Why Some Campaigns Win With Less

Behind every yard sign, every social media post and every dollar a campaign spends, a message is being sent. The question is whether voters are hearing what the candidate thinks they’re saying.

Over the last six months, I’ve driven past plenty of campaign signs here in Upstate South Carolina. Some made me want to learn more about the candidate. Others made me wonder if the candidate had read their own sign from a voter’s point of view.

What does your yard sign make people ask?

In one county council race, two yard signs caught my attention. One promised to be a voice for the people. The other said, “We’ll get it done.”

My first thought was, Who’s “we”? And what exactly are y’all getting done? I looked into the campaign, and I still had a hard time telling which priorities the candidate wanted voters to rally around.

The other sign gave me a different question. How has this person been a voice for the people? That sent me looking for examples. When I found them, I could connect the words on the sign to work the candidate had already done.

Both signs made me curious. One gave me a promise I could check.

The message has to matter to enough people

In another local race, “Putting Kids First” went up against “A Voice for You.” You’d think “Putting Kids First” would be hard to beat. Who’s lining up to put kids second? But the candidate running on “A Voice for You” won. So did the county council candidate who ran on being a voice for the people.

My read on the school race was that some voters had specific concerns about what was happening in their schools and wanted someone who would hear them out. In the council race, debates over new subdivisions and tax agreements mattered to some voters. The promise of having someone on council who would listen to them may have reached people who came to the race with very different concerns.

A message can be crystal clear and still speak to too few people to move the race. That’s where audience research comes in.

Listen before you print the signs

In business, we call it customer research. In a campaign, it can start with knocking on doors and paying attention to what people bring up before you tell them what you’re running on. Too often, candidates settle on a slogan and build the signs, videos and social posts around it before they’ve had those conversations.

I’m a veteran, and I’m proud of it. But if I’m talking to teachers about their schools, I still owe them an answer about what I’ll do for their classrooms. And if I’m talking to somebody who swerves around the same pothole every morning, I’d better have something to say about that road.

Before you spend a dollar on signs, ask yourself three questions.

• Who am I trying to reach, and are there enough of them to make a difference?
• What do they keep bringing up in their own words?
• What can I show them that proves I’ve listened and am willing to do something about it?

That’s how a $1,500 campaign with 50 signs can beat a $50,000 campaign with hundreds. A bigger budget can put your message in front of more people. The work is giving those people a reason to care.