We have all sat across the table from a potential employer during which we highlight our most marketable qualities to land a job, but not everyone has been on the other side of that table, actually doing the hiring. Here are a few things that will help you start the process of hiring a political consulting firm. They are meant to help you navigate and simplify what may seem like an overwhelming and complicated task.

First, you’re going to want to map out (as much as possible) what it is you’re looking to hire a political consulting firm for:

• Do you need a firm for strictly direct mail, or TV production? Alternatively, do you need a firm that does both? Or, do you require a firm that specializes in a particular issue area?
• Will this be a local, state or national campaign?
• What is your overall budget? How much can you afford to spend on each aspect of the campaign or program?

There’s been a really healthy, if vociferous, argument going around over whether or not to send a ‘welcome series’ of emails to new supporters on your email list. The concept is probably familiar: you send a pre-written package of emails over a few days or weeks to ease new people to your non-profit or political campaign onto your list. The pro and con go something like this:

PRO: By easing people onto the list and introducing them to our ladder of engagement, they are more likely to open, click, and donate later on. Good cultivation makes for better members.

CON: Other than checking for dead or spam-bot emails on your list, all a welcome series does is feed outdated content to members who otherwise have the highest-probability of being really active, engaged and excited. Why waste people’s initial enthusiasm with emails that aren’t about your hottest campaigns?

Well I LIKE a welcome series – dagnabbit. I’m old fashioned that way. But I was nervous about the impact on email deliverability. As I’ve chronicled elsewhere about email deliverability for non-profits and campaigns, there’s a real cost to emailing inactive members. And if all the welcome series was doing was turning people off or depressing the open and click rate, I didn’t want any part of it.

So, I set out to prove what a successful non-profit email welcome series is worth. What I found was surprising.

Following the 2012 election, “big data and digital” was the post mortem no one could avoid.

Pundits and strategists still refer to the ability of Obama’s digital team to outmaneuver the GOP and win the election. According to Business Insider, digital comprised 8 percent of the Obama’s campaign’s media mix. On its face, it seems like a decent portion of the budget, until you consider that consumer brand advertisers spend an average of 25 percent of their budgets on digital.

Since digital was a proven winner in both of President Obama’s victories, what’s holding political campaigns back from increasing budget allocation to be more in line with consumer advertisers? Political strategists spend their careers finding the perfect balance of TV, direct mail and grassroots efforts to get their candidates elected. They aren’t paid to experiment. And despite its success, digital is sometimes still viewed as somewhat experimental.

From my perspective, there are three main reasons why political campaigns stick with the status quo. Let’s debunk them.

Myth #1 - Brands need big data. We have voter files.

First, let’s look at what’s in the voter file. It’s a list of registered voters in an area, their address, birthdates, party affiliation (if it’s a party registration state), and voting history. Assuming you know how they voted (and that’s a big assumption), you don’t know how they will vote next time.

It’s heartbreaking to think that people are making snap judgements about whether or not to read your emails based on a quick glance.

But they are. You are, too! Here’s how we all sort through our inboxes:

1. We choose an email message
2. We give it a two-second glance
3. We decide if it’s worth our time
4. If it is, we keep it and read it
5. If it’s not, we hit the delete key, and send the email to the trash

How can you keep your email out of the trash? The secret is good design. In those first two seconds, that’s all your reader sees.

Let’s take a look at seven common design mistakes that get emails trashed, and I’ll offer more than seven solutions to help your next email get read.