Political Communication Strategy: The Role of Effective SpeechwritingMariana Mon, 10/07/2024 - 08:00 by Enrique Rivas (He/Him) Enhancing Your Political Communication Strategy Through Effective Speechwriting An essential component of a good political communication strategy is the integration of effective speechwriting. Even if your campaign doesn’t plan to deliver a ton of speeches, it’s crucial to have a structured process in place for crafting and refining them. If you’re running for office even at the local level, chances are you’ll want to have a speech prepared at least for Election Night. If the thought of writing a speech seems intimidating, don’t panic–you can follow a simple and straightforward method to create impactful speeches.Here are some basic tips for writing a solid speech that will fit into your overall political communication strategy: Speechwriting Tips Be clear. Embrace concise, clear, and simple language. Don’t fear simplicity in your language. Your goal is to connect with, not to dazzle, the audience. Emulate Hemingway—a sentence shouldn’t drag on for multiple lines on paper.Keep it short.  Everyone’s attention span has limits. No matter who you are, you can bet that people will lose interest in your speech if it goes on for too long.Define your objective. Have a clear call to action. Understand the purpose and what you want to accomplish through this speech. Keep in mind that your speech topic is different from its takeaway.Structure is king. Organization is crucial.  When it comes to speechwriting, there’s no such thing as “voice.” A good speech hinges on its structure and organization. It needs to have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Don’t tell people how to feel. Evoke, don’t dictate emotions. Your speech should naturally create feelings, but don’t tell people exactly what it is they should feel or how they should react to your words. Let them get there themselves.Embrace humility. Create a connection with the audience and make yourself relatable to the people you’re talking to. Don’t be afraid to make fun of yourself. Speechwriting Formula for Your Political Communication Strategy While there are many different political speechwriting approaches you can take, Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is a framework most folks use (whether they realize it or not). Using the five components of the Monroe Sequence, you can develop a persuasive argument to communicate various calls to action— from voting, donating, and volunteering to supporting a policy, you name it. While this is the most standard sequence used in political speeches, feel free to experiment with the order of these steps. Just remember that ultimately, each of these steps is helping you prove a point. Don’t be afraid to bend some minor grammar rules, either. Part of your communication strategy should be based on appealing to the ear, not just the eye.  If you spoke in the same style as most great writing, you would probably sound a little distant or robotic to the audience. Always read your speech aloud to make sure it resonates well when spoken. Attention: Start your speech by capturing the audience’s attention. It’s often necessary to start with formalities such as welcoming people and thanking certain members of the audience but try to keep that part short. Instead, focus on engaging your listeners. An attention grabber could be anything from a short personal story or a thought-provoking rhetorical question. You will start by capturing the audience’s attention, they will connect with you and settle in for the rest of the speech.Need: The “need step” could also be known as the “problem step.” Here you will need to articulate the issue at hand. In the context of a political communication strategy, the “need step” or “problem step” often lays out how a certain elected official or policy isn’t doing the best job. You want to invite the audience to challenge the status quo and envision a brighter future.Satisfaction: Satisfaction comes when you provide a solution to a problem laid out in the “need step.” You want to alleviate the audience’s concerns by offering a clear solution to the problem identified earlier and make their lives better. Is the problem that small businesses in the district are struggling? Lay out your plan to strengthen the local economy.Visualization: Encourage the audience to visualize what their lives would look like if your proposed solution (e.g. you get elected) would become a reality. You should be painting a clear picture that the audience can tangibly grasp.Action: Set a clear and concise action that you need the audience to take to help solve the problem and achieve your solution. In a political communication strategy, this often means asking for a vote or a contribution. The most strategic action steps are clear and simple. You want the audience to understand exactly what it is that they can do to help, and then encourage them to do it. Don’t have multiple actions or asks as they will make the audience feel overwhelmed and walk away without a clear sense of what their next steps should be. If you need more help or are looking for additional tips on creating a robust political communication strategy, don’t forget to check out our Stump Speech: The Ultimate Speechwriting Guide.  Have questions? Drop us a line!  Sign Up for our Blog! Categories Political Campaign Tags Campaign Speech| Persuasive Political Script| Strategic Communications| Stump Speech

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