Nine Steps to Successful Campaigns

Stage 4: Anticipate conditions
What routes, shortcuts, potholes and rest stops stand between you and your goal? Visualize all possible scenarios so you're prepared to leverage opportunities and mitigate challenges. Who will support the campaign? Who will be against it? Who is the competition, and how do you differentiate yourself from competitors? What assets do you bring to the table? Is there an external deadline driving the timing of the campaign? The bottom line: What stands in your way to win support for the campaign?

Stage 5: Know how to make headway
This stage answers the question: What campaign activities will get you from point A to point B? What kinds of activities are you going to have to operate? Do you have a field campaign? Do you need to release a report or a poll? According to Grimm, by the end of stage five "you've really got a road map with some detail in it that's telling you exactly what's going to make up your campaign."