The keys to basic campaigning

When you boil it down, a campaign is just an organised action to create change. But there are some key concepts to campaigning that can help give you the best chance to achieve that change. 

Know your “end state”…

No campaign can exist unless it knows what it’s campaigning to achieve. It’s pretty obvious, change can only be won if you’re certain on what change it is you’re seeking.

Whenever I sit down on my own or with a team, I answer a few basic questions:

• What is the existing status quo that you are trying to change?
• Why do you want to change this?
• Who are the winners and who are the losers by changing the current situation?
• What exact changes (large and small) could improve matters?
• Which campaign assets and resources are at your disposal?
• How long do you have to campaign to create this change?

By answering these questions you will have the answer you need to create a basic campaign strategy.

This will be how you know what success looks like. You will have a picture of what the desired “end state” you are looking to create.

It will be your guide that keeps you on track and should be updated as the campaign progresses and as the conditions/situation changes.

In addition, broaden it out and share it and get feedback. Everyone on your campaign should know the answers to the above – a secret campaign strategy is as useful as an empty map.

Map key stakeholders…

The stakeholders are anyone or thing that is impacted by the change you are seeking to make. 

For example, it is any organisation, person(s), institution or group(s) that are connected to your desired end state.

It is vital you learn as much as you can about them. 

Ask yourself… what is their relationship to the status quo and the end state scenario? And what is their relationship to each other? Figure out what interest and influence they will have for your campaign? 

Then decide which of these stakeholders you should focus on to reach your end state!

There are many ways to go about this task, but my preferred way, and one I find fun one if working in a group or a team, is to create a diagram map with all the stakeholders you can list together, and then connect them. It can be a fun group activity to discuss how you categorise them. 

Make the campaign goal-driven but analysis led…

After you have mapped your stakeholders, begin to define specific goals for your campaign. These are the things that will bring about your desired end state scenario.

Then allocate the relevant stakeholder based upon their influence and interest in each one of these goals.

This should all tell you who are your key target audience(s) that you will need to communicate with in order to bring about the change you seek. 

You just need to decide what communications strategy you need to deploy to influence them…