Smarter Campaigns Founder Ben Eisenberg was interviewed by Dr. Travis Fox of The Rise at Greg S Reid's August Secret Knock event.
DENVER, CO -- Anyone can run for office, but not everyone has what it takes to be a candidate. Campaigns present a never-ending series of problems that need to be solved, and countless candidates fail before ever officially making it to the starting block.
"Many candidates choose to run to stoke their own ego, to be in the spotlight, and have people tell them how great they are. These candidates are running to be something rather than to do something. Many times this is about the perceived quality of life improvements associated with being an elected official."
Volunteers are the lifeblood of a campaign. They freely give of their time to help you do often tedious work. Campaigns wouldn't succeed without them. Whether it is the little old lady stuffing envelopes and making calls or the 14 year old doing data entry, there needs to be a place on your campaign for EVERY PERSON who wants to help you.
Every day thousands of people would come by Obama campaign offices around the country asking for yard signs. It was common on the Obama campaign to hear staffers utter the phrase "Yard signs don't vote." What this means is that people want signs to stick in their yard so they can feel like they're involved in the race, but their signs don't actually do anything.
Many candidates are unaware of what's needed to get on the ballot. They assume that after they file paperwork to run they are automatically on the ballot. In actuality, in order to get on the ballot, requirements vary from state to state.
Since the 1960s, political campaigns really haven't used their own theme songs or jingles. Either out of laziness, cost or expediency, they have taken to using famous songs in a subconscious attempt to connect themselves to the musicians voters identify with.
It is standard practice for campaigns to have a slogan. With people's short attention span you really have to distill your message into a few concise words that describe who you are and why you're running. A good slogan tells the voter everything they need to know in less than 9 words.
The skills that make good candidates great candidates vary. Some can give a phenomenal impromptu speech with no preparation. Some will remember your name years after meeting you once. Some can meet every single person in a room and create deep feelings of connection in under 30 seconds.
It is standard practice in politics to challenge your opponent's petition signatures in an attempt to get them below the minimum needed to appear on the ballot. Why face them in an election if you can prevent them from ever appearing on the ballot?
When starting your fundraising operations you want to pick the "low hanging fruit" first. This means finding and targeting the people most likely to give you money with the least amount of effort. Friends, family, co-workers are your best targets. These people know you personally and presumably like you.
Candidates often find it difficult to navigate the intersection of religion and politics during their campaigns. Many candidates are religious and think that other followers of their denomination should be an easy target for votes. They are often unaware that churches risk losing their tax exempt status by engaging in partisan politics.
When writing their official biographies, it happens with disturbing regularity that candidates mention their pets by name but neglect to mention their children by name. Watch the video to find out why and learn to avoid this problem.Read the entire blog post at http://smartercampaigns.com/content/writing-your-bio-pets-children.