The Political Campaign Website Graphic Design Dilemma

January 13, 2010 by Doug Mitchell
Filed under: Campaign Technology, Red Alert Dossier, local politics

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website-construction You’ve decided you’re running for local office. I’m certain that one of the first thoughts on your mind is to get a website up and running. Congratulations are in order. That’s a great idea. But HERE is where most fresh new candidates for public office take a turn down heartache highway. Here are some smarter next steps in the process of creating a campaign website without blowing your budget on the lipstick.

When most non-technical non-geeky folks like you and me think “website” the first thing that comes to mind is “How will it look?”

It’s very easy to “make a website” today for most of you running for mayor, school board, or city council. Making that same site look good is an entirely different animal. “But I want my picture in the top banner.” “How can I put a family photo album in the sidebar?” Once you figure out you cannot do this on your own, you’ll find a friend, relative, or “young person” to build you a nice looking “online you”. Perhaps you’ve given a nascent “web designer” their first big break int the political world? Or maybe it’s your daughter’s chance to shine. A month or two later (hopefully) you have a decent looking online brochure. Congratulations!

You’ve committed your first big mistake as a candidate and you just left the gate!

As a candidate for public office you must change your thinking. Here are the ways of the force in political websites:

Brochures do 3 things very well…they get old, they get dusty, and they scream out “change me” from the moment they’re printed. Your website will be no different. Don’t create an online brochure no matter how nice it looks. It will get stale rapidly and constituents demand more.
Looks are about 10% of the equation. People will get enough of your smiling face. Information, communication, engagement, and relevance is what voters are after (especially Gen X and younger). Sites with a good flow of information and value are given bonus points that can make up for looks. (Remember personality and what’s on the inside matters more than the outside)
Build your site on the hosted WordPress platform (that’s WordPress.org) if you’re going to do the site or have someone close to you do it. Use the Thesis Theme by DIY Themes. It’s as easy as it gets for semi and non-technical people inside the beautiful world of WordPress. We’ll be developing a full course for our members soon on this whole process so hang tight.
Graphically speaking…invest in only a banner and background. For $300 or less you can get a nice banner and background done by great graphic designers. If you don’t know someone locally, then look online or ask ORS for a referral. If the graphic designer doesn’t know how to work within WordPress or tries to convince you to go elsewhere…well…go elsewhere.
Let go of what you believe looks good at least just a bit. MOST candidates follow a similar formula: colors of the flag, a nice picture, and definitely a YouTube video of you sitting by the fire with the dog and bible. My point is that good graphic designers may have some ideas that take you outside of the campaign box yet still serve those thematic elements you desire.

First, please understand that there is quite a bit more to pulling this version 1.0 of your site off and getting it live. You MUST work with someone who knows WordPress. WordPress allows for exceptionally rapid execution, powerful search engine optimization, and ease of update right out of the box.

The Nitty Gritty Truth-O-Meter

The point of this dissertation is to make you aware of the graphic design trap. I’ve heard of people spending $3k on nice looking brochures. Heck corporate America spends $60k-$100k on these all the time. Don’t get caught up in looks. Focus on what matters and that’s content. If you are hearing this for the first time, please continue trolling our blog for more. Or sign up for our newsletter, video tips, and upcoming webisode series, “The Good, The Bad, and Ugly of Campaign Tech”

If you really want an easy solution that will calm the inevitably pulsing vein in your left temple right now…then you can turn over the entire project to one of the excellent firms providing more “website in a box” services like Red State New Media. They’re robust platform allows you to think less and keep your waders in the garage in exchange for an upfront and/or monthly investment. There’s NOTHING bad about working with firms like these unless you really want to have the flexibility and power to do some pretty amazing things (there’s is an almost direct inverse relationship between POWER/CUSTOMIZATION and EASE OF USE/END USER MANIPULATION. Accept that and you’re well on your way to success.

There are about 100 more things you need to consider in your campaign technology mix (web strategy, content generation, social media, video, audio, etc.) and we write about those often and provide our subscription service as an affordable educational tool to accelerate your winning online campaign strategy. If you’re running for State House or U.S. Congress you may want to give us a call and see how powerful your campaign can really be.