What a great campaign looks like Paul Upex

This training session will start at 5pm.You will be unable to hear any audio until it starts.If you miss anything don’t worry as we will send you the slides and a link to listen to this sessions again.

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If you have any questions please emailtraining@labour.org.uk

Session Aim

We want all our seats across the country to be campaign ready. This means that all seats should have plan of activity for voter and membership engagement throughout the year.

Our aim in this session is to help you plan your campaign activity and budget for it.

Outcomes We want all of our members to play their part in Labour Teams across the country

We want as many members as possible to go out door knocking across the country

We want all members to understand why we campaign

We want to use volunteer time effectively

We want everyone to have a positive impact on the campaign – they can make a difference

We want as many members as possible to have a positive experience of any session they attend

We want everyone to return and help again

We want to win elections

In this session we will be covering:

• Why it’s important to plan• Taking stock and getting started• Planning your campaign

-Your doorstep programme-Your local campaign messaging -Planning your comms grid-Digital campaigning -Activating your membership

• Budgeting & Fundraising

Why we plan

• Preparation and planning are essential

• Helps us use our resources effectively

• Allows us to prepare a lot in advance

• Materials have to be ordered in advance

• Helps us avoid making big mistakes

Where is your seat organisationally?

• In order to plan effectively, we first need to take stock of where our constituency is at.

• This is something you may have already done, but you should be doing and renewing all the time.

Starting to plan

Every constituency is different

Getting started and setting targets Things to consider:

• What’s the electorate?

• How marginal is/are the seat/wards you are fighting?

• What capacity do you have?

• What budget do you have?

• What is your candidate/s’ availability?

• Geography and demography

Planning your Campaign• Legal dates and deadlines

• Canvassing plan - which areas & who are you speaking to?

• Messaging and your communication plan inc. print, digital and media

• Fundraising and infrastructure

• Capacity building & volunteer recruitment

• Training

• High vis campaigning and events

• Candidates’ diaries

• Planning polling day

A few other key tasks…

•Organise a campaign committee planning meeting (MP, candidates, agent, key volunteers, CLP officers, Labour group/council leader) • Include National Campaign activity and Action Saturdays in your strategy•Have you input your Marked Register?•Have you set up your road groups already?

Our Top Tip: have a plan, make lists & get a grid!

Message

Capacity

Print & digital

Voter contact

Elements of a great campaign?

Activating membership• Campaign bulletin• Mobilisation phone bank• One-to-ones• Advertising campaigning events

online events.labour.org.uk• Phoning through members• Training• Building relationships with

neighbouring CLPs

Capacity

Turning your members into campaigners

• Talk to members and find out what they care about

• Focus on issues – ‘save our NHS’ • Get their input on your strategy from

the start • Provide introductory campaign sessions

and introductory campaign training event

• Make it social and varied

A job for everyone• Making lunch for volunteers• Making teas and coffees• Maintaining the constituency office• Putting up garden stakes• Being an endorser• Calling members to get them involved• Organising social/fundraising events• Helping to identify local campaign

issues• Taking photographs• Writing press releases• Driving volunteers• Donating money• Door-knocking

• Phone canvassing• Delivering leaflets• Inputting data• Printing leaflets• Stuffing envelopes• Bundling leaflets• Street Stalls• Collecting petition signatures• Highlighting maps• Social media• Giving out posters• Lending your living room• Putting a poster up

What have we done in the past ?

We would engage and ask around a task

We need to deliver 6000 leaflets

We want to raise xxx amount of money

We need to knock on 500 doors

This approach works up to a certain point

How about we engage around the politics not just the task?

By delivering this leaflet or knocking on these doors you can help elect a Labour councillor that will fight for you locally against the Tory Cuts.

By giving this money you can help purchase direct mail to key voters that we need to win this seat for Labour.

The first step towards winning the next General Election is to win more council seats within this area, you can play your part by……

By attending this training session we will give you the confidence to put your support for Labour into achieving votes for Labour.

