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      Step-by-Step: Creating Your Rally Campaign

      This article will walk you through how to create a Campaign in Rally. You’ll do this from your Organization Dashboard. 

      In this article:

      Where to Start

      To access the Organization Dashboard, you must be signed in with an account that has Organization Admin permissions. Please make sure you are logged in on a computer, as the Rally admin is optimized for use on desktop, not mobile devices. Sign into Rally, and switch from your mobilizer role to your Organization Admin role. To switch roles, select the dropdown next to your profile image in the top right corner, select Switch Roles, and then click on Organization Admin.

      If you do not see Organization Admin as an option, please reach out to your Account Administrator. 

      If this is your first time creating a Campaign, you’ll be taken right to your Organization Dashboard.

      If your Organization already has active campaigns, you’ll be taken to the last Campaign you were active in. To get to the Organization Dashboard, click on the dropdown next to your Organization’s Name near the top left corner of your screen. From the dropdown select Organization Dashboard.

       

      Once you’re in the Organization Dashboard, click the blue “+ Create Campaign” button on the right-hand side of the page to enter the Campaign Builder.

      Step 1 - Details

      This is where you’ll set key information about your Campaign (like its name) and details that will appear on your Campaign’s Landing Page. 

      The Landing Page is your Campaign’s unique Rally page. This is the page you’ll send to mobilizers so that they can join your Campaign, and it will be the first thing they see when they sign up. 

      Campaign Name is the title of your Campaign. It should be short and clearly communicate what your Campaign is about. This might be the name of your Organization, or something else. 

      The Organization field will be auto-filled from the name listed in the Organization Dashboard.

      Campaign Website URL is an optional field that allows you to link to your Campaign or Organization’s website from your Campaign’s landing page. 

      The Landing Page Slug will be the text at the end of your landing page’s URL to make your page unique. This will be the link you send mobilizers to join your Campaign, so we recommend making your slug short and easy to remember. For example, if you entered USA as the Landing Page Slug, your landing page URL would be go.rally.win/USA.

      Description, Logo URL, and Background Image URL are all optional to add and will be displayed on your landing page.

      Recommended image dimensions:

      • Logo 300x300px
      • Background Image 1200x630px

      The Passcode toggle at the bottom of the page allows you to set who can join the Campaign. By default, the toggle is set to “Not Passcode Protected”, meaning you Campaign is open to anyone to join. You can change whether the Campaign is open or passcode-protected at any time. If you choose to passcode-protect your Campaign, you will be prompted to set the passcode for the Campaign.

      The Public toggle near the bottom of the page allows you to choose whether you'd like your campaign listed on Rally's public campaigns list or not. You can view a list of all public Rally campaigns at go.rally.win/campaigns.

      Note: Both public and private campaigns can have passcodes associated with them.

      Step 2 - Campaign Ladder

      Next, you’ll create your Campaign Ladder, the central ladder of support or engagement for your Campaign. Within this step, you will also set the Key Question that is aligned with the purpose of your Campaign. Mobilizers will be prompted to answer this question for every contact they add to Rally, and you’ll be able to set actions for mobilizers to take based on their contacts’ responses to this question. Remember that mobilizers will answer this question on behalf of their contacts, so you’ll want to phrase your Key Question in language directed at the mobilizer, and you’ll want to use pronouns that can work to refer to any contact. For example, “Will they vote for Peter Pan for President of Neverland?” 

      Next, you will set the answers that correspond to your Key Question. You can use our default 1-5 answers, or customize them. Think of these answers (values) like rungs on your Campaign Ladder. For example, if someone starts at a 5, you want to move them closer to 1. The answers are fixed to five possible responses. If you plan on exporting responses to a platform like VAN, the numerical values that are tied to your responses will help you translate your data from Rally. 

      You can edit your Key Question at any time. Note that if folks have already answered the key question, their previously recorded responses will be renamed to reflect your edits.

      More about Campaign Ladders and Key Questions

      For electoral campaigns, the Key Question is often what campaign lingo calls a “Support ID”, a question gauging support for a candidate or issue– for example, “Will they vote for Peter Pan for President of Neverland?”, with the answers ranging from Definitely (strong support) to Definitely Not (strong oppose). 

      For a Campaign aiming to mobilize people to take advocacy actions, a Key Question might be “How ready are they to take action to fight for mermaid equality in Neverland?”, with answers ranging from “They don’t believe mermaids should be equal” to “They aren’t aware of the barriers mermaids face” to “I think I could get them to take action” to “They are fired up and taking action”. 

