5 Tools a Campaign Can’t Live Without

Campaigns and startups have a lot in common. But for some reason, most campaigns don’t embrace the off-the-shelf toolsets that startups routinely integrate into their organizations to improve their rate of scale.

Don’t make this mistake.

We put together this short list of tools a campaign can’t live without to get you started. Here is our video recapping three of them, with more details below if you’re ready to dive in deeper:

Slack

For any team over five people, Slack is a must-have. It keeps your communications moving, allows you to segment conversations more easily, and integrates with thousands of tools such as Asana, Trello, and Google Drive.

A lot of campaigns and agencies have adopted Slack for their internal communications, but if you haven’t, you should get your team set up and join the other 8 million daily active users. Slack is one of those tools that, once you integrate it into your work environment, you can’t imagine a day without it.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a live shot of any office if Slack is down…

G Suite

I know that there are some folks who will criticize using Google tools for privacy reasons, but that said – in an environment where you have to build and organize an operation in under a year, having a toolset that handles all of the major day-to-day types of products you need to create and organize – calendar, word processing, spreadsheets, slides – is key.

Also, since the vast majority of potential staff will have an existing knowledge-base on how to use it, there is simply no better tool to move you faster and farther. Add to that the deep integration with Slack and hundreds of other applications through Zapier (more below), and it’s tough to find a better tool to have your team working with.

Zapier

Two things that could make or break your campaign operation are the speed at which you operate and how you manage all of your incoming information. That’s where Zapier comes in. Zapier takes two tools or platforms, Google Sheets and Revv for example, and acts as the middle-man for their API.

While setting up Zaps across all of your platforms can be time consuming, automating these tasks will save you a lot of time in the lifetime of the campaign. As a general rule of thumb, any time you have a specific formula or process that needs to be followed when moving information between different apps (i.e. volunteer signs up online and their email needs to be added to a list for a field office to contact them), you should consider using Zapier. Check out this guide for 350 of the most popular Zaps.

Examples of Revv integrations:

Dialpad

Take your campaign operations to the next level by adding Dialpad, a cloud-based communications platform that hosts voice, messaging, video, and meetings across all your existing devices. Dialpad allows you to make and receive calls, messages, and video from anywhere. With Dialpad, you have a central number as well as sub numbers for your whole team.

My favorite feature is that you can create multiple ring-throughs for specific lines. For example, if a volunteer has a question they can call a number to connect with someone on the field team, and if that first person isn’t available it will ring through to another team member. If you need another reason to add Dialpad to the mix, it allows analytics on texts and calls made by your team, so you can see what’s happening at all times.

Iterable

In digital political marketing, email is still king. That means you need an email system that can deliver, and Iterable can do it all. With Iterable, we’ve built custom integrations to connect with our web forms and back-end data tracking, so no data goes missing in the transition from website to email system to reporting. Iterable uses high-quality sending IPs to ensure every email hits the intended inbox.

Iterable is also fully integrated with many CRMs and online fundraising platforms such as Revv and WinRed, allowing us to create real time reporting dashboards. Our integrations with Revv and WinRed also allow us to update data and trigger workflows from donations as they happen.

Embrace these tools and you’ll see improvement in campaign communication, speed, and consistency. Setting up Slack is easy, but if you’re nervous about custom workflows in Iterable, don’t break a sweat. That’s where a digital firm like IMGE comes in.

If you’re interested in learning more about what IMGE has to offer your campaign, we’d love to hear from you.