Key lessons for political consultants, banking early votes, navigating the industry conference season, why campaigns need a strong welcome game.
Inside: Books political operatives should read, campaign industry conference season, falling in love with early voting, how campaigns should welcome people.
⏰ Early Bird deadline for Digital Campaign Summit
The deadline to get an Early Bird ticket to Digital Campaign Summit at MGM National Harbor, MD on May 9 & 10 is fast approaching: Thursday, April 4. Get your ticket before the deadline and save 50%.
Take your place at the digital campaign event of the year, where digital innovation meets political strategy.
1 - What consultants can learn from books about our profession
David Mowery, aka The Chairman, is Founder of Mowery Consulting Group and an avid collector of books about and related to the political consulting profession. He dives into his library to share some of the lessons he thinks operatives can learn from them.
As a consultant, I often get book recommendations that are aimed squarely at my professional background. Case in point, someone recently suggested I read Confessions Of A Political Hitman: My Secret Life of Scandal, Corruption, Hypocrisy and Dirty Attacks That Decide Who Gets Elected (And Who Doesn’t) by Stephen Marks.
Being somewhat of a scholar when it comes to books about campaigns, especially those written by consultants, I immediately searched for it on my library’s app. (Plug for your local library and their ebook app. Mine has helped me immensely during the pandemic). Not available there or via iBooks, I did the next best thing and snagged it from Amazon. When I first broke into the business, I read Raymond Strother’s Falling Up and Ed Rollins’ Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms.
Now, this isn’t a review of Marks’ book. Instead, I wanted to explore what these books can teach us about being a good consultant. What’s the point aside from a peek at an industry we all operate in? Is there anything this prose can tell us about the industry at-large?
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2 - How to maximize your conference strategy
It’s conference season for campaign operatives with industry events galore and the way to make the most of it is to have a plan. Thankfully, Morgan Bonwell of Right Strategies has one that you’re welcome to use.
This is the time of year to put key dates on your calendar to attend events and conferences in order to continue growing your sales pipeline.
Often, political firms allocate a percentage of their marketing budget for the year to attend industry events and use that time to build relationships with those entering the space and grow relationships with existing acquaintances.
If a firm doesn’t maximize its attendance by promoting the event, effectively using the time while at the event, or slacking in follow-ups, the event budget may be all for naught. But if done right, conference attendance can pay off tenfold. Here are five ways to maximize your event attendance…
Psst, we have two key industry events coming up:
Digital Campaign Summit - MGM National Harbor - May 9-10
Political Business Summit - Washington, DC - May 23
3 - How one GOP consultant learned to love banking early votes
C&E’s Editor Sean J. Miller reports on how one Republican consultant leaned into early voting to win a 10-way primary in Florida’s 3rd district in 2020.
Influencer outreach and AI-generated digital content are the outreach tactics that have gotten the most attention as 2024 has gotten underway. But Peterson Thompson insists that campaigns discount traditional field organizing at their own peril.
“I think it’s critical to success, at every level of the ballot,” she said, pointing to how her children’s school reaches out to her. “I get emails from both of my [kids’ schools]. I get follow-up text messages, I get robocalls. If I’m on Zoom at work, I’m missing all of them,” she said. “But if somebody comes to our door, we’re much more likely to answer it.
“So when I even think about what would be the best way to reach me or my wife, that’s the way to do it right now because we’re getting so much just from school and soccer and all those other things out there.”
Why campaigns need a strong welcome game
Ken Mika is the founder of Politicoin.
When you stop by your neighbor’s house and knock on the door, you’re generally greeted with a hello. If you walk into an office, a receptionist will welcome you. So, why aren’t campaigns doing this for supporters?
If someone signs up on your website or makes a donation to your campaign, shouldn’t they immediately be welcomed or thanked? A surprising number of campaigns still meet donors with, well, silence. But these initial interactions with a supporter are crucial to building a long-term relationship. Here are some of the ways that campaigns should be welcoming new supporters into the fold:
Send a welcome email or text.
The front door of your campaign is your website. This should act as an introduction for the constituent. When you give them the option to subscribe or sign up to receive communications from you, you’re opening the door for them.
It’s so important for you, as the campaign, to welcome them into your home. The email/text doesn’t need to be overly complicated. A simple “thank you for joining the team,” and then including your social media links for people to follow and the option to make a donation, is enough.
Send a thank-you-for-donating message.
Donors receive a handful of emails and texts begging for donations everyday. But how many times have you seen a thank-you message for a strong fundraising push or even a thank you for signing a petition?
Nowadays, fundraising processors like WinRed and ActBlue make it extremely easy for an automated thank-you message to be sent. Other companies like Tatango, the SMS software company, have automation that pulls in donors and sends them a thank-you text.
If you aren’t segmenting your donors vs non-donors, that’s a different problem. But, let me repeat, it’s incredibly easy to set up an automated message saying “thank you” for donating.
Segment your list.
When someone signs up to volunteer for your campaign, they aren’t asking to be flooded with fundraising asks. They want to take a larger commitment and physically help your campaign.
Likewise, a person who makes a donation to your campaign is more likely to make another donation compared to someone who hasn’t donated yet. When you run a lead generation campaign, what issue brought that person in?
When having your audience set up, whether email or text, you should know who you’re talking to. If you don’t bother segmenting these people out, you aren’t maximizing their strengths in helping your organization.
Make sure to respond.
While sending out marketing messages or even inviting people to events, they want to feel involved. In doing so, they share their opinions with us, whether good or bad. So when they take the time to share their thoughts with you, it’s only right for us to respond back. Acknowledging that they made a donation, or are coming to an event and saying thank you is all it takes.
So many firms and organizations fail to take this small step, which could make a constituent’s day.
You may have noticed an overarching theme here: customer satisfaction. That’s what can take you from raising a few dollars to thousands. The secret sauce in fundraising is making sure the constituent, donor, or customer is happy with the campaign and can take pride in making a contribution.
Editor’s picks
How disinformation is reshaping political campaigns (CBS)
Fretting about election-year deep fakes, states roll out new rules for AI content (NYT)
Meta kills a crucial transparency tool at the worst possible time (Wired)
Tracking tech company commitments to combat the misuse of AI in elections (Just Security)
Threats against politicans are prevalent. The FEC wants to let campaigns pay for security (Politico)
You never know where it will take you
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This week C&E co-owner and co-publisher Shane Greer is hijacking this section of the newsletter to pitch a book he thinks readers will enjoy.
I’ve long been fascinated by the kind of people drawn to volunteer for political campaigns. The protagonist in Vinson Cunningham’s debut novel Great Expectations is just that, a campaign volunteer. He’s joined the fledgling campaign of a seemingly long shot presidential candidate, never named but clearly 2008 Barack Obama. There’s an autobiographical feel to the book that’s leaves you wondering how much is true fiction and how much is drawn from Cunningham own experience as an Obama volunteer and later staffer. But it’s a fun, fast read that reflects a universal truth: there’s no predicting the twist and turns your life will take after you first dip your toe in the campaign waters.