      Campaign Ladders are designed this way so that you can make sure mobilizers are engaging with their contacts in the most impactful way possible, and meet them where they are. If a contact isn’t aware of the barriers facing mermaids, you’ll want mobilizers to persuade and educate that contact, and you’ll be able to set actions targeted at contacts with that Key Question response designed to do just that. If a mobilizer thinks they could get their contact to take action, you’ll want mobilizers to encourage the contact to speak at the Neverland Legislature, and you can set actions to make that happen. 

      Step 3 - Geographies

      Rally will give you the option to add Geographies to implement district-based targeting later. This is a step in the Campaign setup that can be skipped for now using the skip button in the bottom right corner of this screen.

      If you’re interested in learning more about district-based targeting, you can visit that article here.

      Step 4 - Actions

      Now, you will create your action items. Action items are tasks you assign to mobilizers to help them move their contacts up your Campaign's ladder. Actions can be free response prompts, multiple choice questions, or tasks. Actions should always be phrased as if you are speaking to the mobilizer, not the contact. 

      Actions can urge mobilizers to do anything from “Talk to them about what issues matter to them” to “Send them this article about our candidate.” By default, an action will be available to take for all contacts. However, you can choose to target actions to show up only for contacts with specific Key Question answers. To create an Action Item, click on the + New Action Item button, then select an Action Type from the dropdown (Task, Free Response Prompt, or Multiple Choice Question), complete the required fields, and click Save when finished.

      Note: When creating an Action Item, you are able to format the Action Item Description field with links, lists, and more by using Markdown.

      There are three different types of Actions:

      Task - This action allows mobilizers to mark that they have completed a specific task for their contact through a button labeled “I did it!”. The Task Title appears in the list of “Action Items” for the contact, and the Task Description is shown once they click into the action item. 

      Free Response Prompt - These types of actions have responses recorded as free text. You can use this action type to ask a free-response question, or to prompt the mobilizer to take an action you want to require that they record notes about. This is a great action type to use for more nuanced or thoughtful actions, like having a sensitive conversation. 

      For example, a Campaign focused on protecting Neverland Medicare might have a Free Response Prompt called “Have a heart to heart about getting older”, with instructions to record notes from the conversation in the free response area.

      Even if the details of a response are not super parsable at scale by the admin, the fact of having had to write something down can be a meaningful measure of value and accountability for the mobilizer. 

      Multiple Choice Question - This action allows Admins to create a question with up to 7 different predetermined answers for mobilizers to answer. The Question field is what is displayed as the action item title, while the Description and Answers are shown when clicking into the action. Remember, it’s best to phrase these questions as an instruction directed at the mobilizer – for example “Find out why they’re undecided” or “Ask which issues matter most to them”. 

      You can edit the title, description, and targeting of your actions at any time.

      However, for multiple choice actions, you cannot change the answer options after they have been created. If you need different answer options, it’s best to make a new action.

      Step 5 - Review Your Campaign and Confirm

      Next, review and confirm all of the information you’ve entered for the Campaign. You can make changes to the content within the Details, Campaign Ladder, or Actions sections of this page. To do so, select the blue pencil icon in the top right corner of the section you want to edit.

      Then, select whether you would like to launch the Campaign now or wait until later.

      Selecting “Launch now” will make your Campaign active. This means that mobilizers will be able to join your Campaign by visiting your Campaign’s landing page.

      Selecting “Wait Until Later” will save all of your progress so far within the Campaign Builder, but will not make the Campaign joinable. This means that while your Campaign landing page will be visible via the link, it will not display a Join Now button.

      Finally, select “Finish.” This will finish the setup process and take you to the dashboard for your newly-created Campaign. Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to make edits as needed to your Campaign. If you selected “Wait Until Later” you will be able to change the status of the Campaign by navigating to the Content page and selecting the blue pencil icon under the Details section.

      Step 5 - Invite Mobilizers

      Now that you’ve launched your campaign, it’s time to invite mobilizers to join the Campaign. You can invite mobilizers via email invitation or by sharing the landing page url with them.

      Email Invites: You can invite individuals to join your Campaign by sending them an email invite. To do so, navigate to the Invitations tab within the Campaign Dashboard. Click on “+ Invite Mobilizer.” Enter their email address and first and last name. Then, click on “Save & Invite,” this will send them an email invitation to join the Campaign on Rally.

      Note - Mobilizers who join a passcode-protected campaign via email invitation will not have to enter the passcode in order to join. 

      Landing Page: You can also invite individuals to join your Campaign by sharing the Landing Page URL with them. To access this link, navigate to the Invitations tab, click on “Landing Page URL” and copy and paste the Landing Page URL. 

      If your Campaign is passcode-protected, mobilizers will need to enter that passcode on the landing page in order to join.