<- All articles

The Secret Formula To A Winning Campaign

Brendan Finucane
Brendan Finucane
April 27, 2017
3 min read
Share this post

What is canvassing in a political campaign?

Political campaigning has changed substantially in recent years. Fields experiments carried out by Green and Gerber have proven the high impact that in-person canvassing can have on a voter. Increasing the chances of people turning up to the polls by as much as 20%. But is canvassing purely a numbers game?

We don’t think it’s that simple!

You could be knocking on 100 doors a night but if your focus is on hitting a target instead of communicating a message, sorry, you’re doing it wrong!

Canvassing strategy

We place emphasis on a quality conversation at the door because we know lots of political campaigns are working with limited resources and manpower. Further research has identified that three aspects of quality should be considered: monitoring pace and interactivity, timing, and message.

The idea being canvassers should avoid cramming in election campaign messaging on the doorstep. Instead, canvassers should engage in authentic personal conversation with a voter. In order for an election campaign canvassers to genuinely engage with voters. There is a need for effective training and supervision. So how do we make an impression that matters at the door?

Practice At The Doorstep

Smile and make good eye contact!

This is the most basic rule of voter contact. If you look and sound like you are enjoying yourself, people will be more interested in engaging in conversation with you and discussing what issues are important to them.

Stay upbeat!

As a canvasser, you're here to excite voters about your candidate not to weigh them down with complaints about the opposition or their viewpoints. Comparisons are good but keep a positive outlook. And don't argue with people who disagree with you. Kindly thank them for their time and move on. Your time is valuable, and there are a lot of voters to cover on a door-to-door canvass.

Don’t pretend to be a policy expert.

It’s likely that someone will ask you a question to which you do not know the answer. That’s okay. You should never be afraid to admit you do not know the details of every single party policy. Just direct the voter to the party website where the policies are located.

Follow the key campaign talking points, but speak in a genuine way.

You will be provided with talking points and information on the issues to help you engage voters. But you should use the points as a guide and feel free to explain to voters why you're helping the election campaign. Your personal story will always be the most effective way of engaging with voters.

Capture information

Make sure to take note of anything voter issue or concern that comes up on the doorstep. Reporting good data from your canvassing is just as important as actually talking to the voters. Understanding what voters think about important issues helps to ensure a successful election campaign.

If you want to learn more about the functionality of Ecanvasser and how we can help you take this election cycle by the scruff of the neck, why not pop over to our training page The Campaign Blueprint.

CAMPAIGN BLUEPRINT

Get your free 7-day trial of Ecanvasser

Sign up now to have our campaign consultants guide you through your 7-day trial

Speak to salesSpeak to sales

Listening to our current users,  we are aware that there can be an internal struggle of team management when it comes to organizing quickly. To get people out on doors, the back and forth over Whatsapp, Messenger, and (insert other apps here) can be endless. We aim to streamline this process for you with Ecanvasser. Now organizers can commit via the Walk app (their canvassing app!) and get notified in the run-up to the event so that they don’t forget. By building it into the door knocking process life has gotten a lot easier for campaign managers.

Written by
Share this post
<- Back to list
Canvassing

The Secret Formula To A Winning Campaign

Brendan Finucane
3 min read

What’s a Rich Text element?

The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
How to customize formatting for each rich text
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

What is canvassing in a political campaign?

Political campaigning has changed substantially in recent years. Fields experiments carried out by Green and Gerber have proven the high impact that in-person canvassing can have on a voter. Increasing the chances of people turning up to the polls by as much as 20%. But is canvassing purely a numbers game?

We don’t think it’s that simple!

You could be knocking on 100 doors a night but if your focus is on hitting a target instead of communicating a message, sorry, you’re doing it wrong!

Canvassing strategy

We place emphasis on a quality conversation at the door because we know lots of political campaigns are working with limited resources and manpower. Further research has identified that three aspects of quality should be considered: monitoring pace and interactivity, timing, and message.

The idea being canvassers should avoid cramming in election campaign messaging on the doorstep. Instead, canvassers should engage in authentic personal conversation with a voter. In order for an election campaign canvassers to genuinely engage with voters. There is a need for effective training and supervision. So how do we make an impression that matters at the door?

Practice At The Doorstep

Smile and make good eye contact!

This is the most basic rule of voter contact. If you look and sound like you are enjoying yourself, people will be more interested in engaging in conversation with you and discussing what issues are important to them.

Stay upbeat!

As a canvasser, you're here to excite voters about your candidate not to weigh them down with complaints about the opposition or their viewpoints. Comparisons are good but keep a positive outlook. And don't argue with people who disagree with you. Kindly thank them for their time and move on. Your time is valuable, and there are a lot of voters to cover on a door-to-door canvass.

Don’t pretend to be a policy expert.

It’s likely that someone will ask you a question to which you do not know the answer. That’s okay. You should never be afraid to admit you do not know the details of every single party policy. Just direct the voter to the party website where the policies are located.

Follow the key campaign talking points, but speak in a genuine way.

You will be provided with talking points and information on the issues to help you engage voters. But you should use the points as a guide and feel free to explain to voters why you're helping the election campaign. Your personal story will always be the most effective way of engaging with voters.

Capture information

Make sure to take note of anything voter issue or concern that comes up on the doorstep. Reporting good data from your canvassing is just as important as actually talking to the voters. Understanding what voters think about important issues helps to ensure a successful election campaign.

If you want to learn more about the functionality of Ecanvasser and how we can help you take this election cycle by the scruff of the neck, why not pop over to our training page The Campaign Blueprint.

CAMPAIGN BLUEPRINT

Get your free 7-day trial of Ecanvasser

Sign up now to have our campaign consultants guide you through your 7-day trial

Speak to salesSpeak to sales

Listening to our current users,  we are aware that there can be an internal struggle of team management when it comes to organizing quickly. To get people out on doors, the back and forth over Whatsapp, Messenger, and (insert other apps here) can be endless. We aim to streamline this process for you with Ecanvasser. Now organizers can commit via the Walk app (their canvassing app!) and get notified in the run-up to the event so that they don’t forget. By building it into the door knocking process life has gotten a lot easier for campaign managers.

Read more articles

Let's inspire your inbox

Listening to our current users,  we are aware that there can be an internal struggle of team management when it comes to.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.