Jacob McGuire, Production Coordinator & Traffic Manager
Campaign themes have an integral role in developing effective communications for your political action committee. Here are five questions you should consider when you are looking at taking a thematic approach to communicating with your PAC audience:
Who is the targeted audience for the campaign?
Developing communications starts how every conversation does: determining your target audience. Whether you refer to them as colleagues, employees, members, ambassadors, champions, or all the above, it is important to know who they are, what they do for the organization, and how they want to be communicated to.
What is the impact/reach and goal of the campaign? Setting reachable and attainable goals is the foundation for any campaign. It starts and sometimes ends the conversation, but it’s not always the most guiding principle. That’s why taking the SMART approach to goal setting is essential in running an effective campaign.
Specific. Ask yourself: “What do I want to achieve with this campaign?” Is it education, solicitation, or both?
Measurable. Consider the parameters you will use to determine whether you’ve met your goals or not.
Achievable. Ask yourself, “Do I have everything I need to accomplish these goals?” If not, determine where you can get the resources you need to be successful.
Relevant. Ensure the PAC goals align with the overall organizational goals.
Time bound. Set a deadline for your goals and stick to it.
Does this campaign provide an opportunity to incorporate both education and solicitation into the messaging?
If you want your campaign to implement education and solicitation messages, also known as a hybrid campaign, there are some additional factors you should consider.
First, you need to determine how many messages make up the campaign.
Next, go back and look at the overall goal you set for the campaign using the SMART approach and determine if a hybrid campaign fits into that goal. If so, you will need to decide how many education versus solicitation pieces are appropriate.
Finally, you need to establish the cadence. Will the education messages be on the front-end to lay the foundation for the solicitation pieces, or do you want to make the ask right out of the gate?
Do the issues and theme speak to topics important to your organization's stakeholders as determined through research?
Answering this question starts with whether your organization has utilized a market research instrument. If so, let those results and verbatims guide the themes discussion. If not, consider utilizing a survey as it provides great insight into the audience and stakeholders you are trying to communicate with. You can always refer to one of our recent articles discussing market research to learn how to leverage it to engage your audience.
Does the theme lend itself to creative and engaging graphic elements that will help engage audience members from different demographic and psychographic backgrounds?
This question is more than just determining whether it looks pretty or not. It’s also about how engaging the theme is or could be. Here are some supplemental questions to ask:
Does it allow for utilization of GIFs, videos, or other engaging media?
What are the subject lines you envision for the emails?
Are the emails mobile-responsive?
Picking a theme for a campaign starts with an idea. However, the planning and resources you put into that idea will be the main factors in determining whether it will be successful or not. To learn more about how we can support your PAC communications, contact our team today at info@sagac.com.