When speaking or writing about your campaign, voters and donors really don’t want to hear a bunch of facts and figures or esoteric debating points of philosophical principle.
“People give from the dictates of their hearts,” writes fundraising expert Jeff Brooks. “If your fundraising is based on facts, figures, and amazing arguments for the importance of your cause, you will be left high and dry, no matter which donors you're connecting with.”
“Never expect ‘logic’ to win the day,” adds copywriter John Carlton.
No one wants to read that “the latest economic crime and fraud survey of 1,432 business executives found that 10.8 percent of adults in the United States, an estimated 25.6 million people, were victims of fraud in the last 24 months.”
Makes their eyes glaze over.
They want to hear stories. Real-life, genuine stories about how you’re going to help them.
Tell the story of just ONE person who was the victim of some scam and what you’ve done, or would do, to protect voters from such fraud if elected.
But in case you’re not a master story teller, here’s a quick tip to help you develop them: Start with the moral of the story…and then work back.
For example: Say you’re a conservative who is running on a limited government platform. Start with the Reaganesque…
“And the moral of the story is, government is not the solution to our problems; government is the problem.”
Now go find an example that fits the moral of that story – either your own story or that of someone else – and you’re on your way to a MUCH better speech, column, blog post or fundraising letter.
Ending on a cheerful note…
Congrats and a shoutout to Campaign Hot Tips subscriber Ben Keathley, who won his GOP primary in August for a State House seat (District 101) in Missouri with 55% of the vote, and went on to win in the November general election with 53% of the vote.
I’ll bet HE has some stories to tell!