Saturday Mail Delivery
As campaigns well know, the Saturday before Election Day is the last day you can be sure your campaign mail will be delivered on time, with Monday as a back-up just in case. Well, good news, courtesy of the Associated Press…
“The $1.1 trillion budget plan to fund the government contains a provision that will cheer people who like their weekend mail delivery. The measure says six-day delivery would continue, meaning the U.S. Postal Service won’t be able to cut Saturday mail. The provision also says rural mail delivery would continue at current levels.”
How to Maximize Your Website for Donations
“Here are some simple improvements you can make to your campaign website to make it more donation-friendly,” courtesy of the fine folks over at Network for Good…
- Keep it big, bold, and above the fold.
- Take donors directly to your form. (Making them click through several pages of information before they get to the giving form can really crush your online fundraising.)
- Use consistent language for buttons and links.
- Use a home page takeover. (Sometimes your homepage should be a giving page.)
- Show where the money goes.
- Highlight your endorsements.
Also: “Make sure it actually works. You might be surprised how many donation pages fail to collect donations.”
30 Magic Words You Should Be Using
Words mean stuff. And certain words and phrases have proved over time to grab attention, stir emotion and compel action. Here are 30 of them, courtesy of Vertical Response, that you should review before writing any headlines or subject lines for any communications from your campaign – fundraising or voter contact. In fact, I printed out the list and taped it to my wall next to my computer.
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4 Words that Double Persuasion
As a candidate trying to sell a campaign – both to voters and donors – you are in the persuasion business. Which makes you, like it or not, an amateur psychologist. So you need to learn what makes people tick; what makes them take particular actions…such as voting for you or writing you a check. And with that in mind, NeuroscienceMarketing.com has a blog post explaining how to “double your success in persuading people to do as you ask.”
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7 Key Steps to Facebook Growth
I’m not a big “Facebooker,” but I know a lot of candidates who are. So here’s some helpful advice from our friends at Vertical Response to get more out of this social media for your campaign if Facebook is something you’re into.
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Move over Facebook, Welcome to Google+
A growing number of direct response marketing experts have come to the conclusion that Google+ is a far better social media platform for non-profits – including political campaigns – than Facebook.
I’m no expert in Google+ by any means, but I did an interview with a Google+ expert for January’s “House Call Audio CD” interview for Winners Circle members and I’m getting up to speed on it as we speak.
In the meantime, you don’t have to wait for me. Google has an online guide to “help you set up and activate your organization’s G+ page, share high-quality content, grow your audience, and get the most out of Google+.”
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10 Ways to Make Your Campaign Video Go Viral
While I wouldn’t say that having campaign videos on your campaign website are “critical” this election cycle, there’s no doubt that the number of people watching online videos continues to skyrocket. As such, you should seriously consider making campaign videos a significant part of your campaign communications plan.
Of course, your video will be of absolutely no use unless people watch it. So here are 10 “magic” tips, courtesy of Karen X. Cheng, whose video about how she learned how to dance in a year went viral. While the video itself has no political campaign connection, the tips absolutely apply.
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Database Entry Kiss of Death: Mr. & Mrs.
If you are doing any kind of personalization – such as mailings to your voter file or donor file – you need to consider that some women will be highly offended if their first name is omitted and instead are addressed as “Mr. and Mrs. John Doe.” It’s even worse if you get a name and gender completely wrong – such as assuming “Sam” is a man rather than the woman she is.
Kivi Leroux Miller addressed this problem with suggestions on how to fix it way back in 2007…but too many campaigns still haven’t gotten the memo.
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6 Tips to Take Bios from Boring to Brilliant
Depending on the size of your campaign, you may or may not have a campaign staff. But even small campaigns usually have a team of volunteers charged with specific aspects of the operation. As such, it might be a good idea to let outsiders get to know a little bit about your campaign insiders to boost trust.
Here are some excellent tips for how to write about your team in a way that won’t bore visitors to tears.
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Famous Last Words
“Indecision is the emotional digestion of the weak and procrastination is the secret handshake of the Fraternity of the Poor.” – Dan Kennedy