I was invited to write a guest post on the blog Killer Campaigning over the weekend.  I hope you’ll check it out and let me know what you think. Merry Christmas!

- Nathan

Yesterday I apologized for my long absence from the blog. Today I’m going to do something unheard of in the blogesphere: promote someone else’s blog!

While I’ve pledged to pick up the pace on RunSmart2Win once more — posting about once or twice a week — I know that this isn’t enough to satisfy some of the political campaign junkies out there. So, while I hope you’ll stick around (and subscribe to our RSS feed to make reading RunSmart2Win simpler and more convenient), I strongly suggest you check out Killer Campaigning for “daily non-partisan tips for campaign junkies.”

Here’s more on Killer Campaigning:

If you’re serious about getting the best advice on running a great political campaign, then this is the site you’ve been looking for. Whether you’re running a small local campaign or a barnstorming across a state, you’ll find plenty of common-sense tips and little-known political secrets on Killer Campaigning.

The campaign tips we share on Killer Campaigning aren’t just guesswork.  These are field-tested strategies that we’ve used on numerous local, state and national campaigns . . . strategies that work.

We don’t care if you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent or Martian . . . our advice is for everyone.  You won’t find political posturing here at Killer Campaigning, just solid campaign advice.

Joe Garecht wrote a fantastic blog entry titled “The 3 Keys to Winning Any Local Election” on his Local Victory website.  If you’re thinking about running for local office — from school board to city council to mayor — read this before you do anything else:

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What is said about you is oftentimes more important than what you say yourself. So it is crucial to stay on top of the latest mentions of your campaign in the news and elsewhere online. Fortunately, Google has made this a largely pain-free process.

Google Alerts is a free service that allows you to set up news alerts based on specifications you enter. You can select search terms, the type of online media you will search, and the frequency of alerts you will receive–either as news is posted or in a once-daily digest. Below are some tips on getting the most out of this option.
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Several weeks ago I went through “15 Questions You Must Answer Before Running for Office” (here, here, and here). Kimberly Scott, writing in Politics Magazine, gives another perspective on “25 questions that need answers before you can begin a campaign…”

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In campaigns, the three most precious resources are these: money, time, and the attention span of voters. That last one–voter attention span–makes each contact you have with a voter important, especially in an age in which it is easy for voters to shut you out. In an ideal world, you’d want to know each voter well and tailor a personal message to deliver. But in the real world, you are forced to make a best effort to narrow down a mass message.

Good thing there’s list segmentation.

List segmentation is the simple practice of breaking down your contact list into sublists. These sublists are based on criteria you choose, e.g. people in the 27705 zip code. You can then send more focused and more relevant emails to the people on these sublists. This tactic is not new, but it is newly simple thanks to the advent of affordable commercial marketing services.

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In this electronic age, email remains the killer app of campaign communications. It’s efficient, it’s targeted, it’s cheap, it’s designed to go viral, and it works. Email is the topic of discussion this week on RunSmart2Win. Today we will look at 10 Tips for Maximizing the Effectiveness of Email Campaigns:

1. Keep your messages short and focused. People have short attention spans. Emails must grab the reader’s attention early, make one point, and conclude with one action step. Not only does this mean keeping the email short, but breaking your message into short sentences with headings for easy skimming. If you say three things, you say nothing. One point. One action step. That’s it. Remember the Five B’s of campaign emails: Be Brief, Baby, Be Brief.
2. Don’t just ask for money. Email is a great campaign fundraising tool, but you shouldn’t overdue it. Even your most avid supporters will spam block you if all of your emails are contribution requests. Mix up the topics you cover: campaign announcements, volunteer mobilization efforts, special event invitations, letters from the candidate, and yes, the occasional fundraising email too.
3. Don’t flood inboxes. Just as you shouldn’t ask for money in every email you send, you also shouldn’t send emails everyday! If you do, you will quickly discover that people have tuned you out. One email per week should be the upper limit. The exception to this is the last week of the campaign when you are turning out supporters and voters.
4. There is a time for urgency. On the heels of point three, the reason you shouldn’t flood people’s inboxes is so you can grab their attention when you really need it (for example, the last week of the fundraising quarter, the 72 hours prior to Election Day, etc.). By not spending your email capital too early — and not crying wolf with too many urgent pleas — you retain your right to implore your supporters to act, contribute, or volunteer with emotional appeals, deadlines, and countdowns.
5. Use the candidate wisely. Obviously, you want some of your messages to come from the candidate. But not every email should be from the man or woman in charge. If every email is from the candidate, people may assume that he or she is not the person behind it. It’s true that the candidate is the standard bearer of the campaign message, but use him or her wisely. Have the candidate author some of the emails, but include the candidate’s spouse, campaign staffers, and endorsements from members of the community.
6. Ask supporters to tell their friends. The most powerful method for starting a word-of-mouth epidemic over the Internet is friends emailing friends emailing friends. Encourage activists to edit messages from the campaign, then send them on to friends and family members. Ask supporters to remove “FW:” from the email subject line and personalize the message.
7. Link to online videos. Take a screenshot from a campaign video, making sure it looks like a video player. Then provide the link to the actual video (and embed code for people to place the video on their own blogs or social networking pages). Use your organization’s stories to bring people in, and then connect it to an “ask” at the end of the email. Capture their attention with video, then take them to a next-step — like contributing, volunteering, calling a radio station, or sending in a letter to the editor.
8. Be interesting and relevant. Don’t live in a bubble. Piggyback on the most talked about issues affecting your race. Is there a local corruption scandal or hot button issue that everyone is talking about? Don’t ignore the elephant in the room. Talk about what the voters are talking about. Address their concerns. Capitalize on grassroots anger. Relate your message to the day’s headlines. Talk about why your issue matters now.
9. Test and improve. Measure the success of your email campaigns by tracking open-rates, click-throughs, and forwards. Is there is an issue, action, or layout that people respond to more than others? Use that information to improve on future emails.
10. Say “Please” and “Thank you.” Mama was right: you should always ask politely, saying “Please,” and show appreciation, with a “Thank you.” Acknowledge the effort your supporters are making on behalf of the candidate and the campaign. Never take their time, effort, money, or support for granted.

