remember these:

• Make sure you have resolved all permission issues if you are organizing events that require a permission.
• Prepare yourself for a three-week-long active street and marketing campaign.
• Remember to plan how to thank all the voters, campaign contributors and loved ones.
• Schedule the closure of the campaign as well.
• Remember to take care of your own well-being.
• Make sure that your family and loved ones are not hurt by the campaign.
• Rest enough and enjoy life!

three steps of a campaign

There are as many campaigns as there are candidates. In smaller campaigns, the candidates plan and implement the whole campaign themselves, whereas in larger campaigns advertising companies and vast support groups can be used. Different campaigns have different goals, but in the end, they are all projects. They have fixed schedules and budgets, and they need to be planned well.

Green candidates have been successful in raising funds and recruiting volunteers to support them. These acts can increase the size of a campaign as well its visibility. They can also make the candidate more visible and increase their likelihood of getting elected. A successful campaign consists of various influencing and impacting means that all support each other. In the broad sense of the word, campaigning is always about selling.

You will get a clearer understanding of campaigning by reading this section. You will also gain some tools to work with if you and a group of other active citizens decide to make the world a better place i.e., start a campaign.

You need to plan your campaign in an organized manner. You must set goals and milestones, plan how to reach them and plan what must be done and how. Your campaign should be a clear project that moves from general to specific. However, it is not possible to know everything when you are planning your campaign. You must trust your intuition, take some risks and if needed, change your plan along the way. 

This chapter introduces one way to start, plan and implement an electoral campaign. 

first step: starting

The most important step of campaign planning is to figure out why you are campaigning. It is then ironic that this is the step that is most often passed as obvious. However, it is this step that is fundamental to the success of your campaign. It is also important to realize that there are no obvious reasons for campaigning. You need to decide what is your reason and write it down. You also need to make sure that all participants understand what the goal is.

setting goals

Setting goals is no doubt the most important single decision of the campaign. A small yet well-structured and goal-oriented campaign is far better than a large, unclear, and vague campaign. Efficient campaign requires strong team spirit that is, in the end, born out of clear common goals.

Campaigns can have and often do have many goals. It is important to prioritize them and split them into short-term and long-term goals. However, the campaign should still have one clear primary goal. The other secondary goals are subordinate to the primary goal. Note that good goals can be monitored and measured.

primary and secondary goals

Your primary goal can be for example to get elected. The same campaign can also be used to get news coverage for important issues, collect new voters for the party and improve the candidate’s possibilities in the next elections. The primary goal of the campaign is the most important and if needed, the other goals can be discarded to reach the primary goal.

All candidates should also set their own performance targets: What do I want to achieve in these elections and how many votes do I want to get? What is my primary target? It is important to clearly set the target at some point. The set targets should be rethought only if the circumstances change significantly or the already made analysis of the circumstances is proven completely faulty.

Form your Support Group

It is nicer to plan and implement campaigns in company. Even one person in your support group can make a huge difference. You can juggle thoughts together and utilize more contacts. You can call this support person your Campaign Manager. 

Large campaigns usually have bigger support groups. Committed support group cheers and encourages the candidate as well as its members even on rougher days. You can ask support from your friends, family, other green candidates, and active party members. Elections are teamwork with other candidates, support group members, active party members, municipal chapters, electoral district operators, party office, and all other green actors. Positive peer support among candidates is an asset that can give you strength to carry on campaigning.

remember these:

• Sign the candidate agreement.
• Set clear goals for your campaign.
• Figure out how many votes you need to reach your goal.
• Choose a support person or Campaign Manager and gather a support group. 

Step Two: Planning

You started your campaign, set its goals, and recruited your support group during the first step. Now, it is time to make some decisions regarding the most essential elements of the campaign and draw up the actual campaign plan.

Define your focus groups

Your focus groups include the people you are trying to reach with your campaign and whose support you are trying to gain. You should choose as few focus groups as possible. Your campaign can then be focused efficiently on the people who you want and need to back your cause. The number, size, and quality of the focus groups are crucial factors when you are choosing your campaigning strategies. The bigger and more versatile the focus group is, the less you can utilize direct marketing or guerilla marketing.

