Four Goals for Your Campaign’s Text Messaging Program

For campaigns working to cut through the noise and reach voters directly, text messaging is a valuable marketing channel because it’s built on a permission basis and there’s no algorithmic interference. Once you’ve invested in building your opted-in list of supporters, your texting program serves as one of the most versatile tools for your campaign. 

There aren’t many platforms available to a campaign that are well suited for fundraising, volunteer recruitment and activation, narrative building, AND get out the vote, but these are four goals well-suited to texting thanks to its high levels of engagement. 

Here’s a look at how your campaign can take advantage of texting to achieve your digital marketing objectives.

Fundraising

Grassroots, online fundraising is a focal point for your digital campaign and text messaging is well-suited for helping you raise more. Texting supporters a link to your donation page takes advantage of the higher open and click through rates, netting you additional donations. 

Using a highly-optimized, mobile responsive donation platform like WinRed will increase your conversion rates as well – especially if the supporter already has their payment information saved. According to data from Tatango, for every one dollar invested in building and operating a texting program, on average, campaigns net $20 in donations. That level of ROI is hard to beat with email and other channels.

Even if a supporter doesn’t click the text message link to donate, the message itself may serve as the trigger they need to donate the next time they see an email or visit your site. Campaigns that are highly effective at online fundraising use email and texting in tandem to drive up their overall conversion rates. 

Volunteer Recruitment & Activation

Use text messaging to recruit new volunteers from your most engaged supporters by sending them timely, targeted volunteer opportunities or information about upcoming events. With SMS, you reach supporters immediately and drive them directly to the information they need without the distractions presented by social media. 

Collecting information about a subscriber’s location enables your campaign to send messages about nearby volunteer opportunities and events, leading to higher response rates. 

Narrative Building

With text messaging, there’s no algorithm, spam filter, or editor to contend with, so your campaign can say exactly what you want to say to your supporters. Use SMS broadcasts to news about the campaign, updates on polling, and counter negative attacks – instantly.

Condition supporters early to know that your campaign shares critical, time-sensitive information through text messaging so they’ll sign up. 

Get Out The Vote

Text messaging has emerged as one of the most significant and affordable tools for driving votes. Research conducted by Tech for Campaigns found that people contacted via text were 1% more likely to vote. While that may not seem like a lot, that can make all the difference in a close race. 

This same research found that people who received information about issues unique to the candidate or the district were 8.2% more likely to vote and people who responded to texts were 9.6% more likely to vote. On Election Day (or when early voting begins or ballots are mailed), text messaging is your direct line to supporters. 

Now that you know what text messaging can help you achieve, the next step is writing texts that get results. Click here to learn more.

This article was written in partnership with Tatango, a leading provider of text messaging services for political campaigns. Click here to visit their site and learn more.