By Kory Wood (Partner)
Every campaign cycle, we hear the same question from candidates and organizations:
“What’s the best tactic?”
Is mail better than TV?
Should I invest more in digital?
Do I really need social media?
The honest answer may surprise you: there is no single “best” tactic. Winning campaigns don’t rely on one channel, they rely on a complete, integrated strategy.
Voters don’t live in one place. They check their mail, watch TV, scroll on their phones, see ads online, receive texts, answer phone calls, and, yes, open the door when someone knocks. A campaign that only shows up in one of those spaces is easy to miss, and easy to forget.
A complete campaign works because:
- Mail delivers depth and credibility. It’s tangible, targeted, and trusted.
- Television builds scale and name recognition quickly.
- Digital advertising reinforces your message repeatedly, reaching voters where they spend their time.
- Social media humanizes the candidate and keeps the campaign relevant and responsive.
- Texts and calls create direct voter contact, delivering timely reminders and driving turnout.
- Door knocking builds personal connection, the most powerful form of persuasion when done right.
- Consistent messaging across all platforms builds trust and momentum.
Each tactic reinforces the others. Mail primes a voter for a TV ad. A digital ad reminds them of what they saw on television. A text reinforces the message. A knock at the door makes it personal. Together, these touches create familiarity, and familiarity wins elections.
When campaigns ask us to choose one tactic, what they’re really asking is how to get the biggest return. The truth is, the strongest return comes from coordination, not shortcuts.
Successful campaigns don’t ask, “Which channel should I use?”
They ask, “How do we make sure voters hear our message everywhere they are?”
That’s what a complete campaign does, and that’s how victories are built.
If you’d like to talk about what a fully integrated strategy looks like for your race, we’re always happy to have that conversation.
