How to Use Volunteer Voter Contact and Political Text Messaging to Win An Election
In any election campaign, the ones who hold the power to make a difference are the people. There is a way to use the power of the people along with technology to mobilize that power into action to get your desired result. The way a particular candidate will carry out their election day activities largely depends on their budget. Campaigns with large budgets will utilize things such as TV, newspaper, political text messaging campaigns, and radio ads to spread their message to their intended audiences. Many will ask, "Is America Ready for Text Message Campaigning?". The answer is, there has never been a better time than now to incorporate a Text Messaging strategy into a political campaign.
In order to win any election, political candidates need to remember one simple goal- get more votes than their opponents. Plain and simple. Where things get complicated is having to figure out how to actually get more votes than their opponents.
To start an election, a campaign manager will take a look at their base voters. These are the people who are certain to vote for a particular candidate. These are the people who will sing the praises of their candidate even outside of an election year. Campaign managers need not do much work in convincing these people to vote for their candidate. What you need to mobilize your base voters to do is not to Get Out To Vote—they’re already going to happily do that for your candidate. Instead, you need these people to become campaign volunteers. There are a couple of strategies that campaign managers can use to aid their base voters in order to defeat their opponents.
Increase the Electorate
The very first thing that you need to do in order to ensure that you have the majority of the votes is to make sure that ALL volunteers are registered to vote. This might seem like a no-brainer. However, there are instances where campaign volunteers are not registered to vote themselves. In order to win, you cannot overlook every chance to increase your candidate supporter base and having your volunteers registered is an absolute must. That way they can truly come out on election day and go to bat for your candidate. Political Phone Marketing is a great way to get those voters to come out on election day.
Persuade Your Undecided Voters
When done right persuading your undecided voters can be an effective campaign strategy. Base voters have already made up their minds, but the undecided? These are the people who are actively looking for a reason to support one candidate over another. Also, remember that a vote for your candidate is a vote against the other candidate. It’s like scoring the best 2-for-1 deal ever.
One of the cool new ways that political campaigns have been persuading more undecided voters their way is by using robocall companies such as Robocent to send out political text messages to potential voters. They use this to send out critical and useful information about their candidate and the upcoming elections. Some call it the “Digital GOTV” campaign and in order to win, you've got to perfect this campaign method.
Get Your Supporters Out To Vote On Election Day
Again another no-brainer, right? It has been said that the reason why President Donald Trump won the election is because those who supported former President Barack Obama did not turn out to vote in the 2016 elections. Sometimes a campaign’s main focus has to be getting their supporters out to vote on election day. Usually, this involves reminding them about the upcoming elections. Recently, political text messaging campaigns have been doing an excellent job of getting people out to vote by sending them gentle reminder SMS messages about voting day.
Of course, your strategy and the emphasis placed on using one of the above methods over the other will largely depend on your location. But make no mistake; one of the most critical aspects of running a successful election campaign is direct voter contact.
Direct Voter Contact
Direct voter contact, aka actually having conversations with your voters, is an important part of winning any type of election. However, keep in mind that who you talk to and how to talk to them is just as important. When coming up with a direct voter contact strategy it is critical that you focus on fostering two-way conversations, building a relationship with your potential voters, and focusing your efforts.
Let’s look at this scenario. You need someone to help you move into your new apartment one week from today. What do you think is the best way to get them to come and help you with the move?
- Send them a letter
- Post an ad in the media or
- Have a conversation with them
If you said "Having a conversation with them" then you’re one step closer to winning your next election. Having a conversation with that friend is going to be the fastest and most effective way to get the help that you need. Plus, it’s easier to convince someone that you are having a conversation with as opposed to a message they may pass by.
Honestly, there is no replacement for having a face to face conversation with your constituents. Going door to door and personally taking the time out to connect with them on an intimate one on one basis. The only disadvantage of using this strategy is that it is time-consuming and can be expensive. If you can, incorporate personally calling your constituents. Even better, you can get the conversation started with political text messaging and you will be one step closer to victory.
Use a service provider such as Robcent to send out all of your political text messaging campaigns.
Track Your Progress
The most lovely thing about making direct voter contact is the ability to know who said what and to track it effectively. Tracking your responses and taking action on them will set you apart from your opponents. If you talk to a few undecided voters via political text messaging campaigns and you get feedback on what’s really holding them back, you could address their doubts in your next set of messages. You never know, their concerns might very well be the concerns of other undecided voters.
Don’t forget to follow up. Let’s say that you used Robocent to send out a political text message campaign about an upcoming campaign event and someone responds to ask you a question about the event. You need to not only act upon their response (finding out the answer to their question) but also to respond to them with an answer. This isn’t limited to questions about events, it could be a suggestion, asking about the candidate or the undecided voter sharing their views on the state of affairs.
When potential voters, especially undecided voters, see that you truly have an interest in what they have to say, they will listen to you. A nice spin-off is that they might actually trust you more than the next candidate.
In any election campaign, collecting relevant data is important to the candidate’s success. It is just as important as actually telling the story about their candidate and why they should be voted into office. Collect your data and use it well.
Targeted Voter Contact
Throwing spaghetti at the walls and hoping that it sticks does not work in an election campaign. When making voter contact, make sure that it is targeted. If you’re planning a wedding, for example, no matter the planning method you use, you typically start from the point of making a list. Even if you do not start with making a list, your list of invitees is a critical component in your wedding plans. Sure, you could go out into your neighborhood and invite everyone that passes you by, but then you would end up with a few people who you would rather not see at all.
It’s the same with a campaign. You could spend your time talking to everyone with a pulse about how wonderful your candidate is, however, that is not going to be the most helpful. You do not want to spend precious time talking to the people who are most likely to not vote for your candidate. Likewise, you do not want to spend all that time talking to people who most certainly will vote for your candidate. Instead, focus on the people that you can truly have an impact on, the people that you can truly serve. A great way to find out who you should be talking to is by sending a political text message campaign to get a feel for who your undecided voters are. Political text message campaigns can help you to segment your potential list of supporters and laser target the ones that will most likely support you.
Conclusion
Remember—the key to winning any election is getting out more voters than your competition. You need to get creative in how you reach your target voters. Using political text messaging campaigns helps you to do so in an effective, cost-saving, and time-saving way. Political SMS messaging campaigns help you to start a two-way conversation with someone without being in front of them. Nothing will ever beat connecting with your supporters face to face; but in the absence of a large budget and a large number of volunteers, sending out these political text messages helps to achieve that intimacy without overspending and overstretching your team.
If you would like to make sending political text messages a part of your winning campaign strategy then check out Robocent’s SMS connect services.