How to conduct a SWOT Analysis for your political campaign
One of the first things any candidate should do prior to announcing is complete a full SWOT analysis of their upcoming race. Here's a quick primer on everything you need to know about SWOT analyses.
One of the first things any candidate for political office should do prior to announcing is complete a full SWOT analysis of their upcoming race.
A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool that can help identify your campaign's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) — providing you and your team key insights on items that can potentially help or hurt your campaign down the road.
Conducting a SWOT analysis will also allow you to develop a better understanding over the overall landscape for the race, helping you create a more effective strategy from the get-go.
How does one conduct a SWOT Analysis?
The most effective way to conduct a SWOT analysis is to take a deep-dive into your campaign from the lens of the four elements that make up a SWOT analysis — in that order.
First, take a look at your campaign’s unique strengths and weaknesses and how they could shape the race:
Strengths
The positive attributes and resources that give your campaign a competitive advantage.
Examples:
Candidate having a clean-cut image or affable personality.
Candidate being able to (at least partly) self-fund their campaign.
Questions to help you identify your campaign’s strengths:
What are your candidate's qualifications and experience?
What are your campaign's strengths in terms of organization, fundraising, and volunteer support?
What are your campaign's core messages and values?
What are your campaign's strengths in terms of social media and digital outreach?
Weaknesses
The negative attributes and limitations that hinder your campaign's performance or growth.
Examples:
Candidate having a past criminal record.
Candidate having made past controversial statements or political votes that are in the public record.
Questions to help you identify your campaign’s weaknesses:
What areas does your campaign need to improve in?
What are your candidate's weaknesses in terms of experience, qualifications, or public speaking skills?
What are your campaign's weaknesses in terms of organization, fundraising, or volunteer support?
What are your campaign's weaknesses in terms of social media and digital outreach?
Once you’ve identified any internal elements that could impact your campaign strategy, you can then focus on any external factors in play (opportunities and threats).
Opportunities
The positive factors in the external environment that your campaign can leverage to achieve its goals.
Examples:
Running in an uncontested primary.
Receiving an endorsement/support from local party units.
Questions to help you identify your campaign’s biggest opportunities:
What are the current trends in the political landscape that your campaign can leverage?
What are the key issues that voters are concerned about?
What are your campaign's strengths that you can capitalize on?
What weaknesses does your opponent have that you can exploit?
Threats
The negative factors in the external environment that could potentially harm your campaign.
Examples:
Running against a well-funded and/or well-liked opponent.
Questions to help you identify your campaign’s biggest threats:
What are the challenges that your campaign faces in terms of the political climate, funding, or voter turnout?
What are the strengths of your opponent?
What are the weaknesses of your own campaign that could be exploited by your opponent?
Here are some examples of how your SWOT analysis can be implemented into your campaign strategy:
Strengths: If your candidate has a strong track record of public service, you can use this strength to highlight your candidate's qualifications and experience. You can also use this strength to position your candidate as a trusted and effective leader.
Weaknesses: If your candidate doesn’t have the ability to self-fund or won’t be able to raise a lot of money for the race, you’ll be able to adjust early on and focus on a campaign plan that prioritizes low-cost strategies like grassroots outreach (door knocking, phone banking) and organic media.
Opportunities: If polling/past research shows that voters in your district are concerned about a key issue — such as education — you can prioritize your candidate’s position on education policy in all of your communications efforts. You can also try to partner with education-focused advocacy groups to help with your outreach efforts.
Threats: If your opponent is well-known or has a strong social media presence, you can develop strategies to improve your own popularity and social media presence. You can also pivot your campaign’s focus to other areas (such as grassroots and voter contact) where the presence of surrogates can mitigate this imbalance.
Once you have identified your campaign's SWOTs, you’ll be in a much better place to start developing a campaign strategy that leverages your campaign’s strengths and minimizes any potential weaknesses, while also capitalizing on any opportunities and mitigating any threats that could come your way.