7 Tips to Create an Effective Political Campaign Strategy

Political campaigning and promotion is not just about advertising, broadcasting, and delivering
persuasive election speeches. Still, it covers a broader area that focuses on the positioning of the
party in the electoral market.

Almost all political parties and politicians use advertising or promotions methods to
communicate all the time.

It could be to improve the reputation of the government or about a new plan that needs branding,
educating voters about a new policy, or even to promote a politician. Whatever the reason be,
there must be a strategy to campaigning. With the advent of social media, promotions are
straightforward, real-time, interactive, and firmly focused on building relationships. It is about
continuous support to the party and not just for getting votes.

Successful campaigns demand a 360-degree approach!

Campaign strategies should primarily consider digital campaigning too. Getting the candidate
websites ready and easily accessible, optimizing candidate social channels, building email lists,
and constructing attractive social media advertorials are some of the recently developed trends.
All strategies towards this should focus on the campaign goal and strength.

Every election campaign is unique, and there are several aspects to take into account to create an
effective political campaign. The following sections of this article will discuss some of the key
elements.
1. Knowing your Constituency and voters:  

Get a picture of the constituency before starting your political campaign—the history and
geography of the constituency.

Understand the aspects of the culture of the region with its political challenges in it. Get an
understanding of the important opinion leaders in the region.

When the goal is to win the constituency, it is important that everyone gets the message and
knows it well enough.

It makes sense to obtain a good map of your constituency. Looking closely at the villages and
towns- its roads, paths, and landscape. People will very likely expect to know these things from
you as a campaigner.

Knowledge of regional conditions is an important requirement that will help you to plan the
logistic part of your campaign.

Chalk out and decide how many votes you need to win. How many voters you need to campaign
for and persuade them to support you. Also, determine what makes these voters different from
other voters who will not support you—commonly known as targeting the voters or simply
targeting. This aim of targeting is to determine which group of the voting population is most
likely to make you win, and thus you need to focus your campaign efforts on these voters.
Check out the regions where your party holds strong along those of the competition. 

Find out if there are new groups of people, say new voters who are yet to take part in the
election, and need to be addressed. Locate the loyal voters who always vote for your party. These
places definitely need to be addressed regularly as well to make sure that there is a high turnout
for the voters.

Now look for the main strongholds of your political competition. If the area traditionally votes
for your opposition, it would not be wise to spend too much time and energy on these areas
unless you believe that you have a reason that anything major is going to change in the area. So it
makes sense to make the best use of time during campaigning.

Try to look for the undecided voters or the swing voters. These maybe 2-3% of the voters or
more. Look for the areas where new citizens have moved in or young voters can be addressed. 

2. Building a narrative:  

Narrative is the most important aspect of any successful political campaign. What interests is the
story behind the candidate?

His history, his personality, his beliefs, and all of the vital characteristics which make him a
voting worthy candidate. It is essential to build a narrative that voters can relate to. So here, the
political party or the candidate himself becomes the brand that people need to relate to by
building a common ground to get their support.

3. Brand Positioning: 

Brand positioning is defined as a place you want to own in the target consumer's mind based on
their view of the world. It is the simple statement that defines your strategy and then the method
used to get the message far wide across so as to try to create a rippling effect. 

The slogans must be clear and direct in conveying their messages. It should not let anyone
imagine or decipher the message. It should work as an instant brand value. It is often said that the
best politicians are always campaigning. 

After you have created a clear and direct message, it is important to stick to it at every occasion
throughout the campaign. It is known as staying on message in political terms.

4. Social media promotion: 

Social media promotion plays an enormous role in Politics and democracy. In these modern
times, social media has become the easiest medium for politicians and political parties to bank
upon. The aspiring youth of the country is the easiest to reach through social media. Why not
utilize social media platforms as a strong tool to connect with the people? One can even create
multiple Facebook pages for each region. It is the best in today's time to leverage social media
platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

During the last decade, elections, advertisements rose tremendously on an epic proportion. With
increased mobile penetration in developing countries, there seems no better medium to promote
than Digital Ads.
One can use multiple Facebook pages for various promotion themes apart from the party main
page, which was used for paid promotions. It is a fact that one needs to go regional, especially
with such diverse culture and language nations, to reach the masses. Social media is definitely
one of the most effective platforms for raising awareness, encouraging people to come out and
vote, and promoting candidates. 

