Politicians are finally catching up to marketers and influencers. It took a while, but are we surprised?
As I was scrolling the internets this afternoon, I saw a post from Political Communications Savant, Pete Buttigieg, promoting an event he’s hosting on his personal Substack.
There are a few reasons this is super smart, and we’ll get to those in a minute.
Pete and other politicians are taking ownership of their voice and platforms by building massive followings on free subscription services.
I’ve advocated for a while now that politicians, especially those running for local offices (city councils, mayor, etc.) need to start building a personal brand now if they want to win in five years.
Four Reasons Politicians Would Be Smart To Build a Personal Brand Now:
I’ve had some people look at me weird when I say these things, but I’m serious. Especially with the insane amount of money that is going into even the smaller local races these days. Most people can’t raise that much that fast. So, you need to build a personal brand now, so you’re well-known and have leverage later.
Here are three reasons why you need to build a personal brand five years before you run for office.
1. It allows you to become known for solving problems before you run for office
If there is anything people hate, especially in local elections, it is politicians parachuting in out of nowhere with grand proposals to solve their decades-old problems.
It happens every cycle. Some dude no one has ever heard of launches a campaign for office, promising to solve all of our problems that the last six people who held that office never made a dent in.
Building a personal brand years ahead of running allows you to become known more organically and for solving problems.
People will trust you because you’ve spent years on the ground, in their neighborhoods, working to understand and help solve real problems.
A good friend of mine has been the longtime pastor of a local black congregation and spends most weeknights walking the streets of Indianapolis discouraging violence.
He’s told me several times, “Republicans only show up in black communities when it’s election time.”
That’s a trust killer, not a trust builder.
2. It gives you leverage for when it’s time to launch
In the last Indianapolis mayoral election, businessman Jefferson Shreve parachuted in to be the hero. He was extremely wealthy and had ample funds to spend on his campaign.
Shreve, a Republican, was competing against a two-term incumbent Democratic Mayor in a 65% Democratic city. It was an uphill battle from the start…but, hey, at least he had money?
Shreve had been an Indianapolis City-County Councilor, but it had been a while. Name recognition wasn’t there anymore.
To launch the campaign, Shreve started from scratch on social media. New Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. He never did amass any real, substantial following.
He ran plenty of TV and radio ads, but when he needed to communicate directly with voters in real time, he didn’t have an effective way of doing that.
Imagine if he had a large social media following before running for office? Imagine if he had thousands of local residents in an email list before running for office.
Effective communication would have been as easy as clicking “send.”
Shreve got stomped in the election.
He later ran for US House of Representatives in the district where he had the most support in his mayoral campaign. Go figure, his second run had him starting with an email list and social media followings (though, still not huge, but he didn’t need it as much for that voter pool).
3. It removes the algorithms from the equation.
Social media is essential, but if you’re entirely reliant on it, you’re dead in the water.
First, it takes a considerable amount of time to build a significant social media following, even if you’re paying for ads and boosts.
Second, even if you have 5000 Facebook followers, only 1500 of them will see your posts at any given time, organically. Yikes.
Consistently use social media over a long period to build a following. In parallel, convert those social followers to subscribers through services like Substack or Kit.
Always nudge your social followers to become subscribers.
You own your email list. You have no control over your social media accounts. You could be suspended for no reason, hacked, or the algorithms could (will) change and kill your reach (again).
Build slowly and consistently on social and intentionally move people from social to subscriptions.
Email isn’t going away, and it remains the gold standard for effective communication. As of today, email is widely considered to give you a 40:1 return on investment. That’s insane.
Imagine slowly but surely building an email list of thousands of engaged supporters over the next five years, BEFORE you run for office. How much more successful will your campaign launch be if you START with thousands of raving fans?
I’ve watched so many local candidates launch campaigns with 90% of the electorate wondering, “Who are they, and where did they come from?”
As I described earlier, they get stomped.
4. It builds a platform of highly engaged supporters, unhindered by social or traditional media, for when they launch a campaign.
Utilize social media and traditional media to reach the largest audience possible and convert those viewers into subscribers as efficiently as possible.
As I mentioned at the start, Pete Buttigieg is hosting a conversation with Heather Cox Richardson on his Substack, which requires a FREE subscription to access.
Pete has 1.1M Facebook followers.
Heather has 3.1M Facebook followers.
Heather’s much larger and extremely engaged audience will subscribe to Pete’s Substack to hear her talk to him.
Pete will have direct access to her audience, which will help him grow his list, which is just as important as money in political campaigning.
Plan Now. Win Later.
If you’re considering running for office, even locally, in the next 5 years, start building a list now.
Select a social media platform and begin writing and publishing content consistently.
Share your point of view. It’s ok to have opinions. Share them and back them up. Admit when you’re wrong.
Get out in your community. Be known for solving problems long before you ask for anything (votes/donations) in return.
As you grow, encourage followers to subscribe by email.
Use platforms like Substack or Kit – formerly ConvertKit
You might be surprised how much money you DON’T have to spend compared to your opponents when it’s time to launch that campaign.
Look, this isn’t a novel strategy. It’s marketing 101.
Still, it’s something most politicians have failed at over and over again, costing them elections and preventing communities from having stronger leaders in office.
To win an election, you need money and attention. Start building attention now, and the money will follow.