The most important part of fundraising is making sure that you’re abiding by applicable campaign finance laws. Here we’ll provide a broad overview of North Carolina campaign finance laws. Nothing can replace the advice of an experienced lawyer or treasurer, so take this as it’s intended: a starting resource for further investigation, not the end-all of the intricacies of campaign finance.

1. Know who to ask for help. When in doubt, contact the people who do this for a living: your County and/or the North Carolina State Election Board. They will either know the answer or direct you to someone who does.

2. Research what laws apply to you. You are running as a candidate at the municipal (e.g. Town Council), county (e.g. County Planning Board), state (e.g. NC State House), or federal (e.g. US House) level. There are different rules at every level,  so be aware of them. This determines your main regulatory body throughout the campaign.

3. Find a good treasurer. Every candidate committee must have a treasurer, and it can be anyone but your spouse. The treasurer is responsible for maintaining your financial records and filing required reports with the Board of Elections. Your treasurer must be trained by a Board of Elections course within three months of his/her appointment and once every four years after that.

4. Know when you have to file forms. North Carolina has deadlines for filing forms for your candidacy as well as filing campaign finance reports throughout the year. (As a fun fact, the filing fee is 1% of the annual salary of the office for which you are running; for the State House or Senate, that’s $207.) Know these dates. Don’t be late.

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Once you have been (rightfully) convinced that you should begin fundraising online, the next question is how to select an online contributions system. This system is a web-based solution that processes credit cards to transfer money from your donors to your campaign account. The number of these systems, though, is staggering. This post will hopefully be a quick overview with some general questions you should ask about every system, and then a more specific comparison of three major contribution systems on the base of price.

General Questions to Ask
1. How much will this cost? Online contributions systems generally make money in two ways. They charge a per-transaction fee, always less than fifty cents, on each contribution processed through your site. They also take a percentage of all your donations, usually less than 5 percent though oftentimes soaring to as high as 10 percent. Additionally you will find myriad fees for set-up, processing, and the like.

2. How will secure data be stored? You do not want to be responsible for keeping credit card numbers secure. Find out who will be responsible for secure data, where it will be stored, and who will address a security breach should one occur. Generally, online contributions systems process and store the credit card data on their end and then credit your account with the money.

3. How often will I be paid? The internet has made everything instantaneous, including the transfer of money. Many online contributions systems will deposit money in your campaign account as soon as the credit card information is processed. However, others will oftentimes distributed checks on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly basis.

4. Will I be able to collect the data I need? Check local, state, and federal campaign finance laws to determine the information you need to collect from donors. For example, candidates for federal office must collect the employer of every person who donates more than $200. Make sure that you will be able to customize your donation form to collect the necessary information to comply with campaign finance laws.

5. Will I be able to brand my donations portal? This is often a question for your technical team as it is for the contributions system you select. You want the transition from your website or online presence elsewhere to your donations portal to be as seamless as possible. The branding, graphics, colors, and other stylistic elements should remain as consistent as possible. Donors want to know that they are donating to the candidate they have selected. Additionally, sending them elsewhere is simply jarring, like inviting friends to a BBQ in your backyard only to traipse over to the neighbor’s living room.

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We’re kicking off another focus week on RunSmart2Win. This week we’re tackling fundraising.

As the famous saying goes, money is the mother’s milk of politics. While technology has leveled the political playing field somewhat, money is still one of the best predictors of Election Day success. How do you go about raising the funds your campaign needs to win? Here are 10 essential fundraising principles:

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