Monthly Archives: April 2014

Municipal Election Well Underway

There are fewer than 6 Months left in the Ontario Municipal Elections – only  179 days!

If you think that is plenty of time, think again.   Each councillor candidate running in a ward election has about 5,000 voter homes. If you do not have to luxury of  incumbency and are serious about winning you should get to every house twice, meaning you have 10,000 doors to knock.  If you started today that is 56 houses per day, which is manageable. However,  throw in a kid’s birthday, a friend’s wedding, a couple of community events and a bunch late nights at work and that 56 door target starts growing.   All of sudden you need to hit a few hundred houses a day.

Do not let this discourage you there is still a lot of paths to victory (good determined candidates are hardly discouraged anyway).   If are starting on your election now here is what you should do right away:

  • Door knocking, start today!
  • Seek volunteers and a support network (Election Kitchen Cabinet)
  • Write a campaign plan with specific week to week goals
  • Draft a budget
  • Write your platform and create your professional  literature
  • Raise some money – elections are not cheap
  • Order lawn-signs (the lead time in the late summer could burn you)
  • Knock on more doors

All that being said, pace yourself by holding back a number of events and ideas for the fall when everyone is watching. Hopefully by the fall all your voters recognize you from their doorway.

Keep an eye on this site for some municipal election strategy and tips.   Good luck in your campaign.

Keep Knocking,

KEITH

 

 

Email Marketing For Municipal Elections

It does not matter if your election is downtown Toronto or in rural Essa Township, all Candidates need to use an email marketing service.

Election Email Marketing

There are a few common service providers such as AWeber, Constant Contact and Mail Chimp.  I have worked with all three and found that AWeber is the most cost effective and has one of the best delivery rates – meaning less of your emails end up in your voters’ spam mail.

Collecting email addresses is not always easy, however it is slowly becoming vital to your campaign for many reasons. Let’s take a quick look at a few:

  • The decline of the home phone. In the “good old days” matching your voters list to a landline was a simple task, but in 2014 everyone is cutting the cord on home phone services. Collecting personal email addresses gets you straight to a voter’s mobile phone.
  • The introduction of online voting. This will be widespread in municipal elections in the near future with many small townships already offering online voting in 2014. In Leamington, Ontario this fall it’s the only choice. How nice would it be if your email asking for support entered a voter’s inbox shortly after their online voting instructions?  GOTV is going to get much easier (and cheaper).
  • Email marketing is fast and cheap. If you have a robust email list of voters you can get information out quickly when responding to a current issue or promoting a last minute event. This is much more efficient than trying to get the word out by phone or on your feet.  A subscription to an email marketing service comes at a low cost. The monthly cost of AWeber is less than $20 per month.  Compare that to over a thousand dollars for a mail out or hundreds of dollars for a voice-broadcast and it’s a great deal!

If you are thinking you can manage your email list with a spreadsheet and your current email provider, think again.  An email marketing service comes with many perks including email marketing education, sign-up confirmation pages, delivery and viewing statistics, and professional looking templates.   To learn more about all the features of an email marketing service I encourage you to visit a few of their websites.

For more info on email marketing subscription costs and features visit AWeber’s website.

City Campaigner Members can log onto the members-only portal for my latest video on email marketing. This includes easy tactics to collect voters’ email addresses and how to use automated email drip campaigns to keep voters engaged.

Keep Knocking,

KEITH

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