Category Archives: Municipal Campaign Tips

Municipal Election Budget

One of the most important tools you need for your municipal campaign is a budget.

Your election budget is going to dictate many aspects of your campaign plan including how much you need to fundraise, the number of literature prices you publish, the quantity of lawn signs you put up, the services you purchase, and the victory party that you throw.

I am not going to use this post to write about the finance rules of a municipal campaign. The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has already done that and you can find it here. The most important piece of the puzzle is determining your limit. The 2014 Councillor campaign in Ontario has a limit of $5,000 plus $0.85 per voter.

I always encourage candidates to find a way to spend close to the maximum allowable amount – because if you don’t, your competitor will. That being said, some obstacles get in the way of funding to the maximum limit so you need to be realistic about what you can spend. In some very large wards, up to 4o,ooo voters, fundraising would be too difficult to spend the max. In some smaller wards, under 10,000 voters, the maximum is not always needed to win. As you can tell by now a budget really needs to be customized to the campaign, the ward, and the candidate.

A great indicator of how much to spend is the financial returns from the last election. Look up how much the winner spent and few of their competitors. If you are an incumbent check out what the second place candidate spent. Incumbents should also look to the spend of a fellow Councillor who received more votes than you. This information is often found on the municipal website. If not, kindly ask the City Clerks office to take a look.

Once we have the total amount you are able/ would like to spend, we can establish some fundraising goals. I have worked with candidates who say they will self-fund their campaign. If you have the money that’s fine; however, putting your campaign expenses on the family Visa is not the kind of financial management your voters are looking for. People are often surprised by how easy fundraising is once they start asking. Fundraising is a post of its own so I will leave it at that.

Incumbents will agree that some election expenses are not as suspected. People often think lawn signs are cheap, but they can actually be quite costly and need to be claimed in your expenses, even if you are reusing them. Quality print products can be perceived as expensive but at the volumes you are printing, they are actually quite cost effective. Do your research on election products/services before creating your budget. For more information on election produ Budget ct buying see my post on election purchasing tips.

Below are some questions you must answer when crafting a municipal campaign budget:

What does the Municipal Election Act mandate that I claim (gifts in kind, reused products, filing fees, etc.)
How much do I have to spend?
What is the price of the products and services that I need?
Am I finding support and/or ID’n vote with the money I am spending?

How I can Help

At City Campaigner we can craft you a customized budget. If you are an existing member this service is free, if you are not a member it is one of our cheapest products and you may want to consider buying it. Starting off your election with a solid budget is the foundation for your success.

With so many candidates starting their campaigns right now, I would like to extend a special offer for a campaign budget for a one time cost of JUST $45. That is a $110 savings. As soon as you request the budget, I will send you a quick questionnaire about your ward and campaign. With the answers to those questions I will develop a customized budget plan for you with real election costs. The plan is detailed in a spreadsheet so you can easily change some line items if you have friends or family donate a particular service.

I will even include an “optional” section so you know what you can buy if you fundraise a little more than expected.

An added value to this plan is that you will see the real costs for essential and popular election products. This means if you go out for a quote on signs and they cost $4.00 a piece while the budget outlines a cost of $2.50, you know there is a better price out there – because I found it. At no mark-up to you.

This sale of 70% off the regular price is only offered for a limited time. The service is also 100% satisfaction guaranteed. If you do not like the product just let me know and I will fully refund your money. That is how confident I am that you will like it. If I refund your money in full I actually lose money.

Why the super low rate? Well with over 2,000 candidates registered in medium and large municipalities I am only currently assisting 1% at this point. I am busy and having a lot of fun, however I want to meet more of you on a professional and personal level. This crazy low price for a custom budget will help me achieve that goal.

To get us working on your budget now like the purchase button below. Your payment will be securely process by PayPal.

I hope you found this information helpful and you consider taking advantage of this offer.

KEEP KNOCKING

KEITH

P.S. Do you already have a budget? The $45.00 will let you compare to see where there are some opprotunities

P.S.S. Do you already have a Campaign Manager? $45.00 is a pretty cheap second opinion

4 Tips For Purchasing Municipal Election Products and Services

Candidates who do not already know will soon find out – election products cost a lot of money. For campaigns that are self-funded or have little fundraising this is a huge obstacle to success. Candidates need to walk the line between looking unprofessional and blowing the budget.

purchasing

I have compiled four tips to beat the budget breaking blues and source good services and products.