A vast majority of the social media users are young people demographics, which makes it a great
platform to motivate even those who are not keen on voting or in politics. There are several
tactics that can be considered to connect with potential voters on social media, such as being
direct and operating a Facebook page to misleading and manipulative. Having an active
Facebook page is a very effective way to garner support for the candidate. He can reach
thousands or lakhs of voters using posts and updates. One can also raise awareness by creating a
viral video or image in an organic way. Also, having a website that accepts donations or a
brochure that describes your campaign are good strategies to work with.

5. Negative campaigning:

The game is simple. To win the election, the candidate needs more votes than their competitors.

While the main way to achieve this is to highlight the positive things and goodwill of your
candidate, the other way is to highlight the negativity about the competitor.

Negative campaigning is basically a form of political promotion that focuses on convincing

A very well known form of negative campaigns is where one talks about the scams, their
political failures, etc. This may seem a dirty approach; however, it works and has huge benefits.

In fact, a negative campaign is specifically directed to those who are most likely to vote for your
opponent. So this campaign can help to change their mind and sway these voters to your
candidate's side.

This takes place in the form of debate or direct television ads or speeches. However, it must be
noted that negative campaigns must be supported by strong positive campaigns too.

6. Direct promotion: 

Though social media and television remain the best platform to connect with young voters, there
are many people who respond to direct promotion.

Tools such as banners, leaflets, short manifestos, and direct mail / messages are great ways to
persuade people in a certain geographic region to vote for a particular candidate or party. Since
this is targeted for specific regions, this works well for local elections.

With the right amount of promotion, this gives your candidate a significant advantage.

One needs to focus on the community level on your benefits or how one can improve the
community and have an advantage over your competitor. 
7. Media and public relations: 

Television and radio platforms are old mediums that attract massive audiences, thus making
them a valuable tool and a part of any effective political campaign.

Coming on television or radio and making public appearances is one of the important aspects of
any political candidate. Be it political debates, media interviews, or local area meetings; one
needs to communicate to people regularly. One can easily earn a massive amount of publicity
with the right strategy and pitch and can sway away from the confidence of the voters.

Any politician should have a rock-solid PR strategy throughout, being present on Omnichannel
such as print, social, TV, digital.

Conclusion:

Finally, it all sums up to campaign strategy, which sets the difference between winning and
losing no matter what kind of election one is standing for. The winning campaign is the one that
takes time to target people, builds a persuasive story or message, and follows through the
strategy.

Political advertisers these days strongly consider all the emerging media opportunities to reach
and win voters. Investing in a good Political Campaign Management system can be the right
move for any candidate.

Budget constraint Campaigners can make use of the free Political Campaign Software to plan
and execute the entire campaign process without any friction. With features like; Campaign
Analysis, Contact Management, Contribution Tracking, Demographic Data, Donor Targeting

Email Marketing, Event Calendar, Fundraising Management, and so on, the system will be of
great help to the campaigners in comparison to traditional campaigning methods. 
 Political Campaign Website Services:

 Target Audience

 Voter Management

 Online Polling

 Event Management

 Scheduling

 Voter Data Analytics

 Social Media Monitoring

 Email Campaign

 Smart Campaign

 Compliant Management

 Data Security

 Fund Raising / Crowd Funding

Challenges faced by Political campaigners:

Reach target voters in time

With multiple candidates trying to gain support from the voters and intense competition, it is
crucial to reach your voters before others do. Ensuring that supporters reach the voting booth is
vital for success in elections. It is a challenge to convince voters to cast their votes without fail. 