Evaluate your Starting Point

You can start creating the base for your campaign plan by evaluating your starting point: What are my strengths and weaknesses (for example regarding visibility, degree of recognition and image)? What kind of resources do I have for my campaign? What are the strengths, weaknesses, and resources that need developing and improving the most?

When thinking about your resources, answer at least these questions: 

• How big campaign can I organize? How much my own time and money am I willing to use? How much money can I get from fundraising?
• How many people can I get involved?
• How much time can the key persons use for the campaign?

You should also analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your possible opponents (other parties and their candidates) and look at the general nomination of candidates at this point.

Campaign Calendar and Milestones

It is a good idea to break down your campaign goals into smaller parts or milestones and set separate deadlines for each. The milestones are typically related to the progression and reporting of a larger goal or completing smaller, separate operations. Milestone of a smaller campaign can be for example monitoring the number of distributed flyers over a certain period. Whereas a milestone of a bigger campaign can be for instance increasing the number of people in the support group in a set timeframe. 

You can lighten your workload by sharing responsibilities with your supporters and support groups. They can be responsible even for several milestones if they can manage them. Do not burn anyone out. 

Create the preliminary schedule and basis of the campaign calendar by placing your goals and milestones on a timeline. You often need to reach certain milestones to start next phases. You should take these links into consideration when planning the timeline of the campaign. Also, place the goals and milestones in a logical order. If you have support persons working with you, think beforehand how to thank them after the elections. 

tone of the campaign

There are two main tones of campaigns: negative tone and positive tones. Negative campaigns are all about threats, wrong doings, weaknesses, and scandals of the opponents. Positive campaigns, on the other hand, are built around possibilities, your own strengths, and even happiness.

Positive campaigning is more useful to us than negative campaigning. Green political culture, marketing, and volunteer experiences all support positive campaigning. Positive campaigning works for it is essential to create, reinforce, and maintain emotional bonds between the voters and the candidate or the party. Voting is about feelings – feeling that the candidate knows what they are doing, has the right values as well is relatable, authentic, efficient, and charismatic. People tend to get excited, thrilled, and committed to things that seem pleasant. Your campaign should be positive through and through. It should reflect especially on the people working on the campaign.

Choose your Campaign Strategies

When you have defined your goals and focus groups, you should choose the instruments you need to reach those goals. You can use various strategies to get peoples’ attention and reach your goals. 

Advertising is one of the most essential parts of campaigning, but also one of the most expensive ones too. This needs to be taken into careful deliberation when planning the campaign. In addition to advertising, other important campaigning methods are street campaigning, events, and various direct and guerrilla marketing techniques. All these strategies will be discussed in more detail in the chapters on communication and marketing.

Notice that you can built your campaign in several ways. Identical goals can be reached successfully by using completely different strategies. Best campaigns often arise from fresh combinations of functional campaign strategies. It is important to justify your actions to yourself. It is easy to follow others and for instance choose expensive media solution simply because “others are doing it too” or “it is how things have always been done.” You can section your goals and campaign strategies into smaller parts or milestones and think about their essence: Why are we doing this? Is this working? Is there a better way to do this? Can this be done with less money / by other means / etc.?

Budget

The main reason for creating a proper budget is to ensure that money is used in a planned manner, not unexpectedly. It is necessary to create a budget for your campaign when you are planning it. Even if you are planning on using little money, it is advisable to document it. 

A budget allows you to see how much funds you need to raise and where the money is expected to come from. Too often candidates are terrified by the thought of making a budget and using money. As the elections approach, these kinds of candidates are the ones that sometimes use a lot of money suddenly without any consideration. As paradoxical as it might seem, you can save money by creating a proper budget right away at the beginning stages of the campaign. Planning can help focus the funds where they are truly needed, and resolutions made in panic are more likely avoided.

campaign plan

Campaign plan is a tool that you can use to analyze and structure the steps of your campaign into a reasonable whole. It helps you to see the big picture. The main elements of a campaign plan are campaign calendar and budget. These parts sustain and explain each other. 