1. Donated Services

If you have friends and/or family who are experts in a certain field ask them for help. Often these people want to support your campaign and you just have to ask. I find candidates get the most help from talented friends on copyrighting, graphic design and websites. If they are donating their services you need to give them a lot of lead time to complete each request. It’s unfair to expect free graphic design on your three-fold brochure within one day. If you need something quickly you may want to consider hiring a professional. Make sure you know your friends’ talents. You do not want to wait two weeks for a website and then have to break the bad news to your neighbour that you cannot use it because the free Blogger theme was not what you were looking for. Most important is to just ask for help when you can. The worst feeling is when you show your $300 designed lawn sign to a friend who says “oh I could have done that for free.”

2. Beware of Buy Local

This is an ongoing battle with some clients of mine. Some Candidates think that because they are running for local office they should shop their campaign locally. However, this is not like spending an extra dollar on a head of lettuce at a farmers’ market. Geographically limiting your election purchasing can end up costing you thousands of dollars more, or worse, you can end up with a bad product. For example, the SignARama franchisee owner around the corner is probably a great person and you may win her and her husband’s vote by bringing your business there. However, if she does not specialize in political signs and they require pounding a wooden stake in the ground it’s not worth it.

3. Know what you need

Based on your budget and campaign plan know what products you actually need. Some suppliers will try to sell you everything and the kitchen sink. Stick to what is effective and affordable. No need for a small town councillor to purchase a billboard or a big city councillor to buy a GTA-wide radio ad. If you are unsure about a product or service, send me a quick email or tweet and I’ll give you some free advice on if it’s worth it.

4. Always get quotes

There is no product or service in the world of elections that only has one capable supplier (despite what some companies may tell you). Always get at least three quotes on everything you buy. This can result in huge savings, especially on print services. Keep in mind the cheapest is not always the best. Ask them if they have done similar work and check the client list on their website. I remember in the Barrie 2000 Municipal Election a candidate purchased paper lawn signs with her face on them. After one rainfall the distorted mugshot did not achieve its goal of name recognition.

An extra note: Please know your own strengths. Just because you have Adobe Illustrator does not mean you know how to use it. You can do some of your own work if you’re an expert, however if you are going to take 3-4 months of your life to run in an election, do not cheap out on essential products.

As an added bonus to City Campaigner Members we use group buying to lower the costs on almost any election product or service needed. Check out the Services Page for more details.

Raise as much funds as you can and watch the pennies. Good luck in your campaign.

Keep Knocking,

KEITH

Google

Election Door Knocking Heat Map

I tirelessly tell candidates they need to knock on doors. It is the most effective way to ID voters and to distribute your message. Canvassing is free and gives a personal touch to your election.

In the case of a City Councillor election I say you need to knock on every door at least once – the question is where to start. The traditional way of starting on your own street and making your way outwards results in a number of missed opportunities.

When canvassing in the municipal election you need to start at doors where:

People who actually vote
Residents who have a current issue
The lawns are prime location for signs
You do not already have a lot of support

The last one always trips people up. They feel they should reach out to those who love them first. Sure, canvassing your existing fans is a great confidence booster; however you are just wasting precious campaign time. I believe the expression is “preaching to the choir”.

Numbers two and three are a bit easier to determine. It’s number one that you really want to be the prime focus of your heat map. These streets are coloured red because they are hot and are ready to be knocked. How you determine who votes can in a number of ways be based on demographics and history. Sorry I can’t give you the exact details on this one, it would be like Pepsi publishing their trade secrets online.

Below is an example of an election door knocking heat map. The streets are grouped by colours. You need to get to red streets ASAP (like yesterday), the orange are next on your hit list, followed by yellow and then blue. These maps in a political party HQ obviously use different colours based on the party flag.

Where to Canvass In Your Ward

Map Notes:

Sorry I’m a campaign manager not an artist. I usually draw these with a marker on paper.

