Digital Marketing for Political Campaigns

Political Campaigns Underutilize Digital Marketing

Having a modern digital marketing strategy combined with the traditional campaigning techniques can accelerate your political campaign much further than most of your competitors. Our team at Custom Design Partners researched the last elections in Florida and found that only 5% of all political campaigns were implementing a digital marketing strategy. And, unsurprisingly, of the 5%, they won more than half of their electoral campaigns. These campaigns weren’t national, super funded campaigns- even city council or mayoral elections were utilizing internet marketing. Our team wanted to find out why modern marketing is rarely present in the electoral field, so we created a case study and polled several individuals and committees in public service. Overwhelmingly the answer that was given was that digital marketing was too expensive. However, we noticed that some candidates were spending thousands on yard signs and door hangers and print media. Obviously these traditional campaigning techniques are effective, but, for example, for half the cost one could run a paid ad campaign, allowing you to hyper-target eligible voters in your district for fractions of a penny. From local, grassroots campaigns, political committees, to gubernatorial elections, every campaign could extremely benefit from modern marketing strategies.

Simply put: digital marketing for political campaigning is sadly underutilized. With the ability to hyper-target eligible and like-minded voters by exact zip codes, modern marketing is an extremely effective and affordable way to generate brand awareness, promote monetary contributions, and ultimately get voters to the polls.

If you’re a candidate running for public office or a political consultant, having the ability to implement online marketing will boost you way above your political competition. We can prove it, too. Contact us and our team will show you how many voters you may be missing out on.

With the emergence of digital advertising, we asked ourselves why political strategies don’t include online marketing. Through our inhouse polling and questionnaires, we were given the following reasons:

1. “It seems too expensive” Digital ads that are focused on brand building (such as political campaigns) pay per each view on your ad. On average, 1,000 views on your ad costs less than $5. This cost per benefit clearly outweighs print mail, lawn signs, and telemarketing.
2. “It doesn’t seem effective versus traditional campaigning” Even if budgets capable of running radio/TV/billboard ads, you’re purchasing a marketing item with a low quality of demographic targeting. Utilizing online ads, candidates are able to target constituents based on their political beliefs, their precise location and other interests that traditional marketing just can’t do.
3. “We are running a local, grassroots campaign and don’t need ads” Using digital marketing for a local and grassroots campaign can be an extraordinary supplement to traditional campaigning efforts. The ability to target niche and specific eligible voters based on age, location, and political interests at a cheap cost accelerate your campaign far beyond your competitors.

Solutions

Work with our team of consultants to execute a custom plan with your strategic vision and our technical implementation. Our team will work with you to set clear milestones, facilitate communication, and word side by side to help meet your goals and deadlines.