March 20, 2018, by Erik Larson

Supercharge Your Campaign With Fact Sheets


Legislative sessions may only run a couple months out of the year, but your communications run all year long.

You don't want to go into the session flat-footed, and steady communications throughout the year help you get the mindshare you need. This strategy is hardly unique, with many competing interests crowding the landscape. The question then becomes, how can you stand out in the crowd?

This article outlines a few great tips on using legislative fact sheets to help give you traction.

Tips On Using Fact Sheets


#1 State District Data Is Essential

Probably the single most important factor in making great fact sheets is producing state district data. Doing this lets you build arguments your legislator will really pay attention to.

  • → How does your industry create jobs in the district?
  • → What are the wages contributed in aggregate and per employee?
  • → What do tax contributions look like?

These are all key questions to answer and show why your industry matters. Producing accurate data for legislative districts is easier said than done, however. For more on this, check our recent blog post.

Here is a great example of Employment by District for Food Processors in the Pacific Northwest:



#2 Interactivity Boosts Engagement

Static documents like PDFs are ok, but our goal is to stand out and really catch the attention of lawmakers. This means we need every tool and advantage available to us today.

Providing interactivity within your fact sheet is a proven way to keep your audience's attention, longer. Dropdown menus to different data points, pop-up tooltips on charts and maps, data visualizations that are animated – these are all great ways to make a fact sheet really sing.

Here is a great example of an Industry Comparison interactive chart.



#3 Embed On Website and Newsletters

At eImpact we are strong believers in making fact sheets easily discoverable and featured prominently on your website and newsletters. If you bury them in obscure links off your site you will drastically cut down on viewer traffic. Most organizations don't have dedicated website developers in-house, so we made an easy button to do this without any technical knowledge.

Easy button for embedding your fact sheet or downloading images for your newsletter.




Want to see more?

Check out our new offering:
Legislative Fact Sheets