It’s no secret that winning a political race is tough. In many cases, the best candidate for the constituents of the local community doesn’t win. Instead, the person with the best marketing campaign takes home the prize and the job. If you’re committed to winning your race, it’s time to get serious about marketing smartly. Today, let’s break down six essential marketing strategies for running – and winning – a political campaign!
Online Ads (YouTube, PPC, and More)
Online political marketing is an important and modern arena you have to fight in. It’s no longer enough just to advertise your candidacy for political office in the real world. You need to run online ads in several varieties to reach as many potential voters as possible. You should run online ads:
- Of the PPC or pay-per-click variety, which will show up when people type in keywords like, “local candidates for office”
- On YouTube, which can be geo-targeted for people who live in your local area
- Social media ads (see more below)
It doesn’t matter if you aren’t experienced with online advertising. Don’t discount this aspect of running a political campaign; otherwise, competing candidates may receive more votes than you!
Create Compelling Campaign Posters
Of course, marketing for your political campaign doesn’t only take place in the digital realm. You also need to market yourself and your policies in person.
With that in mind, it’s a good idea to produce some great campaign posters and place them all around town on telephone poles, in coffee shops, and around college campuses. You don’t need a degree in graphic design to produce quality campaign posters that draw the eye and include plenty of information.
You can use free tools like PosterMyWall and take advantage of campaign poster templates to make stunning, engaging campaign posters that look professional and put together by experts. Even better, you can use many of those poster templates to create aesthetic or stylistic similarities between your in-person posters and your online ads.
Create good campaign posters, and voters will remember you when they are by themselves in the voting booth.
Get On Social Media
Social media marketing is important for business. But it’s even more important for political candidates. Social media is a great way to interact and build connections with potential constituents in your area.
Get on social media and:
- Post regularly about local issues using social media post templates
- Post responses to the claims of other candidates to shoot down their rumors
- Speak to people who ask you questions honestly and earnestly to earn their goodwill and (potentially) votes
Social media is so important for your political campaign that you might even consider hiring a social media manager ASAP.
Host Town Hall Talks
Town hall talks are old-fashioned, but they do work well to convince people to vote for you, especially if you are running for office for a tight-knit, old-school community (like in rural areas). Town hall talks give you the opportunity to defend yourself against accusations from your competitors, answer questions from potential voters, and represent yourself as the best choice for locals.
Just be sure to write down and memorize your talking points ahead of time so you appear confident, collected, and knowledgeable about all the important issues.
Volunteer at Local Events
What better way is there to garner votes for your political campaign than to show you have a heart of gold and are willing to roll up your sleeves helping out the locals? You should volunteer at local events, charity drives or donation drives, especially around the holidays. This is a great way to connect with your potential voters even further, as well as differentiate yourself from the political competition.
Go Door to Door
Lastly, don’t hesitate to go door to door to ask people to vote for you or to discuss relevant issues with them, especially as the political campaign nears its final days. At the end of the political race, every vote counts, and going door-to-door can convince voters who are otherwise on the fence about voting for you or voting at all to cast their ballot in your name.
It may be especially wise to go door-to-door in neighborhoods where you know support for you and your competitors is mixed or undecided.
Run the Best Campaign with Smart Marketing
All in all, running the best campaign possible starts with smart marketing and planning. Whether you decide to make and post campaign posters around town, use social media to maximum effect, or a combination of all of the strategies above, you’re already in a much better position than a political candidate who doesn’t try any of them. Good luck – and don’t forget to whip up a great slogan before your campaign begins!
