With Newt's campaign in shambles and his continued insistence that he intends to run a different kind of campaign, let's see if we can put some meat on the bone with an online strategy that will help him regain his footing.
As someone who ran a online, grassroots campaign in 2008 presidential primary(Huckabee), I've got some thoughts on the subject.
Here are 10 things, in no particular order, Newt could and should do online to regain momentum:
1. Flood the zone: Newt's team should embrace his idea a minute impulses and push them out online through social media channels. He is going to say something stupid and get himself in trouble, but he will come across like the genuine ideas factory he is. His political consultants will hate it, voters won't.
2. Use Video: It's sticky content that is best unscripted. Have someone follow him around. Lend some authenticity to his new grassroots campaign. 30-60 second clips. Video keeps people on your website and when they cross the 3-4 minute mark, you'll see something amazing, they will convert into a donation and/or volunteer.
3. Organize bloggers for Newt: He's lost DC media for now and he won't win over the big time GOP bloggers anytime soon, so start focusing on small supportive blogs. Provide banners for their websites that link back to campaign website and let them guest blog on website. Hold weekly conference calls of 30 minutes in length with this group. Set the tone with 5-10 minute Newt intro and have him take questions for balance of time. As this group grows, the campaign will start to see the benefits of their support (increase web traffic, donations, volunteers, etc). This is the long tail of web traffic and a focus on them in the early going will help build a very loyal base of support.
4. Focus fundraising on the number of donors, not dollars: I am assuming campaign will be able to rein in costs. The big money bundlers are long gone and the campaign is going to have to build a grassroots base of support. It's a mistake to rely on direct mail and telemarketing for this because the cost of fundraising is too high. Online fundraising is immediate and the net yield per donor is much higher. So in the early going, focus on the number of donors. Set a goal of 2-3,000 donors for June, 15-20,000 for next quarter and so on. It's a long slow road to build a strong grassroots base of support but a donor list built on small sums will shine come crunch time next year.
5. Resist the temptation to advertise online. Only do so if the campaign can net money. If not, skip advertising for now. The campaign doesn't need it with Newt's style. He is a quote a minute and will get plenty of media exposure from it.
6. Rework website donation form to allow smaller donations. It may not seem like much money, but the campaign will make more multi donors with a $3 ask. And once they give a second time, it's not hard to get them to give again and again.
7. Focus on website traffic: Goal should be 10,000 visitors minimum per day now. By the time the caucuses, primaries roll around campaign should be north of 100,000+ per day if Newt is going to win. All of that content (see earlier point) is pushing traffic to website, and bloggers for newt team should be over 1,000 blogs by caucus time. Donations, volunteers, etc will follow.
8. Iowa grassroots focus: Try to finish top 3 at straw poll. That means the campaign will need between 2-3,000 supporters to show up and vote. How does that happen? Collect pledged straw poll votes online starting today (Facebook, Twitter, website, etc). Put them on a google map and don't count on the ones outside of 3 hours drive time (they are gravy if they show). Get a Whip count going in the campaign hq and ask your small iowa blogs, grassroots leaders each to find 5-10 people online who will come vote. Don't rent buses like Brownback. Get volunteers to drive folks. People will do that because Newt is going to spend 30 minutes on the phone with these folks once a week talking about issues and winning them over.
9. Unique Iowa content: Start providing videos for specific websites like IowaRepublican, Caffeinated Thoughts, etc. Exclusive content they will post. Mention them by name. Flood them with content also. They are looking for something to write about anyway. The campaign won't be able to reach every voter, but most of the straw poll voters and caucus voters will touch one of these websites at least once before they vote. Make certain Newt is on their front page when that happens by providing lots of content
10. Start sending more email. Newt is a heck of a speaker and that should translate into some of the best emails on the GOP side. Make them short with compelling content that people will forward. Issue stuff that's in campaign's wheelhouse as well as something that will be well received by GOP base (nothing in the weeds issues like EPA, card check, etc).
These are just some of the things I think it will take for Newt's campaign to be successful online. It's a long hard climb to the top from the position he is in, but it's been done before.
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