When you have drafted the campaign calendar and the budget, you can start creating the more detailed campaign plan. It includes the steps that need to be taken to reach the set goals. Each step should be written down. Depending on the size of the campaign, it is also a good idea to write down people in charge for each step as well as their goals, timetables, economical and personal resources, and other necessary attributes such as tone or style of the campaign. When all the steps of the campaign have been recorded and placed into the calendar and budget, the whole plan is examined, and its viability is estimated. Is there enough time for everything? What about money? What should we leave out? Can something be added?

As you are estimating the whole plan, you need to consider realistically if the goals of the plan can be achieved by following the steps written down in the plan. Are the steps enough to reach the goals? It is particularly important to think about the budget and fundraising. Is there enough money and is the budget realistic?

Campaign plan is a flexible tool that can be altered if the situations change. In such cases, it is important to make sure that the intended changes are viable.

remember these:

• If you work with supporters, give them clear instructions and responsibilities. 
• Know your own weaknesses and strengths. 
• Know whose votes you are after and how many there are.
• Have a clear budget for the campaign.
• Compile a campaign calendar.
• Make decisions regarding the media, based on what suits you, your focus groups, and your budget.
• Combine a clear schedule with the campaign plan. 

Step Three: Implementation

In theory, implementing a campaign is the easiest part of it, however, in practice, it is the most strenuous part. You need to have a first-rate plan for implementing your campaign for things to go truly smoothly. You also need to build a functional campaign organization. The last weeks of any campaign are moderately rough for that is when the most leg work is done.

Well planned campaigns have plenty of time to start them properly and efficiently. When you know what, why and how things should be done, you don’t waste any time or effort. You just need to follow the plan and do what was agreed. However, it is impossible to be prepared for everything. Circumstances or personal situations of candidates or support group members can change during the campaign. You need to take these changes into consideration and modify your plan accordingly. 

Implementation of a campaign has been divided into three sections: preparing, running, and ending the campaign. These sections are explained in the following chapters.

Preparing the Campaign

Preparing a campaign includes all the measures you must take to move from plans to action. Preparing can include for example planning then look of the campaign materials, making the campaign materials, booking event venues such as slots at marketplaces and shopping centers, buying advertising space, educating volunteers, fundraising, and monitoring the activities of your opponents.

In practice, the preparation phase can be initiated as you are deciding your course of action. For instance, you can book advertising space at an early stage of the campaign, if you make sure that you can cancel them without extra costs if necessary. This is usually possible in most medias. 

Fundraising should be started as soon as your candidacy is confirmed. Fundraising should be finished about a week after the election day. Similarly, recruitment of volunteers to your support group should begin as soon as possible. That is to engage as many people as possible to the campaign.

One crucial task in the preparation phase of fast-paced campaigning is to remember to relax and rest. When the campaigning truly starts, the key people of the campaign will be so busy that their family, friends, and rest must wait. It is then essential to take time to rest and relax before and after the busiest weeks of the campaign.

running the campaign

Running the campaign is the phase in which the campaign has the most resources: funds have been raised, the support group has been assembled and everything is ready. This is when the campaign truly moves from being a plan into action. 

opening the campaign

A campaign is usually opened with some sort of joint event with other candidates in the electoral district. The most important task of the opening is to announce the candidates and get news coverage. Even small, one person campaigns can benefit from opening of their campaign. Openings get visibility for campaigns, candidates, political agendas, and they can also inspire the campaign crowds. This is also how the starting of the campaign’s active phase becomes concrete for your supporters. And who knows, maybe you can recruit some new supporters as well.

You can get more visibility for your campaign opening if the event is somehow unique. Also, think carefully when the opening event will take place. You should not open the campaign too early for campaigning continues all the way to the election day. You need to take care that the resources won’t run out during the active campaigning phase. In the social media, however, your campaign can start even before the official opening of the campaign. 

