Whether it's the vote for class president, team captain, or the president of the United States, winning an election involves a combination of charisma, organization in the campaign, and conveying persuasive messages. Here's how to get people to vote for you.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Know Your Audience
Step 1. Analyze the main issues
Talk to voters to find out what they value in this election. Are they worried about big questions like the quality of upcoming leadership, or are they simply caught up in the thought of lowering taxes? Observe and note these hot points as much as possible and develop thoughtful but firm stances. Do not run for elections because your aim is to obtain a mere victory, you have to deal with the problems and demands at stake.
Step 2. Research your rivals
You certainly won't be the only candidate - you need to take others into consideration and figure out how to outsmart by analyzing their campaigns and how to dissuade people from voting for them. Find out everything there is to know about your prominent antagonists. Try to stand out from them and their key arguments and play with the weaknesses or scandals they are trying to cover up.
Step 3. Find your voting base
Not everyone will like you and not everyone will vote for you, but not all voters will be hard to convince. Find the groups and parts of the population that make up your core of voters who are excited to see you in charge and reach out to them early on. These supporters are vital in organizing volunteers and raising funds for the campaign. You don't have to spend too much time persuading these people, but don't neglect them, a candidate who alienates his base is almost always doomed.
Step 4. Identify your undecided voters
Those who do not know who to vote can infuriate politicians, but they are still the ones who determine a victory or a defeat. Find out what they care about and what factors or policies could earn you their support; only in this way will you be able to aggressively "sell" with them. Once you've built and organized your base, winning over voters who are there to be persuaded by you or that you can steal from your opponents is the number one mission of your campaign.
Step 5. Take surveys regularly
It is rare for the first campaign strategy to be tested to work perfectly. Do some polls to find out how the campaign is progressing and how to adjust it accordingly. Make sure you divide your survey samples based on demographics and the likelihood of people actually voting for you.
Method 2 of 3: Send a Message
Step 1. Tell a story
Voters do not connect with a list of political stances, but with you and your expositions. Greater social justice, a struggle in favor of disadvantaged people against entrenched interests, a movement that allows the community to be recovered from strangers who have only thought about their own affairs or from those who, from within it, have weakened it: these are the points people want to believe in. Your campaign must tell voters a story about you and them that moves them and makes them look forward to giving you the vote. Your campaign materials should describe your vision of what this election means and where the community is going.
Step 2. Use your winning personality
Perhaps it is a sad truth of politics that people prefer to vote for the nicest candidates over those who have more experience or who offer better policies to the population. Many great candidates have lost the election by appearing too rigid or cold. People need to feel that you are one of them, that they might be your friend, or that, at the very least, they might share a meal with you. Do everything in your power to be charismatic, humble, polite, affable and with a good sense of humor, avoid sounding elitist or like a political bureaucrat.
Step 3. Stick to your message
Both the media and the opposition will try to get you to talk about the scandals of your past, issues where your stance does not resemble what voters are told, or any story dominating the current news cycle. Don't get distracted! During debates and campaign events, always try to bring the arguments back to your key message and areas of strength.
Step 4. Create a slogan
Write one short and catchy, something that can be remembered by others. Try rhyming it, making alliterations or giving it a cadence that can allow it to be punctuated by the voters. Bonus points if you can use it to help people remember your name. Your political line may earn you approval, but the average voter will remember, more than anything else, what you can say about yourself in a catchy slogan, so make sure it makes you stand out from your rivals and connect with something supporters have at heart.
If there is only one issue that dominates the campaign and that you can use to be ahead, don't be afraid to create your own slogan, such as "Marco Rossi: People and Not Pipelines" or "Marco Rossi: No to the New Traffic Light."
Step 5. Go to attack
Call your opponents back to any controversial positions from their past or their skeletons in their personal closet, which they tried to bury. People don't like negative campaigns, but the truth is they work. Throwing too much mud at opponents can backfire on you, but a successful campaign must have a hint of this factor. A vote against a rival is usually worth as much as a vote for you.
If you can handle it, try to have a third party deal with these criticisms while you appear above it all. Successful presidential candidates often let their fellow politicians attack their opponents while they focus on the positives
Method 3 of 3: Running a Winning Campaign
Step 1. Gather the volunteers
Even though this is a small election, it's hard to run a winning campaign on your own. Gather volunteers to help you plan campaign events and walk around explaining your policies to voters. Let your friends and family work with you. An enthusiastic volunteer can be worth 100 votes on election day.
Step 2. Get noticed and participate personally
Meet as many people as you can. Even in the digital age, face-to-face conversations are still the best way to win people over. Both you and your most persuasive volunteers and campaign staff should knock on every door and meet voters at popular events and in public spaces. Many people may turn you away, but those who take the trouble to listen to you or shake your hand will likely vote for you or donate or volunteer.
Step 3. Hand out materials to make yourself recognized
The most tangible products in a large campaign are swags, posters, flyers, pins, stickers and t-shirts. Many of them have something more than your name and slogan, or just have a logo. They don't work too hard to get real individual votes, but they make you known and, perhaps, manage to get people to take a look at your site. They also show voters which parts of the community you are already supported: in fact, many people are only willing to join an already adequately popular movement.
You may not really change someone's mind with your materials, but your volunteers will feel disheartened if they have to run the campaign in a neighborhood with only your opponent's posters. Politics is an arms race. If your opponent does one thing, you need to be prepared to keep up with him
Step 4. Raise funds
Winning is not cheap. Every high-impact campaign requires money to print billboards, organize events and pay for hired staff. It starts with the possible large donors, but even donations of a few euros can guarantee a nice sum. If a voter seems to think they want to support you, always ask them to make a donation.
Step 5. Remind people to vote
All fundraisers, campaign events and compelling arguments won't matter if no one shows up on the big day. Do everything you can to get your supporters to vote, from a simple email reminder to providing transportation.
Advice
Study the campaigns of great politicians to learn the strategies that have worked in the past
Warnings
- Running a campaign can be exhausting. You will have to give it your all, but don't get too stressed out. A botched speech will make more news than a good one, so try to sleep and relax.
- Get ready - your private life will be put in the spotlight and torn apart. If you can't handle opponents who come up with your darkest secrets, or make them up, running for election may not be for you.
