Running a campaign on a tight budget is tough when there are countless temptations to spend.
With new outreach tools becoming available almost weekly, there's always more that you would like to do if you had the money. But unless your candidate is a self-funder with deep pockets, or the party’s favorite son or daughter, there will always be line items cut from your campaign's budget due to a lack of funds. Here are some ways to help stretch your campaign spending.
Focus on "Sticky" Messaging and Creative
Regardless of the medium, stay away from cookie-cutter creative and focus on messaging and creative that "sticks." This could be employing a unique voice for an ad or eye-catching creative for a mail piece. Whatever form it takes, try to deliver something unique to make a message resonate and stick in the voter's mind. One excellent 30-second spot is better than two or three below-average or cookie-cutter spots.
Own Mediums
When your campaign is on a tight budget, you can't try and do everything in every medium. With that in mind, a campaign on a budget might find itself in a situation where they're trying to do too much without using any one platform consistently enough to actually reach voters. Rather than split precious funding across many channels, focus on the one or two mediums that you can fully fund your efforts in and aim for saturation. Look at where your challenger(s) are active and compete in a medium you can own to yourself.
Use Digital To Reinforce Other Mediums
One of the biggest benefits of digital advertising is the quick turnaround and ability to start and stop creative on very short notice. In order to make your mail pieces or television and radio ads go further, coordinate your messaging and use digital and mobile advertising to reinforce your messaging from other mediums.
For example, for each mail piece you are running, run coordinated digital ads the day before, day of, and day after each piece hits mailboxes. Your messages will stick better and the cheaper digital option means you’re reinforcing your messaging with fewer mail pieces or fewer television and radio spots and getting a similar impact on your targeted voters.
Cut Voters Under 30 From Your Mail Universe
Direct mail is a great medium to reach most voters. But if your budget is tight, one of the first things you should look at cutting is voters under 30 from your mail universe. These voters are much more mobile and there are better ways to reach these voters such as targeted mobile and digital ads.
Don't Skimp on Polling
Whether you can afford a live-caller poll for several thousand dollars or just an IVR poll for significantly less, don't cut polling from your budget. It might seem like a major expense and more of an "extra" instead of a necessity — especially when Facebook’s free surveys are an option. But every dollar you spend on polling will make every advertising dollar you spend go even further by ensuring the right message meets the right voter.
Joe Desilets is president of Bull Run Strategies. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeDesilets