Voted Best Web-Based Political Campaign Software 2 Years Running

Keeping Political Campaign Email out of the Junkmail Box

Benjamin A. Katz

Effective communication has always been the key to a successful election campaign and in the electronic age, email has increasingly emerged as an efficient, low-cost medium for doing just that.  Unfortunately, if your campaign staff is not sufficiently aware of the pitfalls posed by spam filters, your carefully crafted email message may simply end up in the intended recipient's Junk Folder.

Email service providers (such as AOL, MSN and Gmail) have been forced by the glut of unwanted bulk email to institute increasingly sophisticated filters on their email systems.  T

Budgeting Your Campaign the Right Way: Building a Business to Go Out of Business

Marty Stone

The budget is the least glamorous, yet most important part of any campaign.  We hear constantly about who’s raised how much but we rarely hear about fundraising’s mirror image – who’s spent how much on what? 

How many times have we seen candidates with fat war chests lose unexpectedly? Sure, the candidate with the most money wins most of the time, but not every time. 

Most of the time when an under funded candidate pulls off an upset, it is not only because that underdog had a better message but also because that candidate spent his or her money mor

Getting the Strong Urge to Run? Get Started Right After Election Day

As we approach yet another Election Day, all politically-minded eyes are focused on this year’s big races.  There are a small number of people, though, who have already begun to look beyond Election Day: next year’s candidates.  For them, while this year’s campaigns are important, the most important campaign, their own, is just beginning. 

Whether you’re just thinking about running for office next year, or you’ve already decided to throw your hat in the ring, you may be asking yourself, “When should I start my campaign?”  The best answer anyone can gi

Effective Speaking for Candidates

Randall P. Whatley

Whether you are participating in a debate, at a community forum or communicating with the media, your most important objective should be to make your point clear and memorable. 

The following are three simple and effective techniques to make your point clear and create sound bites and quotable statements:

1) Speaking well is not necessarily the same as writing well. When speaking, use the verbal colon to draw attention to your main point and create a sound bite.


Example:

You would write,


The important point I want to make is that de

How to Run a Political Campaign

Benjamin A. Katz

Running a political campaign is one of the most challenging and exhausting activities possible.  Running a typical campaign will mean 12+ hour long work days for several months. 

On Election Day, either you win, or you and your entire campaign team are fired.  As you approach the final days of the campaign, this creates a huge amount of stress and pressure for success.

While nothing can eliminate the stress of the countdown to Election Day, the proper organ

Presentation Development

Randall P. Whatley

Audience analysis 

Presentations should always be tailored to your audience. Your knowledge of the audience to which you will speak is an important factor in the success of your presentations. When you understand your audience, their existing knowledge of your topic, and their desires, you can present from their point of view and give examples that relate to their interests. Audiences respond more favorably to presentations they believe are designed for them.

When preparing a presentation, you first need to do an audience analysis by working through the fol