Running a successful election can be extremely challenging. Luckily, as the 2020 election showed, you don’t need to carpet an area with paper flyers or spend a fortune on television advertisements.
As is the way with most things in recent years, successful campaigns are moving towards the digital aspects of advertising and attracting potential voters. For many parties, their online campaign is just as important as their in-person campaign and having a website with the correct keywords and links to potential voters is as vital as dressing correctly for a television appearance.
It is important to explore which digital areas are the most important for a political campaign and in this article, SMS or text messages will be delved into to rate their importance for political parties.
Fundraising
Political parties are usually looking for funding from their supporters and other benefactors. In years gone by, ways to gain access to these funds revolved around sending out letters and holding fundraisers. Both still occur, but in lower numbers due to the success of political text messages. You may be wondering if political text messages are as effective, or may be asking are political text messages legal? Yes, they are, and they are more successful overall, with most single text messages attracting $20 towards the campaign.
Improved Engagement
You need to build your relationship with your potential supporters and voters, to allow them to see you as someone that they can rely on. How do you do this successfully? Via digital networks like social media and of course, via text messaging.
Sending out regular text messages will allow you to inform your supporters about upcoming events, campaign information, and polling updates. This will help to keep your supporters in the loop and will improve their overall engagement. Consider that many people in the US have busy lives revolving around work and family and may not have the time to watch the news or scroll through a news feed on their phone. By sending text messages, you minimize the work they must put into supporting you, and so you will see greater engagement.
Recruit
Your campaign will need volunteers. As before, it can be hard for people in their daily lives to get online and find out how to volunteer for a campaign.
A text message with all the required information can get you some much-needed volunteers to help with your campaign, without the hassle of sending out letters or recording adverts.
Reminders
Life can be tough for many people, and so, politics and voting often fall into the background. In fact, as many as 7 in 10 people in the US are not aware of when their next local election is being held, or who the candidates are. So, this is where the use of text messaging can come in, to remind those who have signed up for text messages to get out and vote for your party. It’s fast, easily accessible, and can even boost the number of overall votes.