Repeat your message and stay disciplined
Having a great message is only useful if that message is repeatedly delivered. People are bombarded with hundreds of messages every day - from billboards to television and radio ads. It is very difficult to break through to people, but the way to do so is to "stay on message." You need to constantly repeat your message, every day. Everyone should be repeating the message in their sleep by the end of your campaign or organizing effort. You might think you are being too repetitive, but remember that by the time you get tired of repeating the campaign's message, people will just be hearing it for the first time.
This can be difficult to remember in the heat of a pitched campaign. It is tempting to go "off-message," react to the day-to-day events, and talk about issues that may seem important but ultimately do little to give voters a clear impression of the campaign's purpose. Resist that temptation. Trying to cover too many issues or getting sidetracked by policy minutiae ends up confusing voters. All of the statements made from the campaign should return to the central message.
Staying on message requires discipline. The campaign's opponents and the press are always looking for openings, and will try to throw the campaign off track by bringing up tangential issues or issues on which the campaign is weak.
To illustrate this point, think about the message box from Paul Wellstone's 2002 campaign. His opponent attacked him for "not getting things done," and said he would get things done because he had been a successful mayor. The campaign chose not to contrast the opponents' claims of being a successful mayor or argue about the number of bills that Wellstone had sponsored that passed. Instead, Wellstone turned the attack into an opportunity to deliver his message again: "I get things done for Minnesotans who want a health care system that works, good education for their children, and economic opportunity."