Theressa May’s recent announcement that the next General Election will take place on Thursday 8th June has forced all political parties to act fast and think about their campaigning, which is in many ways the political version of marketing. SMS marketing could give those that choose to utilise it a real advantage.
SMS Marketing and the General Election
Political parties have made a step-change in their approach to championing their manifestos and policies. Social and mobile marketing are increasingly prominent elements of the campaign trail, with many suggesting the Summer Election of 2015 was the first real ‘online Election’. This trend is only set to continue and SMS marketing could be a prominent channel as part of the shock Election to be held this Summer.
Hitting the Campaign Trail Fast
Campaigning for this Election will differ significantly from those of the past. Due to the very short timeframe between announcement and vote, Political parties will be unable to produce the same volume of printed content or film television spots. The quick and easy nature of delivering bulk marketing campaigns via a platform such as TextCampaign can help mitigate this problem and get Parties delivering their core messages.
What to Do With Data
Key to the success of any text campaign is data quality. Due to the sensitive nature of people’s political allegiances, it is not advised to send a bulk campaign to a random list of phone numbers. A given party promoting its policies to a staunch promoter of the opposition may not be well received! Therefore, SMS marketing for Political purposes will be more effective when the recipient is a registered supporter and therefore likely to engage with the sent information. TextAnywhere integrates with various CRM and customer data management systems, enabling parties to send relevant content to select groups dependant on location, gender or age of contacts. This information can be stored within the TextCampaign contact book, enabling senders to simply select lists of appropriate recipients and deliver targeted messages instantly. Read our full eBook on how to stay ICO complaint with text message marketing.
Growing a Supporting Community
SMS provides an excellent opportunity for Political parties to share information about their Leaders’ public appearances or events. By including shortened URLs, political parties can send information of locations and times of events to their supporters to drive attendance and create a feeling of unity amongst them. Supporters packs including badges and posters could be ordered through replying a single text with a short code keyword, helping politician’s and their followers raise public awareness of their parties.
Voting by Text: A Truly Digital Election?
With so many everyday functions now available online, it is somewhat surprising that voting on Political matters such as the General Election has not transitioned to a digital platform. Providing the ability to vote via text message by using a given keyword (the Political party) would help to streamline the hosting of Elections and surely streamline vote counting. The Government could save millions by reducing the volume of print advertising for registrations and polling cards by moving these processes onto a text format.
One of the big questions will come around security; could voting via text resulting in fraudulent vote casting or the sharing of sensitive information? The use of passwords or unique voter IDs shared ahead of the Election could help to overcome these issues and the existing small booths available in many polling stations are arguably less secure than a phone sitting in the user’s pocket.
SMS marketing could well play a role in the 2017 General Election, but its influence could grow significantly in the coming years as the argument for digital voting gains traction. If you’d like to discuss how text messaging could play a role in your campaigning contact our customer services team on 0845 122 1302.