Make time to train

• Schedule of events - not just for new members

• On-line and face to face – webinar library and Achieve

• Breaks down barriers to activity- provide briefings

• Incorporate activity into your Constituency Development Plan

Doorstep and telephone conversations

Voter contact

A wide pool of potential Labour voters until you narrow it down then…

Labour voters who voted for the first time in 2017

Potential Switchers Labour supporters who don’t

always vote Strong Labour

Your doorstep conversation programme

Getting out and talking to individual electors about your campaign, their top issues and how they might vote is always a priority.

It is very important to enter marked register data into Contact Creator so that you can use it in your targeting for campaign and GOTV activity.

What are your key campaign messages and what issue campaigns are you going to focus on?

Test key messages on the doorstep and digitally.

Message

Marginal Wards Strong Labour Wards Future Prospect Wards

Print & digital

September October November December January

Newspaper Follow up DM Christmas Card Christmas Card New Year leaflet

Election AddressesNewsletters

Direct Mail

Digital Campaigning

• Not an alternative to door-knocking and print

• The best digital campaigns are the ones that are joined up with what you are doing offline

Digital planning considerations

• Make sure your content is relevant, engaging and frequent

• Ensure it is linked with campaign and print communications

• Set up a digital team and plan communications within your CLP and Branches

• Always prioritise Facebook over Twitter

• USE PROMOTE

• Utilise #ForTheMany so people can feel like they’re part of something bigger and get on board.

• If you have a particularly important post which you’d like more people to see, add something like “Agree with me? Please share this post” so supporters know it’s a key time to get the message out.

• Social media guidance https://members.labour.org.uk/legal_and_compliance_downloads

Facebook

Create community through groups

Mobilise via events

Share messages and create social proof

Twitter Instagram

Personal stories

Rebuttal and attack

Humour

Upselling

“Normalising” politics

FOMO and mobilisation

The pillars of our content

Persuade

Attack

Mobilise

People to vote Labour

The Tories’ policies

Your supporters

Communications grid print and digital

Month Marginal WardsStrong Labour Wards

Future Prospect Wards

October-December

Ward-specific introductory leaflets

Ward-specific introductory leaflets

Targeted ward specific introductory leaflet OR introductory street stall leaflet

January-March

Authority-wide Team Labour Newsletter

Targeted postal vote registration DM

Authority-wide Team Labour newsletter

Limited authority-wide team Labour Newsletter based on capacity

Shortcampaign

Ward Election Addresses 2nd targeted leaflet or hand

delivered direct mail As much posted direct mail as

possible

Ward Election Addresses

Limited Ward Election Address

Polling day

Good morning GOTV card Daytime GOTV card Time is running out GOTV

card

Single polling day card

None

So your grid should be getting busy!

Budget

• Your budget should cover everything you’re spending money on in your campaign plan.

• Don’t depend on money from outside sources.

• Have ‘stretch goals’.

Budgeting• You need to budget for all the costs you will

incur in an election. • The key to this is planning.• Plan backwards from polling day your

canvassing, digital, print, etc and cost everything.

• Make sure you have enough money in the pot/fundraisers upcoming to fund your campaign plan.

Fundraising

Jan Feb March April

Planning Gala Dinner

Newspaper

DD fundraising drive

Increase of campaign activities

Fundraising

Set up a CLP donate page which can be linked via your website or Nation Builder page and used in fundraising emails

Safe and secure way to carry out online

Email membershipaction@labour.org.uk to request one if your CLP doesn’t have one already set up

Include link in regular email communication – People more likely to donate if you can show that you have a concrete plan for how you’re going to use it

5 Action points

1. Start now

2. Be outward facing

3. Create a plan

4. Have clear targets

5. Be ambitious

Useful contacts and sites to visitTraining Team - training@labour.org.uk

https://labour.org.uk/training

https://achieve.labour.org.uk

Labour Membership – labourmembership@labour.org.uk

Call 0345 092 22 99 Option 5 Monday – Thursday 9am–5pm, Friday 9am–4:30pm

https://labour.org.uk/members/about-my-membership/ https://labour.org.uk/new-members/