Political Campaign Tips and Strategies
Practical guides for candidates running local and state campaigns. Find advice on starting a campaign, building your online presence, fundraising, messaging, voter outreach, and more.
Essential Guides for Political Candidates
How to Prepare for a Run for Local Office
Learn the basics of preparing for a local campaign, including qualifications,
budgeting, fundraising, building a campaign team, filing requirements, and
getting voters to the polls.
Read the guide
Political Campaign Timeline
See what needs to happen before, during, and after a campaign launch, from early planning and filing through fundraising, voter outreach, and Election Day.
View the timeline
How to Build a Political Campaign Website
A practical guide to planning, building, and launching a campaign website that gives voters the information they need and supports your campaign goals.
Read the website guide
Campaign Website Pages: What Every Candidate Needs to Include
Find out which pages and content your campaign website should include to inform voters, collect support, accept donations, and keep your campaign active.
See the essential pages
Comparing Political Donation Platforms
Compare common political fundraising platforms and the factors campaigns should consider when choosing a service for accepting online contributions.
Compare donation platforms
Differences Between a Campaign Slogan, Message and Platform
Understand how your campaign slogan, core message, and issue platform work together—and the different role each plays in communicating with voters.
Learn the differences
Need a Campaign Website?
Online Candidate has helped political candidates build their online presence since 2004. See our custom campaign website packages and campaign-specific features.
Online Candidate Introduces Updated Campaign Website Platform
Online Candidate has launched an updated website platform for political campaigns, with improved content editing, expanded event management, new voter-engagement tools, and better options for promoting campaign donations. The new system builds on Online Candidate’s...
Campaign Website Pages: What Every Candidate Needs to Include
Most campaign websites have one of two problems: they are either missing key pages, or they are filled with pages that don’t do much. Some campaign sites launch with just a homepage and a short bio. Others include everything: long issue pages, press releases, photo...
How Much Does a Political Campaign Website Cost?
How much does a political campaign website cost? It can be almost nothing, a few hundred dollars, a few thousand dollars, or much more. That range confuses a lot of candidates, especially in races where budgets are tight and website decisions have to be made quickly....
One Campaign Messaging Style Does Not Fit Every Office
Many first-time candidates assume campaign messaging works the same for every race. It does not. What works for a sheriff candidate may feel completely out of place in a school board race. Judicial campaigns often require a more restrained tone than mayoral or city...
How Many Households Must I Reach to Win A Local Election?
You probably don’t need to reach as many as you might think. Let’s assume that you have already figured out the number of votes you need to win your election, but you want to know how many households that translates into. In other words, how many doors can you expect to knock on?
Comparing Political Donation Platforms – Our Recommendations
We are often asked by our political website clients (and potential clients) what fundraising services and tools we recommend for their online campaigns. In this article, we’ll walk you through the best political donation platforms, offering a comparison of features,...
Why Fundraising Is the Hardest Part of Running for Office
The hardest part of running for office is asking for money. Unless you're independently wealthy or have a generous benefactor, you will need outside financial support to get your campaign off the ground. For many candidates, this is unfamiliar territory. If you’ve...
Why Starting Your Campaign Website Early Makes Sense
Most candidates don’t decide they need a website on their own. It’s usually when someone else points it out. That’s usually the moment candidates start thinking seriously about their online presence.
Campaign Website Mistakes That Cost You Votes (and How to Fix Them)
A campaign website should do three things: clearly identify the candidate, guide visitors to take action, and support the campaign over time. Most campaign website mistakes happen when one of those three functions breaks down. A campaign website is not a digital...
What To Know Before You Accept Political Donations Online
As costs and technical barriers have dropped, political campaigns of all sizes are now raising money on the web. Today, even local candidates can easily set up an online donation page.
Online Candidate makes it easy to launch your political website and build your online presence.
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