Preventing the misuse of social media platforms

The ubiquitous influence of social media in political campaigns has enabled candidates to reach
out to voters and influence supporters with a strategic alternative. Still, on the other hand, it has
created serious concerns for the campaigners about the misuse of the growing power of social
media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to influence democratic elections. Even after
considerable efforts by these platforms to keep a check on fake news and rumors, there is no
concrete system to control it fully. It is challenging for political aspirants to keep track of fake
news or rumors that can malign their image.
Voter Segmentation

Dividing voters into smaller groups based on some demographic or personal similarities to target
more personalized campaigns for them is a challenging task. It requires collection, distribution,
analysis, and organization of large amounts of voter data. 

Volunteer coordination

For large scale election campaigns, volunteers are the first ones to interact with the voters.
Coordinating with them and distributing different localities and areas to them takes a lot of time. 

Arranging funds for the campaign

Running an electoral campaign is an expensive proposition. Political campaigners have to build a

Compliance to the election commission

Elections are highly regulated events. Compliance to the election commission, state election
bodies, and general ethics for candidates is a demanding task. Multiple reports and documents
are sought by agencies to check if you are campaigning in a legally approved way or not. 

What are the benefits of Political Campaign Website?

Efficient Campaign Management

New technologies are disrupting the political space every day. The political campaign software
enables candidates to replace their traditional methods with the new robust digitally advanced
tools. Webform builder and inbuilt templates let campaigners build a robust website that informs,
educates, and influences voters. A political campaign software helps the representatives or
candidates to manage their electoral campaigns in a more organized and efficient way. Political
campaign management systems come with functionalities to mitigate the challenges of the
political campaign process and empower candidates to influence the voters' decision making in
their favor. 

Promotion

When candidates are running for a political position, it is crucial to spread the campaign message
within the voter group. A strong message delivered through proper channels creates a  lasting
impression on people and attracts votes. The message should connect the representatives with
their voter base. Political campaign systems have communication tools to ensure that the
campaign message reaches masses without distortion. 
Fundraising

Without sufficient funds and financial support, candidates cannot pay for the various types of
campaign expenditures, such as the cost of travel, staff salaries, consulting costs, costs of
communicating with voters, advertisements, branding costs, banners, outlets, etc. A political
campaign is a comprehensive event that needs funds and donations from third parties such as the
corporate world, high net worth individuals, crowdfunding platforms, rich donors, etc. A
political campaign software has an inbuilt fundraising module to assist campaigners in raising
the required funds. Persuasive emails, mass email capacities, direct bulk SMS feature,
personalized requests, and many more functions of a political software open up more fundraising
opportunities for campaigners. 

Voter's Database Management

The bulk text messaging and email campaign feature of political campaign software helps
campaigners to collect essential data regarding supporters. Texting campaigns not only allow
campaigners mass to reach benefits but also provides more significant insights into your
campaign by analyzing the response rate. Political campaign software's sophisticated digital tools
enable campaign managers to shift from time-consuming pen and paper-based canvassing to
mobile canvassing through digital applications that allow more options for building extensive
voter databases. 

Crowd Funding

Crowd funding option ensures that political campaigns are never out of essential funds required
for the smooth functioning of their campaigns. 

Social media listening

By integrating the political campaign tool with social media software campaigners can check and
control any negative publicity against them on social media channels. Some political campaign
software provides inbuilt Social listening and media monitoring tools. 

Compliance management

Political campaign management tools come with functionalities to filter, organize, and import
documents and reports in one click.

Current trends in Political Campaign Management

A large number of election campaigns are becoming data-oriented with marketing and
advertising processes used by political parties worldwide. Political campaigns combine voter
analytics with external commercial research available from large market research and data
supplier companies to come with more accurate information about the voter base. 

Focus on Voter segmentation

Voter segmentation allows campaigners to divide voters into smaller groups and, based on it,
create a targeted messaging campaign. With segmentation based on the granular information
received from social media and other avenues of datasets, superior persuasive campaigns can be
launched. Cutting-edge technology is used for voter segmentation and targeted campaigns.

Machine Learning to identify potential supporters

It is crucial to identify people and peer groups with a favorable political opinion for your party.
With machine learning and sentiment analysis tools based on Natural Language Processing
(NLP), campaigners analyze the unstructured text of social media posts to understand the voter's
sentiments. The sentiment analysis tool can decipher the voters' position, attitude, and opinion of
a political party by analyzing and detecting emotive language, sequences of words,
disambiguation, sarcasm, etc. 

Use of Psychographics to understand voter’s behavior

Behavioral attributes and preferences play a significant role in determining political choices.
Psychographics can help political candidates to understand emotional quotients driving their
voters. Psychometric evaluation tests are increasingly used for segregating voters. 

Use of Big data to identify Influencers

Influencers are people who influence the masses due to their reputation, so their political
opinions are very important. Influencers can enhance the campaign's success probability by
manifold. Targeting and associating with such 'political influencers' can help campaigners to
engage other voters in the circle of these valuable individuals. Big data technology enables
campaigners to identify popular political influencers who post a lot of politics themed content.
Big data enables political campaigns to store large and complex data sets collected from various
sources, including thousands of social media posts to identify who is influencing the masses. 

Cross-device Targeting

Cross-device targeting enables campaigners to show specific ads and reach voters across all
devices and platforms. Earlier political campaigns lacked the ability to target voters precisely.
Today due to advancements in the tech world, political campaigners are using deterministic
(identifying multiple devices used by voters based on email ID login) and probabilistic targeting
(specific login info is not available but IP addresses, cookies, etc. are used to guess devices used
by voters) of voters. Cross-device targeting brings a more efficient and sophisticated form of the
personalized political campaign. 

What are the Features of Political Campaign Website?

Advanced Voter Segmentation

With this feature of the political campaign management system, political campaigners get full
control to target specific voters. Its functions include Voter mapping and demographic analysis
to decide voter segments.  

Mobile Phone App

With the Mobile App provided by political campaign tools, campaigners and volunteers can view
and update voters/donor records even while on the street doing door-to-door canvassing.  They
can also access the voter database from a mobile device.  

Online Fundraising

With this feature, campaigners can raise money with responsive online forms for donations,
fundraising event registrations, volunteer signups, etc.  

Compliance Reports

Political campaign software eases the preparation of time-consuming compliance reports. With
automatic fill-in options, filters, and fast attachments, campaigners can make reports quickly to
meet the requirements of the election commission and local bodies.  

Multi-device compatibility

Political campaign software has the flexibility of accessing data from multiple devices such as a
personal computer, laptop, mobile, tablet, Macbook, etc.  

Safe Payments 

Political campaign software comes with compliance to the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security
Standards to safeguard donor data.

Create Polls

With this feature, campaigners can create online polls before elections to assess voters'
sentiments. Campaign managers can also check if a particular voter has participated in the poll or
not.   

Integrated Mass Email

This feature lets users send bulk emails to their voter list, track email responses, and get email
analytics. 

Shared Calendars 
This feature lets users manage multiple schedules at once. This allows campaigners to keep their
team and voters informed of their schedule, upcoming campaign events, and assign tasks to team
members.  

Track Expenditure

Political campaign software comes with features to track the campaign expenditure and get
customized reports of the expenses.  

Form Builders

With drag and drop functionality, many political campaign software lets users create beautiful
donation forms, volunteer signup forms, and website landing pages for their campaigns. 

Admin control

This feature lets campaign managers assign roles, permissions, and access grants to their trusted
volunteers, staff members, etc.  

Reporting

Provides real-time downloadable reports to gauge the campaign’s performance.

Security Features

The political campaign software comes with high-end encryption to keep data security intact and
protect the privacy of voters’ data.

Other Features:
 Staff scheduling
 Event planning
 Online support
 2FA authentication
 Third-Party Integrations