So this Coronavirus thing… kind of a big deal.

Let’s dive right into it.  For this year’s local elections, especially in the short term for states that primary in June (like mine – NY), campaigning is going to look completely different.  But this can be a good thing.  It will turn what has traditionally been a battle of effort and time and ground and pound into a completely different battle.  A battle of creativity.  You know where creativity lives in 2020?  On the internet.

So in no particular order here are some traditional campaigning “actions” that are no longer available to you in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic…

• Shaking hands and kissing babies.  <— Definitely don’t do this!
• Tossing out candy at parades.
• Meeting with local advocate groups – gun groups, fish and game, social clubs such as Rotary and Kiwanis, etc.
• Presenting to individual town political committees.
• Attending various benefit dinners and events.
• Door-to-door canvassing.
• Candidate debate events.

One thing should jump out at you about this list.  These are all low-cost campaigning options.  High on effort and time, low on campaign expenditures.  For some of you who have been involved in local campaigns this is pretty much the whole thing except for mailers.  So what, does the winner of a campaign go to the one that cranked out the most mailers at $4000 a pop?  Deepest pockets?  No not at all.  It seems like forever ago now, but AOC was outspent 8X by the incumbent back in 2018 and won because of some very shrewd media buying decisions.  Her campaign is a blueprint for how to win an election amid the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic.

So what now?  How can we still be active with literally all activity taken away from us?  Here is the plan to a win.

Website – The website is your digital campaign headquarters. If you weren’t convinced before that it was essential, you should be now.  The thing to be careful about is to make sure that the website tells people the “why” of your campaign.  Why you are uniquely qualified.  Why you can be the most effective.  I forbid you to make a list of your work history.  Really, it’s not that different from a resume if you’re trying to get a new job.  Don’t tell me what you’ve done, tell me what you can do for ME!  Aside from that there are some utility reasons why you need a website.  To get authorized to run political ads on Facebook you now need a website.  If you’re going to run Google display ads you’ll need a landing page to point the web traffic to.

Facebook – This continues to be the single best bang for your buck. Right now everyone is at home, and everyone is on Facebook.  It’s 10% the cost of a mailer and there is a ton you can do in terms of format w/ graphics/video/links and on and on.  The targeting is where it really shines.  We can get the voter history list from the board of elections and upload just the people who vote in off year election republican primaries.  Think how amazing that is!  Digitally serving ads at a super low cost to only people who are guaranteed to vote!  I love to use Facebook to serve out the message in consumable bites.  For example, run an ad that touches on how community and civic service runs in the family.  In a county judge race run an ad showing you’re the only candidate to have practiced in both prosecution and defense.  In a mayor race show your 3-point plan for downtown revitalization.  If your website shows ten reasons why you are the best candidate, serve out all ten via Facebook one at a time.  Make a nice graphic with local visuals and a heading and then expand on your position in the body of the text.  It’s a recipe for success.

Absentees – This is the wild card this year. With Coronavirus people may be less inclined to actually go to the polls to vote and will instead do so by mail. I’ve personally been part of 4 elections in the last 2 years that came down to less than 100 votes.  If you ignore those people who get absentees you are setting yourself up for failure.  My advice is to continually maintain a list of those who have requested absentee ballots and serve them both the mailers sequentially and also digital ads on Facebook from the moment they get that ballot sent.  Leave nothing to chance with this.  Absentees will be huge this year and who knows, the whole election may go to absentees if state officials decide the close contact of the polls is too high a risk?  Be prepared!!

Youtube – You’d be shocked if I showed you my analytics on the Youtube videos we make. You’d be even more shocked at how many of those videos are actually getting watched on the TV.  The great thing about Youtube is that with pre-roll ads a user has to watch a minimum of roughly 1 minute of the video before you get billed.  If they hit skip in the first 5 seconds or even in the first 45 seconds you don’t pay.  When was the last time you didn’t hit skip in the first 5 seconds?  Can’t hit it fast enough, right?  Well the videos I make for Youtube consistently get a 25% view rate.  1 out of every 4 times my ad gets shown a viewer watches at least a minute.  Prices tend to be in the $0.15 per 1 minute view.  Where else in advertising can you get a 1 minute sales pitch to a customer for 15 pennies?  It’s a steal.  And there is so much more that can be done with the platform.

Mailers – Keep doing mailers just like every other year. The key with mailers is to always show what the candidate can do for the voter.  Don’t list a bunch of eye-glazing technical mumbo-jumbo.  The average voter has no idea what you’re talking about and doesn’t care.  Make a connection with them based on the issues THEY care about.

That’s the scoop, but it’s only the basics.  The real success is in the details of the execution.  The nuances of the message.  The manipulation of the content.  Need some help with all this?  Hit me up and let’s talk.  jmchale@updraftadvertising.com

Want to see my FULL GAME PLAN for an election win?  Check it out here.