This is just a visual the map comes with a MS Excel list of streets ranked one by one. The list also details why a street has been prioritized.

This is not an actual door knocking heat map. It’s my neighbourhood and I just made up the results.

If you are a member of the City Campaigner team you can log into the portal later this week for instructions on how to create your own election heat map. You also have discounted pricing on the service if you do not have the time or confidence to do it yourself.

For those who are not yet members but want to hit pavement with a plan in hand, we are now offering customized Election Heat Maps for a one-time cost of $250.00 (click Buy Now Button below) We will not create one for your competitor so that trade secret in your ward belongs to you.

Now if I only had a product that would light a fire under a candidate’s ass to get out there and door knock.

Good luck in your election.

Keep Knocking,

KEITH

Continue reading →

Web Strategy For Municipal Elections

To Blog or Not To Blog? …That is the municipal candidate question.

This video is a quick introduction to creating a simple web strategy for Municipal Councillor Candidates. The most common issue is that candidates spend too much time on the internet and not enough time at the door.

City Campaigner Members watch for my web strategy bonus material in our Members Portal. Beyond the web strategy embedded in your customized week to week campaign plan I have a video that covers:

Where to do opposition research on the web
How to find people of influence on-line in your ward
How keep track of your competitor and flag their internet missteps
Political black-ops on-line

Hope this information helps. Good luck in your election.

Keep Knocking,

KEITH STRACHAN

Google

What Municipal Councillor Candidates Should Do During the Provincial Election

A provincial election is not an excuse for municipal election candidates to take a break.

KEEP KNOCKING,

KEITH

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.

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

Google

Try AWeber’s Email Marketing Tool Risk-Free Continue reading →

Election Press Releases

Publicity is often referred to as “earned media” because you do in fact need to earn it.

I am far from a communications expert, however this brief post is for municipal campaign candidates who are looking for a bit of media coverage from their local paper and radio station. This week I posted a more in-depth instructional video on election press releases and a downloadable template to the City Campaigner Members Portal. These resources are for City Councillor Candidates who are serious about investing in a win. For aspiring candidates and future campaign volunteers, here are some quick points on election press releases: Continue reading →

Build a Municipal Campaign Volunteer Team

You need help! You can try to run your municipal election alone but chances are it will be exhausting, boring and lonely. Worst of all, running a solo campaign almost always results in a loss.

The life of any campaign is the volunteers. To add this crucial part to your campaign you need attract, engage and retain an awesome team of volunteers.

Attracting volunteers is hard and attracting municipal election volunteers is even harder. Charities can recruit help from people who share a passion in the same cause. Provincial and Federal Campaigns can find volunteers from like-minded people and political party stalwarts. For your municipal campaign you are starting from scratch. Tap into friends and family first – they’ll be the least likely to say “no”, but may not be the most productive. Look for community activists in your neighbourhood who have championed local projects, fought city hall or hosted a wicked street party. These community leaders have volunteer personalities and will give you their best if asked. Asking (a reoccurring theme in campaigning) is the key to volunteer recruitment. If you find yourself at the door of a new supporter and you think they connect with your message, ASK them to volunteer. As soon as you walk away that door is closed. Continue reading →

Building A Municipal Election Kitchen Cabinet

A “Kitchen Cabinet” advisory group for political candidates is not ground breaking. The first Kitchen Cabinet was formed by U.S. President Andrew Jackson in 1831. In Australia they’ve created a reality political show about it and in Britain the media use the term as a reference for the Prime Minister’s inner circle. Another fun fact is that Ronald Reagan’s Kitchen Cabinet included Joseph Coors of the Coors Brewing Company. A Kitchen Cabinet is a group of trusted friends and advisors who a politician or candidate can consult with privately on important strategies and issues.

For Municipal Election candidates your Kitchen Cabinet should start in your actual kitchen. This group of confidants should remain small and trustworthy. Your Kitchen Cabinet will most likely not include a national beer baron but will include community volunteers, soccer mums, PTA parents and local seniors.

A good Kitchen Cabinet for a Municipal Councillor Election should include a small, diverse group of people who: Continue reading →