Early in my business career, as an 18-year-old know-it-all, I’d regularly tell my boss – a wonderful man and mentor named Don Brown – all manner of ways to fix this, do that better and improve the overall operation.
To which he one day responded, “Go write it up, because if you haven’t written it down, you haven’t thought it all the way through.”
It was one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever been given.
Odds are you don’t have a written campaign plan. In fact, there’s a good chance you’ve never even SEEN one. Sadly, there’s also a good chance your campaign manager has never seen one either, let alone written one.
Well, let’s hop in the Wayback Machine and fix that.
Way back in 2008, a longtime GOP political strategist named Fred Davis wanted to launch an independent, third-party campaign against then-Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama.
And to raise money for the endeavor, he wrote up a detailed, 54-page campaign plan…which somehow got leaked to the media and was republished in its entirety. And you can still access it…
In short, a professionally-drafted written campaign plan lays out the “path to victory” strategies and tactics for your campaign, which is critical for fundraising.
Obviously, the plan for Mr. Davis’ project is different from yours. But all the essential elements are there. Read through it and use as a template to make sure your plan covers the same bases.
“Swipe” the best ideas without plagiarizing.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. And yes, it can be changed and updated as circumstances warrant. But the simple exercise of putting your thoughts down on paper will help you more than you can imagine.
And even if you’re not a candidate, there are campaigns and consultants who will pay you to do nothing more than write campaign plans if you get good at it. So if you’re looking for a way to break into the “biz,” this isn’t a bad way to start.
P.S. Most campaign videos and commercials suck. They all follow the same template. Only the names are changed. Ominous music, breathless voice-over, staged clips of the candidate walking with their family, platform talking points…ugh.
Now imagine a candidate campaign video produced to look more like THIS.
Talk about a “purple cow”!