Political Candidate - Who is your audience?

Target Audience

Working on your campaign plan or budget? If so, please remember to keep your audience in mind.  One place where we see some candidates losing focus is with their audience.  Your Audience applies to all aspects of your campaign.  This would include your topics of focus, constituent reach, and tools that you are using to communicate.

Topics of focus

If you are running for Mayor or maybe County Commissioner you will want to stay focused on topics related to your city or county.  Often the focus of these races can get lost in the national topics that are out there.  If you spend time and energy on national topics, you are wasting the opportunity to educate your constituents on why you are the best candidate for them in the local community that they live in.  This can become even more challenging if you are looking at a State House or Senate situation.  There is some overlap but be careful as you craft your messaging to keep it to things that you can impact if you are elected to that office.  Staying on relevant topics to your specific district of area of influence is best for these races.

Who IS your audience?

Constituent Reach is another area where people can get lost.  For example, if you are running in a primary race you will want to do everything that you can to focus on the most likely voters that have a history of voting in a primary.  While the primary is open to everyone, numbers are historically down for primary voting.  You only have so many dollars to work with for your campaign, so you want to leverage those dollars in the most effective way possible.  These races can be swung by just a handful of voters so connecting with the most likely voters will give you the greatest return on your investment.

How to reach your audience?  

There are so many tools out there to connect with your constituents so you will want to make sure that you develop a plan and then WORK THE PLAN!  Options available to you might include Direct Mail, Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM), social media, Website, Newspaper, Radio, Yard Signs . . .  The thing to keep in mind when evaluating the various options is to figure out what will help you most effectively target your constituents.  For example, if you are running for a County Commissioner position you do not need to send info to everyone in the county.  This is where Direct Mail or EDDM can be effective tools to help you reach just your constituents.  EDDM in particular can be an effective way to pinpoint your audience.  Postage for EDDM mailers is around $0.218 each so very affordable.  While other tools can also be effective, they can sometimes lead to confusion.  The citizens in your district want to know who is running to represent them specifically and that they can actually vote for them.

Tri M Graphics has been working to help WIN Political Election Races for over 40 years.  We would love to chat with you and learn more about how you are stepping up to make a difference in your community, region or nation!  As Candidates you are on the front line of the process and we thank you for stepping up to make a difference.

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Michael Jensen

President

Tri M Graphics