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.
Raising Seed Money For Your Political Campaign
One of the largest obstacles that small political campaigns face is raising initial funds for the race. It’s hard to start a campaign without money, but it’s hard to raise money without spending some. Mailers cost money. Holding events or rallies require some sort of up-front cost. Many local candidates simply don’t have a lot of funds to put up themselves.
Facebook Political Ad Authorization – What You Need To Know
A number of clients and outside candidates have reached out to us because they've had problems getting authorized to run political ads on Facebook. If you don't know already, Facebook requires verification from you or a member of your campaign if you want to run...
Every Vote Counts – Video
Getting the most votes on Election Day is the most important part of the campaign process. Your GOTV efforts are all about supporter turnout. So why do so many eligible voters forget to vote on Election Day? The video below shows a variety of reasons, from being too...
So You Want To Run For Mayor? Here’s How To Get Started
Most people associate a mayoral position with a large city. However, the position of mayor as the head of a municipality extends to small towns and villages. The majority of mayors and the city council, village, or town council are directly elected by the voters. This...
5 Political Campaign Video Ideas
Uploading campaign video content to a YouTube channel provides a place to store the files, an additional place for voters to find you online, and a way to easily embed videos into your website or blog.
Resources for Teaching Political Campaigning to Students
Teachers and educators have used our articles as further reading when teaching political campaigning to students. This includes high school and even college-level courses. Our material is non-partisan and without particular bias, so it's safe to use in lesson plans...
Local Election Laws And Your Campaign Website
Local election laws vary from state to state, and from office to office. If you are a candidate, it’s essential that you know the rules that apply to you online before you create a campaign website.
Don’t Distance Your Campaign From Voters
These are uncharted times for down-ballot campaigns. With in-person contact limited, candidates are reaching voters through digital marketing. Online Candidate is here to help. From our articles to our campaign resource site to our marketing services, we help...
For Political Campaigns, Summertime Is No Time For A Vacation
Despite everything that is going on in the world today, primary and general elections are still on their way. Even if it's summertime, it's no time for a vacation. Political campaigns of all types need to get organized and fired up. This is especially true for local...
Using Facebook Live for Your Political Campaign
Reaching voters online is more important than ever. For local political candidates, the 2020 shift from door-to-door canvassing and in-person fundraising events to online-only campaigning has been particularly jarring. Candidates with little online experience shifted...
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