The Campaign Workshop Blog

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.

Your nonprofit facebook ad will need an image to display on users newsfeeds or right-hand rails. In a platform like Facebook, where viewers are accustomed to scrolling continuously, you’re going to need an image that is arresting enough to stop the scroll. Make sure the photo or illustration you use has a clear focal point that is either intriguing or easily recognizable and relevant to a viewer’s interests.

We had such a great response to our first blog post about innovative political direct mail campaigns that we are back for more. We have found three more creative political direct mail campaigns to inspire your next campaign and get your gears moving. Enjoy!

For campaigns, email is an important and cost effective means of communication. While I am not an email expert and do not have in depth knowledge of open rates, conversions, etc., I have worked with both the MailChimp and Constant Contact. In truth, both MailChimp and Constant Contact are fairly similar services and can both work within the confines of small to mid -sized campaigns. With that said, below is our assessment of which would work better for small campaigns, MailChimp or Constant Contact.

Tuesday night was the memorial service for Ross Bates in DC. It's only fitting that Ross' memorial service started right before the Democratic Presidential primary debate and the WWE Network's showing of WWE NXT.

Ross G. Bates was an original guy. Methodical and quirky, Ross plodded through life forging his own path. He was one of the originators of the California style of direct mail. For those who don't know what that is, the California style was the fusion of design and cutting edge (at that time) targeting. He was an original thinker.
 

If you are looking for a job in advocacy or politics, your search can seem daunting: lots of informational interviews, resumes to send out, and so much more. Staying organized in your search is key. My main tip is to focus on follow up after an interview. This is perhaps one of the most important parts of the job hunt, and something people frequently overlook!

Races are heating up, but there are a number of exciting opportunities for Democrats up and down the ticket. Here are some tips to jumpstart your Democratic campaign:

Building a political email list can be a daunting task, but with a few key tactics, you can increase your supporter base towards your path to victory. If you’re new to running for office, your email list will consist of your friends, family, and contacts you’ve kept through the years. This may be a relatively small list, but over your campaign, you’ll continue to add people to your list. Here’s how.

Candidate recruitment in many places is a lost art form.  Contrary to the popular myth, someone from the DNC does not appear on your doorstep one day out of the blue and proclaim that you should be the next state rep. from Omaha. The majority of candidates who run for office are never formally recruited; they recruit themselves.

On February 13, 2015 the United States Postal Service (USPS) experienced an outage in its Postal One service. To the uninitiated, this is the service that processes mailings and postage payments. All postal documents for mailings are done electronically through this system. Luckily, this didn’t happen back in October, during the height of election season.

When thinking about whether or not you’re ready to run for office, one important step in the process is figuring out who will make up your team. A candidate’s campaign staff is incredibly important in not only making a campaign successful but also more manageable and fun for the candidate and everyone else involved. Obviously, larger campaigns will require a more robust team, but even a small campaign will need a few essential staff members.