Thousands of people every year in the United States get involved in local campaigning for office without much of an idea how to run a local election effort.
While having a desire to serve your community is a great attribute and will make you a terrific public servant, you first need to know how to run a local election effort in order to earn the job.
Local campaigning doesn't have to be as complicated as you might think.
Elections on a statewide or national level can get very in-depth and difficult, but local campaigns are something that a new candidate can usually handle without much experience.
There are two vital elements of a local election: good planning and hard work.
Far too many candidates in local campaigning fail to put together a thorough campaign plan before election season hits, and it ends up hurting them at the polls.
Your political campaign plan doesn't necessarily have to include every minute detail, but it does need to cover some essential elements that will make campaigning easier.
First, make sure that you do research and planning for your neighborhood canvassing, or door-to-door efforts.
Take a look at the results of previous elections and see what precincts or wards had a higher voter turnout, and plan on visiting these neighborhoods frequently during your local campaigning effort.
While there is no harm in visiting homes located in areas that have low turnout, don't spend too much time campaigning there.
Additionally, putting together a likely voter list, complete with home addresses and phone numbers, is an extremely effective local campaigning tactic.
Your list of likely voters is going to allow you to send out very targeted direct mail pieces, which will ensure that you don't waste any postage on residents who aren't likely to show up to vote.
And if your likely voter list also includes phone numbers, you'll be able to increase your name identification by calling voters at their home in the weeks before the election.
Perhaps the most important element of any local campaigning effort is hard work.
If you work hard, you can make up for a lack of political campaign experience.
Knowing how to use campaign tactics and strategies is a definite benefit, but without hard work even the best plans won't help you win a local election.
Remember: the harder it is, the better it will work in a local political campaign.
Even if you don't end up winning your race on election day, keep in mind that many candidates need to run a few times before they eventually get elected to office.
Tenacity is a very valuable political attribute, and you shouldn't let a loss stop you from running again.
Each time you run for office, you build up your name recognition in the community.
Although you don't want to be the candidate who runs every year and always loses, you can turn a loss into a benefit by learning from your mistakes, keeping good records of your supporters and contacts, and building name recognition gradually.