SMS Marketing in Political Campaigns

There is one communication strategy that is increasingly becoming the norm in political campaigning- SMS Marketing. Whether it be at campaign rallies or fundraisers, on direct mailers, yard signs or even the campaign social media handles, the CTA to text the campaign keyword to a shortcode has turned into a familiar sight for voters. As political campaigns embrace the mobile, SMS marketing has turned itself into a vital communications strategy. For its wide reach, simplicity, and the scope of scalable personalized conversations.

As more campaigns embrace the use of text messages, the technology that supported this feature has also advanced to widen its scope. You can manage your SMS Marketing from a browser. Share data instantly across multiple software applications, and measure campaign progress with analytics. We’ll look at how text messages help political campaigns and how its scope has evolved over time through six use cases.

What is SMS Marketing?

SMS Marketing involves the use of SMS texts to communicate with your voter base and maintain communications between campaign staff/volunteers. Campaigns need an opt-in procedure where voters can sign up to receive your text messages. This is usually a sign-up form on the campaign website or a keyword to be texted to a number. Once a person has opted in, the campaign has permission to reach out to them via texts.

SMS Marketing use cases for political campaigns include the following:

Collecting voter details

You must have seen the Call to Action to text a keyword to a short code or mobile number at campaign rallies and on campaign literature. Something like Text GIVE to 555555. People opt in and then receive campaign text messages through the duration of the campaign. But if you’re just asking people to opt-in and leave the remaining conversation for later, you’re missing out on valuable voter information for your voter database. The normal opt-in gives campaigns the supporter phone number. plus the ability to keep the person in the loop about campaign activities.

Campaign updates

The most prevalent use case for text message marketing in politics is to send out campaign updates to supporters, volunteers, and staff. It used to convey the candidate’s stance on relevant issues, alert voters about media appearances, and make fundraising appeals and campaign announcements.

Unlike conventional text messaging, modern platforms allow you to send out thousands of text messages in a few seconds. When you are sending out thousands of texts, it can be a daunting task to handle responses. Text messaging software gives you the option to personally handle responses or set up automatic responses that identify keywords.

Opinion polls and surveys

Opinion polls offer campaigns a way to understand the voter psyche and tailor the campaign around the issues concerning voters. Once you have built a subscriber list, you can reach out to the entire list based on location, job title. Send out text messages to voter lists with your polls. You can set up automatic responses for when people reply back based on the keywords you have set up.

Information collected through polls and surveys can be used throughout your campaign to reach out to voters with a better understanding of the issues that concern them.

Event management

You can use SMS marketing to send out event updates and identify attendees. The straightforward approach is to text your voter list with an event update. The software will automatically segment users based on their response. The alternate and better option is if you are using a CRM software. With text messaging software and CRM integration, you can create an event in your CRM and then run an RSVP campaign using your messaging software. Responses to your texts can be automatically synced to your CRM so that subscribers responding with “Y” are sent an event invite or follow-up updates about the event.

Volunteer organizing

Volunteer organizing with text messaging works somewhat similar to event management. Only here, you are inviting supporters to volunteer for your event rather than a generic appeal for event attendees.

First, you send out an event invite via text message and based on how subscribers RSVP to your invitation. Hence You can start a drip SMS campaign for those who replied in the affirmative. These drip campaigns involve the use of automated periodic texts and emails to ensure volunteer attendance and to make sure that they are made aware of the details pertaining to the event. Application integrations ensure that all data instantly synced across your CRM software.

GOTV and registration reminders

Even an excellent voter outreach campaign can fall flat if people don’t turn out to vote. Text messages offer a fast and wide-reaching way to remind citizens to go to the ballot box on election day. You can use texts to send out reminders to register to vote. Guide people on how to register, provide information about where the voting place is located. And for other Get Out The Vote efforts during the days leading up to the election.