Active Campaigning

After the campaign has been opened, the active part of the campaign truly begins. This is the phase in which about 90% of the marketing budget and about 70% of the volunteer work is used. Active campaigning is the most visible part of the campaign and many people think that this phase is the whole campaign. 

Active campaigning includes giving out brochures and introducing the candidate to people in face-to-face conversations, letters, text messages, newspaper and radio ads, and social media. To get elected, the candidate needs hundreds or even thousands of voter contacts during this phase depending on the elections and region. The quality of contacts is important but still potential voters should hear or see an add, a recommendation or such 3–10 times during the campaign. You need about ten contacts with the potential voter in cases of “cold” ads. Whereas couple of close contacts are enough if they are for example recommendations from a friend or a meeting with the candidate. It is then important that as many potential voters as possible hear about the candidate directly from people in the support group, from the candidate themselves, or their friends. 

Moreover, carefully planned advertisements should be sent to selected medias in time. People in charge of the campaign must know where brochures and flyers have already been distributed and where they are about to be distributed next. It is also important to take care that the concrete materials won’t run out. You need a lot of materials during the last weeks of the campaign and additional orders might not be possible due to tight schedules. A well-planned campaign creates a great atmosphere and keeps campaigners happy all the way to the finish line.

In addition to making sure that there’s enough concrete materials and their distribution is taken care off, it is a good idea to encourage as many people as possible to recommend the candidate in social media and in other networks. 

The physically laborious last weeks are decisive. That is the time during which a lot of important campaigning, such as distributing brochures around neighborhoods, meeting hundreds of people in various events, serving coffee and blowing up balloons, takes place.  And you should do all this with a smile on your face. Particularly in a large campaign, active campaigning requires a lot from the Campaign Manager whose responsibility it is to run the campaign efficiently and foster good team spirit. In a large campaign, the core support group and especially the Campaign Manager must, in addition to their own tasks, take care that the candidate can concentrated on campaigning completely.

The candidate should be as available for the vast number of potential voters as possible. They shouldn’t have to worry about running the campaign during that time. The candidate needs to remain positive and keep smiling. They also need to believe in their campaign and that their goals are reachable. The most important task of the active campaigning period is to ensure good night’s sleep as well as emotional well-being of the candidate. 

Ending the Campaign

There are many important tasks to do even when the active campaign ends. You need to forward your thanks, shut down the campaign as well as analyze and evaluate the campaign.

Shutting down

Shutting down the operations means that you end the whole campaign. In many cases you need to maintain and return borrowed or rented items and sort out and recycle the campaign materials that were left behind. Store your own equipment and archive copies of the campaign materials.

It is easier to shut down operations if you have a good plan for it. Information on schedules, needed addresses, and contact information should be readily available. In addition, you almost always need volunteers for shutting down the operations as well. It is advisable to recruit them before the campaign ends. 

Evaluation and Reporting

You can develop your campaigning skills by evaluating the whole campaign after it is over. This is particularly important if the goals were not reached. No one campaign fails in everything nor succeeds in everything. There is something to improve in all campaigns and that is why evaluation and reporting should be carried out. Analysis of a campaign includes the comparison of the campaign plan and its implementation: What was the plan? What did we do? How well did it work? You should also think about why some things worked out and why some did not. 

Large campaigns require longer and more extensive reports than smaller campaigns. Still, the aim of evaluation should always be to create understanding of that happened during the campaigns and why. The report should be written in a way that anyone can read it and get a clear picture of the campaign and its results. 

Thanking

The most important part of ending a campaign is thanking the ones involved in its course. People have donated time, money, or perhaps even both, for the campaign. The number of the people depends on the size of the campaign. These people have made the campaign possible. They have deserved their thanks, regardless of the results of the campaign.

The families and spouses of candidates and other key people of the campaign have probably been through a lot during the last stretched of the campaign. They are a special group of people to thank. Remember to thank them properly!