The following are tips and insights into how a local politician ran his campaign to gain 30,000 votes in less than 9 months.  Zach Bonahoom, candidate for City Clerk, has used multiple marketing tactics to reach this group of voters; the following is a discussion I had with him to find out how he’s doing it.  In an effort for full disclosure, Zach is a client of mine, and I intend to casts my vote for him on November 8^th.

I started by asking Zach what he felt the most important starting point was for developing his marketing strategy.  “The Brand”, was his answer.  He spent time with a group of people he trusted developing the logo and the tag line, “Innovation, Tax Savings, No Excuses”.  During their brainstorming, some of the tag lines they didn’t go with were, “Let’s Get To Work” and “Imagine”.  He then took these tag lines to a group of likely voters and tested it to see their reaction.  I think this is an important point.  No matter how clever you think you are at developing your brand, you must test your brand with likely customers to see their reaction.

Zach then started marketing from multiple fronts to get his message out to as many people as possible.  He utilized Social Media, Email, Direct Mail, Door to door, Sign placement, Word of mouth and hoped to use TV and Radio.  In the end, Zach’s approach was to be targeted to people who would likely vote for him and those undecided voters.  Because any campaign has to manage its money as closely as possible, he chose to use techniques that would take more of his time, but less of the campaign’s money.  Door to door was one of the most effective things he has done.

Here is his process for using door to door effectively:

·         Start with a plan for walking through a neighborhood, utilizing a voter list provided by the GOP of likely voters

·         Keep track of those who he met and wasn’t able to meet

·         Send personalized thank you notes to both those he met and wasn’t able to meet (This added touch he says got him extra donations and kind phone calls of support)

Something he also did to add a personal touch was add anyone who financially supported him to his “Stockholder’s Report”.  This letter was mailed out periodically to update those people on how his campaign was going and what they were working on.  This report also included a donation card and return envelope which helped him raise more funds from the same donors.  In the business world, this has often been discussed by saying that it is easier to sell to your existing customer base than go out and find new ones.

One thing that has impressed me when being out in the community with Zach is the fact that he introduces himself to everyone; coffee barista’s, servers at restaurants, people I’m walking with, etc.  He is always introducing himself.  To me that’s a tough thing to do, but when your goal is to get every vote you can, I think it’s an important self-confidence tactic.

So what do you think of his campaign tactics?  How will you apply them to your business?

Have we met?  If not, let’s grab coffee and share some tips!