3 Steps to a Perfect Lawn Sign Request Form on NationBuilder

Lawn signs are a tried-and-true staple of political campaigning, and your campaign must be prepared to receive and fulfill lawn sign requests at scale.

Many first-time NationBuilder customers find that creating a lawn sign request form on their NationBuilder website is less than straightforward. But if you follow these steps, you can create a highly effective and easy-to-maintain webpage in just a few minutes.

Step 1: Create a “signup” page on your NationBuilder website

NationBuilder websites have more than thirty types of pages, including petition pages, event RSVP pages, and donation pages. But contrary to what you might expect, NationBuilder does not have a dedicated page type for lawn sign requests.

Instead, the best page type for your lawn sign request form is a “signup page.”

Why a signup page and not a volunteer signup page? Because these folks are “volunteering” to put a lawn sign in their yards, they are not volunteers in the traditional sense. Keep the “volunteer” label in NationBuilder reserved for your most active and engaged supporters.

Create a new signup page called “Lawn Sign Request Form” (or whatever name and slug you prefer) and proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Configure the page’s “signup settings”

This step is where we’ll do the bulk of the configuration to make our lawn sign request form work.

Navigate your NationBuilder control panel to your new page’s “signup settings” tab, as shown in the screenshot below.

Scroll down until you see the Actions section of the page’s “signup settings.” 

Step 2.1: Tag everyone who requests a lawn sign

Update the page’s setting labeled “Tag all signups with” to include the tag “signup: lawn sign request form.”

This will allow you to quickly find everyone who has requested a lawn sign by filtering in NationBuilder’s “people” section. 

Step 2.2: Add requesters to a “path”

Using NationBuilder’s Path’s feature, you can create a sequenced chain of events to follow a lawn sign requester from initial contact through lawn sign delivery. 

Creating a “Lawn Sign Request” path will empower you to track which supporters have fulfilled their lawn sign requests and which remain pending.

Step 2.3: Create an autoresponse email

Often overlooked during page creation, creating a custom autoresponse email is a critical step in creating a quality experience for your supporters.

Use your custom-written autoresponse email to thank your supporters, set clear expectations about timelines and next steps, and invite them to take further action.

Step 3: Chain your supporters to a donation page (optional)

After your supporters have requested their lawn sign, you may optionally choose to chain them along to another page on your website to take additional action.

I recommend chaining them forward to a dedicated donation page that asks them to chip in a few dollars to cover the costs of the lawn sign they just requested. This is an excellent way to raise money from self-identified supporters and strengthen your campaign.

To take this additional (optional) step, navigate in your NationBuilder control panel to your lawn sign request page’s “signup settings” and add the “slug” of your donation page in the field labeled “After signing up, what page should they land on next?”

For additional information, see NationBuilder’s official documentation on configuring the next actions.

Conclusion

Lawn signs are a core aspect of most political campaigns, and NationBuilder can prepare your team to receive and fulfill lawn sign requests at scale.

By following this three-step process, you can better track lawn sign requests, increase your fundraising revenue, and leave your supporters feeling impressed by your campaign’s professionalism and organizational skills.