January 18, 2006
In this Issue:
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!
Dear Friend,
I was flattered to find that our oldest competitor in the political software industry is following in our web-based footsteps.
Six years ago, there wasn't even a name for what we do. Using a web-based database system required a leap of faith in technology that many campaigns weren't ready to make yet.
Back then, our competitors tended to ignore us. But the times, they are a-changing. Our longest-running competitor finally has released its first attempt at a web-based campaign management product.
I wish them luck - developing online software isn't the same as developing desktop software and not as easy as they probably suspect. I prefer our month-to-month contract model, because it forces us to work to keep your business every month. In the same way, I welcome this competition, as it will help keep us on our toes and working to make our products even better.
We've been enhancing a suite of tools that has been developing and evolving - most importantly improving - for nearly six years now. And while they and their clients will be working out the early kinks, we'll continue to enhance our product based on your feedback.
Regardless of what they do, I promise you that we'll remain focused on what we always have been:
- While competitors are juggling online and offline software development, we'll be spending ALL our development time working on our web-based tools - constantly improving them to make your job easier.
- Maintaining our commitment to high quality customer service and support. Around here we have a phrase: "good software is useless if the client don't know how to use it." We will continue to offer unlimited support and training - helping you with any questions you might have.
I am proud that we are the innovation leader in this industry, but I'm even more proud that we've earned the business and trust of so many campaigns. I appreciate your choosing CompleteCampaigns.com, and promise to keep developing our software to meet your needs.
-Ben Katz
Company founder
katz@completecampaigns.com
Hot Tip - The Analyzation Report
Sometimes being on a campaign requires some more complex arithmetic, calculating average contributions per donor per election or how many donors live in a particular zip code or the total amount contributed per category. This great if you have young, right-out-of-high-school intern that is willing to sit down and do this for you. Otherwise, it can lead to a lot of frustration when you're just trying to get a simple number.
The Analyzation report is specifically for finding those numbers. It's a quick an easy way to find information.
Use to find the Following Information:
- Number of Records in the Database
- Total Amount of Contributions
- Total of Donors in your Database
- Total Amount Contributed per Election or Category
- Averages per Donor or Contribution
- Go to Reports
- Select Analyzation Report
- In the Options box, you have the option to group your results. You can group by: State, Record Type, Specific Record Type, and Zip Code or choose Do Not Group. You can also search in any inactive records.
- In the Column box, you can select the different columns that you want to appear in your report. Find the columns that you wish to add and click Add Column.
Type: General: Provides basic analyzation reports
Export Columns:
Record Count: Provides total Count of all your records in the Database.
Total Contributed: Provides total Contributed to your organization. Average Contributed per Person: Provides the average that each individual who has contributed to you organization
Contribution Count: Number of records that have contributed Average per Contribution: What the dollar average of the contributions received
Average per Donor: What the dollar average of all the donors that have contributed to and if they are large donors or small
Donor Count: Number of Donors in the database Type: Total Amount Contributed per Election: Allows you to view total contributions amount for certain elections
Export Columns: Election years that were created in your database
Type: Total Amount Contributed per Category: Allows you to view total contributions per categories
Export Columns: Categories that were created in your database.
- Once you have added all the columns you wish to see in your report, click Generate.
The Analyzation Report is one of our newest features in BackOffice. If there is something you would like to see it calculate, let us know! support@completecampaigns.com.
Focusing Your Campaign through Polling & Focus Groups by Paul M. Fallon
When every fledgling campaign comes into existence, it soon realizes two important things. First, the opposing campaign is not the only competition it faces, and second, that having the best qualified candidate doesnt guarantee success. The primary reasons for both phenomena are essentially the same: it is getting more difficult to reach people. As a result, sometimes the campaign that wins isnt always the one with the best candidate, but is the one with the best message and strategy for communicating it!
Precious dollars, which are getting harder to raise because of more restrictive campaign finance limits, and fragmentation, which has created too many media sources and too little concentration on a single medium or network, both require that successful campaigns be able to precisely identify their target audiences, and the messages that are most suitable for them.
Read more in CompleteCampaigns.com's CampaignGuide.
We're always looking for new content and articles for our CampaignGuide. We'd love to hear from you, since we know that our clients are the most talented people in the business. If you decide to share your expertise with us, we'll include your contact info and a web link to your business with your article. Review our CampaignGuide and please, don't hold back if you have material that needs to be covered!
Please e-mail all submissions to Jessica Wong.
Focus On is our new series of email tutorials. We will show you a few overlooked features in our system. We encourage you to print this document and keep it next to your computer, to follow along easily through the lesson.
In this edition, we show you the ins and outs of the Custom Report Generator - construct queries and design reports like a pro!
Click here to view this month's Focus On.
www.completecampaigns.com
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