What It Actually Takes to Run a Campaign

Running a political campaign is hard. It does not matter if you are running for city council or statewide office, if you are running for the first time or the fifth. Every race brings its own set of pressures, and many of them arrive at the same time.

What we have seen over the years is that campaigns rarely fall apart because one thing went wrong. They fall apart because the pieces did not work together. Research pointing one direction, communications going another. Digital spending disconnected from the messaging strategy.

That is the problem Strategies 360 was built to solve. We are a team of strategists who bring experience across every aspect of campaign work – management, research, fundraising, digital, direct mail, and communications – to support our clients. Whether that’s running the full campaign or providing support in one area, we are here to support our client in whatever way they need.

Campaign Management
Every well-run campaign needs someone keeping all the pieces moving together.

Our campaign managers have worked races at every level — competitive school board races, ballot measures, and statewide office. They know how to build a structure that keeps teams aligned, how to bring together the necessary coalitions to lead to victory, and how to adjust when the race inevitably changes.

Campaign management, done well, is what makes the difference in a tight race. It connects research to messaging, messaging to digital, and digital to what the candidate is doing on the ground to connect with constituents and build a durable coalition that extends beyond the ballot box. S360’s knowledgeable campaign managers understand these key details, and how to best knit them together to build and run a comprehensive campaign.

Research
We think about research the way a good navigator thinks about maps. You do not skip it because you think you know where you are going. We use research like you would use a map to understand challenges ahead, how to navigate around them, and find the most effective route to success.

Our research practice covers what campaigns need to make good decisions: baseline and tracking polling, message development and testing, voter targeting and segmentation, qualitative research including focus groups and opposition research . We work with campaigns early to establish a clear picture of the electorate, and we keep working throughout the race because voters and circumstances shift.

What matters most is how research connects to the rest of the work. When polling comes back, it does not go into a report which gets filed away. It goes directly into a conversation with the communications team, the digital team, and the campaign manager. The research acts as a foundation to build the rest of the campaign on.

Fundraising
Fundraising is often treated as a separate track from the rest of a campaign. We think that is a mistake.

The way a campaign raises money reflects and reinforces its message. A fundraising email is not just an ask, it is a communication from the candidate to someone who is paying attention. When it aligns with what the campaign is saying everywhere else, it builds trust and momentum. When it does not, donors notice.

The results we have seen back this up. Last cycle, our fundraising work helped raise over $5.25 million for clients including the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Mary Peltola, Sharice Davids, and Jonathan Nez. Across the campaigns our fundraising team has worked on, we have won 13 of 16 races.

A lot of that comes down to how we think about donors. Not every donor is the same, and not every donor is right for every candidate. Someone might enthusiastically support an incumbent but pass on a challenger or an open seat race. Understanding those distinctions and building outreach around them is the difference between a donor list and a fundraising strategy. We take time to understand each candidate, the issues, and each potential donor before we build the plan.

We also pay close attention to channels that other campaigns are underusing. Direct mail fundraising is one of them. There are donors who do not give online, cannot make it to events, but still want to be involved and will respond to the right piece of mail. For one current client, we run targeted direct mail fundraising every quarter and consistently see an average return of 250% — meaning for every $10,000 spent, the campaign brings in $25,000. A strong email or text program, by comparison, typically returns around 120% on that same spend. Both have a place but ignoring mail means leaving real money on the table.

Our fundraising team works closely with the research and communications teams so that donor outreach is consistent with the broader strategy — and so that every channel, from digital to direct mail, is working together rather than in parallel.

Digital Marketing
Digital is not a supplement to campaign strategy anymore. For most races, it is central to it. This is how you reach voters, how you break up the endless scroll.

Our digital capabilities cover paid advertising across social platforms, display, programmatic, and connected TV, along with email and SMS programs, and social content. But the more important question is how digital fits with everything else.

A common challenge we see in campaigns is when the digital team is working in a vacuum, away from the rest of the team. At Strategies 360, the digital team is part of the strategy from the beginning. They see the research. They are involved in message development. They know what the communications team is doing, and they are working in the same direction. That makes the digital investment more effective and allows the campaign to move fast when it needs to – whether that means pushing a coordinated rapid response or shifting spend based on what tracking research is showing.

Communications
Strategy only works if it reaches voters, and a communications plan is how that happens.

Our communications strategies tie research-backed messaging to the right audiences on the right platforms to reach persuadable voters. The S360 communications team handles media relations, press strategy, message discipline, and rapid response. We work from the same research and messaging foundation as every other part of the campaign, which means what the candidate is saying publicly is consistent with what voters are hearing through paid and digital channels.

There are many ways in which communications can show up and be effective for a campaign. From helping secure media endorsements to the final voter pamphlet statements, from mailers with the most effective messages to the right social media strategy – strong communications tactics can and do improve outcomes for campaigns.

From the moment you know you want to be on the ballot – as a candidate or with a policy issue – a communications plan with clear messages and target audiences is critical to driving the campaign. We help candidates work through that early, so that when things move fast — and they will — the team has a clear and shared understanding of what the message is.

Your Partner
No two campaigns are the same. A first-time candidate running in a competitive legislative district has different needs than an incumbent defending a statewide seat. A ballot measure campaign operates differently than a candidate race. The communities, the voters, the resources available, and the pressures involved are different every time.

That is why we do not start with a preset package or a standard plan. We work with the candidate or client to develop their plan. For some campaigns, that means the full suite. For others, it means targeted support in one or two areas where they need the most help. What stays constant is the commitment to building a plan around the candidate, not fitting the candidate into a plan we already had.
We are strategists who believe that research, management, communications, digital marketing, and fundraising work better when they are connected. That is why we are proud to be an integrated firm of strategists. If you are running a race and want to talk about what that kind of partnership looks like, we would love to have that conversation.

Additional Campaign Services
Our track record of successful campaign support proves that our approach works. Since 2019 we’ve worked on over 200 campaigns on a range of topics including:

• Bonds and levies for schools, fire and emergency services, parks and libraries
• Cannabis legalization
• Childcare programs
• Climate protections
• Housing and homelessness programs
• Paid family leave and women’s access to abortion rights
• Tribal council positions
• City, state and federal representatives
• Judges
• And more!

Strategies 360 is an integrated firm offering marketing and creative services, communications, research, and public and government affairs to solve big challenges. We partner with clients who work at the intersection of business, politics, culture, and community. Headquartered in Nevada, with offices in Alaska, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington, S360 brings local knowledge and context while collaborating across the western region to support our clients and each other.