The Campaign Workshop Blog

As a political advertising agency, we work with campaigns and groups all over the country and it never fails that in many conversations, the candidate’s spouse uncle, cousin, works or has worked in advertising.  We sometimes compete with traditional advertising firms and I have had folks ask me the question what is the difference between a political advertising agency vs a traditional ad agency? The answer is a there are lots of differences.

For many campaigns, persuasion will be an important element of their field campaign. Following an ID program, you will want to dispatch your persuasion program. Launching this program is especially important as the election nears as voters become increasingly persuadable. Among the three primary types of field scripts (ID, persuasion, GOTV), GOTV scripts tend to be the longer because you attempt to engage your target in a conversation.

For the majority of campaigns, having a strong voter ID program will be vastly important. That’s because in many small and local elections, the election will really be won or lost by less than 1,000 votes. So making sure you are talking to exactly the right people is absolutely essential.

Running for office or working on a campaign?  Check out The Campaign Worskshop's fifth e-book “Ready, Set, Go! Jumpstart Your Political Campaign. 

As I wrote a couple of years ago, political mailers haven’t gone the way of the dinosaurs – they’re still a very effective method of communication for both persuasion and GOTV efforts. Political mailers may not be as sexy as the world of digital, but here are a few reasons to hang onto mail a while longer.

Much has been said about political email, especially as it grows in popularity. Email is certainly not going anywhere and political email has proven to be an effective tool in both recruiting supporters and raising money for your campaign. It’s important to pay attention to all aspects of your email, but how much attention should be paid to the sender?

In my 20 years working in politics, I have seen a lot of things change. Technology in particular has done a lot to change the way that we communicate with voters. Yet somehow, we in politics have access to more information about our audience than ever before, but our audience engagement is at an all time low.

A lot of people struggle to communicate with an artist to get the design they want for their project. Working with someone outside of your field can sometimes be frustrating for you and the person you’re working with. You may not feel confident in knowing what to ask for, or you may not realize everything that goes into designing something.

We started inbound marketing 3 years ago and now we advise other organizations and companies on how to do it in a fun and impactful way. My best tips for keeping nonprofit content marketing fresh is to get your team and customers involved. Blogging and other forms of content can get old fast if it is just one-person blogging (trust me!)

Anyone with a love of Washington D.C. who works in politics, has been here before: you are stuck in the never-ending vortex of finding political jobs in DC. This post is not going to be liked by everyone, but it lays out the experiences I’ve had through the job-hunting process. Also, if you don’t work in the political world, you may have a different experience in finding political jobs in DC.

Starting a campaign is a huge challenge and will prove to be much different than any other job you've ever had. It is hard work and you don’t get to clock out like you would a regular 9 – 5. Starting a campaign means being fully committed and putting the rest of your life on hold. Below are a few other things that every staffer should know before starting a campaign.

Are you a college student interested in pursuing a career in politics? Do you have absolutely no experience in the field and not a clue where to get it? Fear not! I’m going to walk you through how to begin your journey into politics. The first step is getting a political internship.

Over the summer, I attended a Twitter for Politics event (#twitter4politics) hosted by Twitter for people working in politics in the digital space. In addition to the great breakfast buffet and top-notch swag (#TweetfeetPolkaDots), the speakers had a lot of great insights into the best ways to use Twitter to improve your public profile.