Here’s today’s tip: Effective door-to-door campaigns are meticulously planned and methodically executed.
If there’s one area of campaigns where the majority of my experience lies, it’s the ground game. Knocking doors, recruiting volunteers and calling voters. It’s where most campaigns live or die. Their ability to navigate the logistical hurdles and and tactical setbacks dog make it a difficult area to play.
Your door to door campaign should be considered among your earliest strategic discussions and be a central focus of your campaign. As with all campaign activity, start with the close of polling places on election day and work backwards. Plan your GOTV, then your Persuasion phase and finally Identification.
In each phase, figure your voter touch goals and how many contacts are needed (at an average of 30% door open rate) in order to reach them. By estimating that your canvassers will hit an average of 15 houses per hour, that will tell you how many man hours you need. When broken down by week through the campaign, you’ll quickly see how many man hours you need on a weekly basis to hit your targets.
Based on your messaging and research, write your canvassing scripts and determine what data points you want to collect from voter conversations.
Identify and train on a strong software platform that will give you flexible options for targeting, deployment and tracking for your team. I recommend Campaign Sidekick.
Finally, start recruiting, training and fielding your team. You’ve got a lot of doors to knock so get after it.
This obviously isn’t a complete step-by-step training, but it hits the high points and gives you an idea of the meticulous planning and methodical execution required in an effective ground game.
