Those who have been involved with campaigns on any levels know they are organized chaos for the most part, or like herding cats. Those that are winning campaigns are usually the ones that have a plan, stick to it and are as organized as possible, from chain of command to campaign calendars to goals, to what time the pizza arrives at the campaign office. (Note: the last point is not vitally important to a winning campaign, just for making me happy should I be around your campaign HQs.) The organized campaign brings together the various aspects of a campaign into one cohesive whole. I like to call it a fully integrated approach to campaigning. What is the key to running an integrated campaign?
There are three primary things over which each campaign must have complete control at any given time (which is a stretch as no one anywhere at anytime has ever had 100% complete control over every aspect of a campaign, but roll with me here): Message, Manpower and Money.
The first and possibly the most important aspect of the campaign is the message — and now the heavens part, and angelic choirs break into chorus at the arrival of The Message. But in all seriousness, with no message, there is nothing to campaign for or about. It is critical to know how your message resonates with your voters, i.e. is it a winning message? If your campaign’s message is to increase the cat population in your neighborhood, that is a message, just not a winning one. Sorry. A voter contact system like Voter Gravity allows you to discover what impact your message has on each specific demographic in your district and also allows you to test and tailor your message accordingly.
In light of how important it is to manage your messaging, the second aspect of campaigning becomes even more crucial: managing your manpower. Staff and especially volunteers are the lifeblood of a campaign. You can’t live without them. It is important, however, that you make the most of your volunteers’ time and talents. An integrated system like Voter Gravity allows you to tie messages to regions or demographics and create custom walk and phone bank lists to ensure that your people get to the right places with the right message the quickest way possible. No duplicating your efforts. No more wasting time and resources.
Finally, the third aspect on which all campaigns must focus: money. It is important to easily track every dollar the campaign spends to ensure that you get the most bang for your buck. It’s also important to track donors; when they give, how much they give. This kind of analysis is made easy by tying it in to the rest of your campaign through an integrated platform like Voter Gravity.
Voter Gravity allows you to manage message, manpower and money (Yep, that’s what you call a quadruple alliteration, people) in one place. It allows decision makers to see where they stand on donors, donations, volunteers, goals, message, and survey answers, and gives them the ability to make even better decisions moving forward.
As a note, the need for such integration doesn’t end after the election, and the Voter Gravity team is working on creating a full-fledged CRM software for constituent services after you successfully make it into office. We are dedicated to making your political work easier from the campaign headquarters, to the door of the voter, to post election office and beyond. Integrating your message, manpower and money is key.