Writing Online Campaign Plans

Overview of a Campaign Plan, pt 1

• Goal• Target Audiences– Who are you mobilizing to advocate/take action?– Which policymakers are you trying to persuade?

• Actions and channels• Message– Top line– Additional messages

Overview of a Campaign Plan, pt 2• Channels– Website– Email– Social Media– Offline (Phone, Direct Mail, etc.)

• Creative– Website– Ads– Email, etc.

• Success Metrics• Budget and Timeline

Campaign Goal

• What are you specifically trying to accomplish?– Legislation defeated or passed?– Change corporate policy– Raise money– Raise awareness on a specific issue– Grow your contact list– Recruit volunteers– Elect a candidate– Pass /defeat a referendumNote: You may have multiple goals.

Target Audiences

• Who are you mobilizing to advocate/take action?– Grassroots activists, grasstop leaders, social media

influencers, press?• Which policymakers are you trying to

persuade?– Congress (all of it or specific members)?– Corporations (manufacturers, media outlets, etc.)– Voters

Actions and Channels

• Actions – what do you want people to do?– Send email, make call, send letter to policymaker– Attend event , rally, knock on doors, or visit

legislator– Share content on social media, post comments to

policymakers on social media, change profile image, etc.

Message

• Top line message – What is catch phrase or primary message you want people to know?– Informative or mobilizing?

• Additional messages – What supporting messages will you deliver to your audiences?– Variations for different audiences– Supporting facts– Comebacks to opponent talking points– Etc.

Channels

• Channels –How will you reach your audience?– Website – what will it look like? What will it say?

What can you do on it?– Email – What will it look like? Who will you send it

to?– Social media – Which social media does your

targeted audiences use?– Offline – Events, direct mail, radio, TV to deliver

your message.– Ads – Will you pay for ads, too? Where?

Creative

• Website – Create mock-up/wireframe• Email – Draft actual text for emails sent to all

targeted audiences• Social Media – What will you talk about on

Twitter and Facebook (give examples); what videos will you make or find/share?

• Other – If you are including any other types of messages for your campaign, carefully describe it.

Metrics of Success

• What does success look like?– How many people need to take action to be

successful?– How many views of your creative are needed to

get your message out?– What other metrics will help you make case that

your campaign worked?

• Metrics tools– What tools will you use to measure success

Budget and Timeline

• Budget – Lay out costs of all aspects of the campaign

• Timeline – When do you start, how long will things take, when will you launch, when will campaign end?

Final Comments

• Your campaign plan should be a blueprint that a project manager can follow and a supervisor can understand.– Supervisor needs to understand what you plan to

do and how you plan to do it– You, a project manager and your team need a

clear understanding of what they have to do.

• If your plan doesn’t do these things, it is incomplete.