to include the name of my campaign treasurer or chairman instead of the candidate’s name on my disclaimer.  In fact, many political candidates make an effort to get a well-known incumbent politician or trusted local figure to sign on as their campaign treasurer, since it will ensure that their name will be included on their disclaimer.

Always ere on the side of caution when it comes to your political disclaimer, and try to include it on any materials that are produced by your campaign if at all possible.  While many local political opponents might not notice or care if you don’t include your disclaimer on one small flier or sign, there are always adversaries out there who will gladly file a campaign ethics violation report against you for the smallest infraction.

Related posts:

1. Political Campaign Logos for Local Election Candidates?
2. Buying Political Campaign Materials: Local is Better
3. Election Polling & Candidates in Local Political Campaigns

I’ve lived in several different places in the United States, and I’ve always gotten a kick out of how a common object’s name can change depending upon which state you visit.  In one city, you wear sneakers to go jogging.  In another, they’re tennis shoes.  In still another, they’re called running shoes.

It seems that political campaign literature (yah, that’s what I call it) has even more unique local monikers than sneakers do.  As a former political consultant and campaign manager, I’ve heard them called everything from handouts to brochures to ten other things; I’ve seen them spelled “fliers” and “flyers” (the grammatically correct spelling is “political campaign fliers” by the way, not that it matters much).

So, what exactly is my point in this article, and how can it help you win your political campaign on election day?  Good question.  If you’re serious about being a great political candidate, then odds are that you’re going to do a lot of research online about how to run for office–and odds are that you’ll see similar methods and strategies called labeled with different names depending on who is advising you.

The most effective grassroots efforts will be called “candidate neighborhood canvassing” by some and “door-to-door campaigning” by others (I call it the later, personally).  “Political donations” and “campaign contributions” are the same thing, too.  So are “political campaign yard signs” and “election lawn signs.”

Get the picture?  The point here is that it doesn’t matter what you call something in political campaigning, as long as you use it effectively and it helps you win your election.

Campaign flyers, brochures, hand cards, door cards, post cards, literature . . . who cares, anyway?  Pick a word and stick with it.  Here’s what’s important: “hard work” is called “hard work” everywhere, and it’s the most important factor in every political campaign, big or small.

Related posts:

1. Door-to-Door Political Campaign Literature & Post Office Mailboxes
2. Buying Political Campaign Candidate Business Cards
3. Door-to-Door Campaign Tips for Local Election Candidates

So here’s my two cents: if done correctly and vigorously, door-to-door campaigning is the single most effective political campaign tool you can employ in a local election.  Targeted direct mail, though, runs a close second, and in some cases is even a more pragmatic method than canvassing neighborhoods.

Remember my mantra: the harder it is to do, the better it works in local political campaigns.  Door-to-door campaigning is very difficult to employ without an army of volunteers.  Visiting every home in your district, while an extremely effective way to earn votes, can take months of tiring dedication.

An effective targeted direct mail campaign, though, can be equally difficult to launch.  Not only because of the research that is needed to create targeted mail lists and design effective mail pieces, postcards and literature.  The real difficulty with direct mail comes from raising the large amounts of money that it takes to get your campaign mail into the hands of the voters.

Of course, door-to-door campaigning and direct mail are two methods that overlap a bit in terms of materials used.  For instance, I always make sure that the direct mail postcards, fliers and literature that I have printed for local campaigning can also be used as a door card to drop at someone’s home.  You’ll usually have excess copies of a flier or postcard even after the mail goes out to voters, and it’s never a good idea to waste any resources.

But let’s get back to the strategies you should use in direct mail and what you should consider when designing and printing your postcards and fliers.  Remember, we are talking about targeted direct mail here.  And that means that each of your mail pieces are designed to target a specific voting bloc or demographic.

Yes, targeted mailers are a good campaigning practice even in the smallest local elections.  Your average inexperienced local candidate will print a single postcard that he uses to drop at every single door in his district and send to every single voter.  While this might work if you’re a shoo-in incumbent or don’t have a serious opponent, it’s not a very smart strategy.

Instead of just printing a single postcard or mailer to send to every single voter in your district, take a moment to consider what message might appeal to the different groups of people in your community who share common interests and backgrounds.  I’m not necessarily talking about political affiliations, either.

Even if you’re running for office in a very small local election with just a couple of thousand voters, you can still divide the electorate into segments that will respond favorably to different messages.  Homeowners who are raising young families, for example.  Female voters, senior citizens, Independent-minded voters, residents who are particularly affected by an issue that is unique to their ward . . . you get the idea.

There’s nothing wrong with still sending out a common mailer to every voter in your district, of course, which includes a generalized campaign message.  But consider taking the extra time to identify voter groups that might respond even more favorably to a postcard or flier that is designed especially with them in mind.

For some candidates, identifying those groups won’t be a problem, but actually figuring out how to create the mail lists to target those voters might be a tall order.  It’s really not as difficult as you might think, but it does take a while to put together.

Using the Excel voter lists that you can obtain from your local board of elections (or by going through your local political party leadership), it’s simple to start organizing voters into lists of males, females, age groups, addresses and so forth.  While it might take a few weeks to categorize a list of thousands of voters, you’ll find that it’s time well-spent in the last month of the campaign when your direct mail starts going out.

The final–and most important–part of implementing your local targeted direct mail campaign is, unfortunately, raising enough money to actually pay for postage.  Political campaign mailers are expensive . . . but there are ways to save money on each mailer.  That’s a topic for another post, and we’ll focus more on fundraising and postage later.

Related posts:

1. ‘Do Not Mail’ List: Political Campaign Bulk Mail Opt-Out Registry?
2. Writing a First Draft for Political Campaign Lit & Mail
3. Campaign Flyers, Door Cards, Brochures, Literature?