You’re Fired!
Come November 7th you will either have a job as a politician or you and your staff will be, well, fired. Back to your regular lives. Are you prepared for that? Will you get to make the impact you wanted to if you don’t get elected?
“But, wait! I want to win my, fill in the blank here, school board seat, city council, mayor…”
It’s full court press time and here are the things you can do to make a positive impact on your campaign.
1. Canvass, Canvass, Canvass
KNOCK ON DOORS! This is no time to be shy or feel like you are imposing, this is GO time. We’ve covered canvassing in previous posts but this is one of the most effective tactics to use. When someone shakes your hand or that of you supporting volunteers they will remember you. Particularly if your opponent isn’t canvassing.
ASK FOR THEIR VOTE! Many times when canvassers go door to door they only talk about what the candidate will do and forget to ask for the vote. “I appreciate your time Mr. Smith, can we count on your vote for our candidate?”
2. Make those phone calls
Are you using a system that will allow you to easily make phone calls and track the outcome? Was it a “no answer”, “left voicemail”, “disconnected”, “no longer at that number” or “talked to them – yes vote”, “talked to them – no vote” or “talked to them – undecided”.
With the exception of “talked to them – yes vote”, you should call back everyone else, particularly this week, one week before the general election.
By now, the system you are using should easily be able to deliver a report of the people and numbers you need to call so you don’t have to spend time sorting paper or spreadsheets.
3. Run Social Media Ads
This should have been a tactic early on but if you didn’t jump on this bandwagon months ago now is the time to get in there.
When you run your ads you get to pick the budget, $50? $500? $5,000? All depends on how large your voter base is, demographics of your voter pool will determine which channels you use and which audience in those channels you will target.
When you run your ad be sure to include a call to action! Many people make the mistake of running ads but forget to ask for what they want – for the voter to make a commitment to vote for them.
The call to action can be clicking a button or asking for their email address so you can follow up with them on the issues.
4. Emailing Works
Think email marketing is dead? Think again. It’s highly effective. If you have permission to email your constituents you should be emailing them. As with calling, canvassing and ads, there needs to be a clear, concise message coupled with a call to action.
5. Poll Watch
We talked about poll watching in last week’s blog and the importance of that. Having a representative at each polling place can make the difference between winning the election and losing it.
Getting the data of who has voted and who hasn’t is quite valuable on election day. This information allows you to know which doors to knock on, who to call and ask if they need a ride to the polling place or simply sending them a text.
By knowing who to not reach out to is just as important as knowing who to reach out to. If someone has already voted you clearly do not need to spend your time talking with them on election day, when time is of the essence.
Remember, most offices have a minimum number of votes they need to even be voted into office. Which means, even if you run unopposed if you don’t get the minimum number of votes, you still may not win your election.
It’s time to put on your walking shoes, headsets and take a seat at your computer to get the last votes you can get. Using Handraiser software can help you manage all of these tactics from canvassing to email to calling and most important those last few votes using Poll Watch.