A lot of first time candidates wonder how to structure their campaigns. What is the starting point? What are the first steps to take?
Let us start by saying EVERY good campaign is built from the ground up. Every campaign.
Think of your campaign as a pyramid. The base is the broadest and is the foundation. It should be built to last. Therefore, the first step in building your campaign is committing to on-the-ground efforts and that begins with voter ID.
Do you know how many votes you need to win? Do you know where those votes are (Which counties? Which precincts?)?
So step one is to look at the historical voting data in the race you are about to run in. If it took 513 votes to win a precinct you need to win, commit to winning 550 votes or more.
Where do you find those votes?
Well, honestly, inside your CampaignSidekick account. This is exactly why we encourage campaigns to make voter ID and grassroots efforts their #1 priority right out of the gates. Get out the vote work starts on Day 1. You want to know exactly where to find those votes and how you will get them into your column.
Knowing your universe of voters on Day 1 enables you to run an effective and efficient campaign. It will play a role in budgetary decisions when it comes to mail, radio and maybe even TV. It will tell you how many volunteers you need to recruit and how many doors you need to hit to win over the voters you need.
The more granular you make your Electoral Math early on, the greater chance you have of winning. We see a lot of candidates jump into a race without a clear gameplan and then scramble the rest of the campaign to catch up.
So, take some time even before you decided to run. Build your campaign pyramid correctly. Make the base of your entire campaign voter ID and grassroots efforts and then start building up from there.
