3 Tips for Creating Political Campaign Contact Points

Any relationship in your life needs to be maintained. Relationships with family, friends, significant others, coworkers, etc. If you never bother calling your best friend to wish them a happy birthday or make an effort to see them every once in a while, are they really your best friend? Probably not. Now, understandably so, people get busy. They live crazy and hectic lives, so staying in touch every day is not always doable, but every once in a while, it is important to let the important people in your life know that you are thinking of them and that you miss them. The same concept goes for your supporters and campaign contact points.

Just like how you might text your best friend once a week checking in on them, it is important to do the same for those who you are asking to support you. Imagine a friend that says you are their friend, but never texts, calls, emails, writes or even bothers to keep up with you. Don’t leave your voters and supporters out to dry. Maintenance in your campaign relationships is key, and we are here to give you a few pointers on how to keep up with your campaign contact points.

Know Your Voters

From your initial point of contact to voting day, and even after, you must work on consistent communication with your voters. Not only must you keep up with your voters, but you should also know them. What are the demographics of your voters? How old are they? What race are they? What political party are they? Etc. Knowing this kind of information is essential to the types of campaign messages that you will send out, and how you connect with your various voters in general.

The best way to gain voters is to know the demographics of past and current supporters. More likely than not, those who will support you are similar to those who already do support you. The RoboCent platform is the perfect place to locate new voter data and house your current voter data.

Once you know your voters, it is time to send out some updates. People like acknowledgement and updates. The best way to keep voters in the loop and maintain contact points is by sending out automated messages. Your campaign should aim to have some sort of process or automated message schedule.

Campaign messages should be strategically sent out. For example, here are some example texts that you might consider sending out throughout your campaign. Each should be pre-crafted and have a flow/order that makes logical sense.

  • Message 1: “Thanks for signing up! We are happy to have you. You can find out more info about our campaign at (insert website) or you can talk to a campaign representative today! Just call (insert phone number). Stay tuned for more campaign updates!”

  • Message 2: “How is it going? This is (volunteer name) with (campaign name). I am reaching out to you today with an opportunity to help (candidates name) win the election. Can we count you in to give a small one time donation? Reply ‘YES’ for the donation link.

  • Message 3: “Great! Donate here: (Insert link).” We thank you in advance.

  • Message 4: “Thank you for your donation. Our campaign relies on the support of voters. Every dollar raised goes towards campaign funding, events, outreach, and more!”

  • Message 5: “The election countdown is on! T-minus 90 days. Can we count you in to vote for (campaign name/candidate)? Reply ‘YES’.”

  • Message 6: “Looking to clock some volunteer hours? The (insert campaign name) needs volunteers! Help spread the word and reach voters by volunteering today. Reply with ‘HELP’ and we will send you a volunteer sign up sheet.

  • Message 7: “Great! We look forward to having you a part of the team. Fill out and submit the following form (insert link) and you will receive further instructions soon!”

Now, clearly messages can go not one way, not two ways, but multiple ways. So, it is smart to have messages prepared for positive or yes responses and negative or no responses. The above examples are assuming that the voter wants to donate and wants to volunteer. But what if they reply no? Have a message prepared for that too! You might even have a message prepared for if they aren’t interested now but might be interested in the future.

For donation texts, you might even start out by suggesting a high amount, like $50. If the voter replies no then send a follow-up message with a lower amount. Something like: “We understand that $50 might not be a do-able donation for you to make right now. Thanks for your response. Would you consider a donation of $20 to help out with the campaign? Text ‘YES’ to receive a link to donate.”

Knowing your voters is all about sending relevant updates. Plan to send out texts to those who have previously donated to your campaign, reminding them that donations are still always needed and welcomed. If money donations are not feasible, then ask for them to donate their time as a volunteer.

You can even use location based advertising to get ahead of the advertising game. This will help you send out even more relevant texts and advertisements to voters.

Analyze the Data

Data is meant to be analyzed. If you aren’t looking into what is causing your success, then how will you know where your success is coming from?

For example, let’s say you run three different Ad campaigns. One on Facebook, one on Instagram, and one on Twitter, you would want to analyze the data generated from each platform.

There might be several reasons a campaign might be more successful at reaching contact points. It could be that perhaps you performed different Ads to see which would get more interaction. Another possibility is what platform the majority of your supporters are using. Knowing what social media platform is most popular amongst your voters will be extremely helpful for future Ads and methods of contact.

If Facebook shows greater interaction than other social media platforms, then invest the majority of your time and resources into using Facebook as a method of outreach. Don’t ignore the other platforms all together though, you can still reach people who might otherwise be unreachable.

Just like knowing the demographics of your voters is important, it is important and you will find it helpful to know the demographics of social media users per platform. For example, Facebook users tend to be between the ages of 25-35 years old. If the majority of your voters fall into this age category, then Facebook might be your go-to marketing platform. The best thing you can do is to analyze your data, do your research, and adjust when necessary.

Don’t Let Voters Slip Through the Cracks

This one is really important. Sometimes reaching out to voters can feel a lot like sales or marketing. Essentially, that is what it is. Trying to convince people to vote for a given candidate is a lot like trying to get people to purchase a product or service. You are trying to convince them to vote for you or your candidate that you are representing, you are trying to get them to donate their time as a volunteer, and you are trying to get them to donate money to your campaign.

If a salesperson makes a cold call, and the person on the other end is really interested but they are not ready to make a commitment, what do you do? You take down their information to follow up later. Great. The key here is following up. If the customer wasn’t 100% sold on the phone, the chances are they are not going to reach back out to you themselves. So, what happens if you just so happen to forget to reach out to them? You don’t get the sale, and that customer slips through the cracks.

Ensure that your volunteers and campaign team are keeping track of their “maybe” voters. That is, the voters who are on the fence about voting for you, the voters who are not sure if they will have time to volunteer but they are interested, those who cannot donate right now but definitely might be in the future.

The best way to do this is to utilize some sort of organizational platform. You can use an App, Google calendar, an old fashioned planner system, etc. The key is that it is a system that works and is functional for your campaign and for those who are utilizing the organizational system. RoboCent offers features to be able to assist with this! When you send texts with us, we offer complete analytics with voters' responses. So, when you do get that text message response with a “maybe” or “not at this time,” you can take those responses and make a note to contact them back at a later point in time when the timing is better.