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Boost Voter Engagement with Reliable Political Text Messaging
A political campaign, or election campaign, is the means by which candidates and political parties prepare and present their ideas and positions on current issues to voters in order to influence their decision making and cast their vote in favour of a specific candidate or party.
In order to pull off a successful political campaign, candidates and political parties use a variety of marketing techniques to reach voters in the lead-up to election day. This includes radio advertising, billboards, flyers, events and more.
A great way to accelerate your political campaign is by utilising SMS marketing. With open rates as high as 98% and 7.5 billion mobile phone users by 2026, SMS marketing can assist your political campaign by reaching your voters on the channel they use the most.
Political Campaign SMS Templates
1. Political campaign alerts and updates
Make the most of those important days leading up to the big election by sending political campaign alerts and updates via SMS. These could be for events, political views, positions and more.
Examples:
- We’re hosting a sausage sizzle in Corbins Mark @ noon. Come on down and wear blue to support your local candidate! Opt Out reply STOP
- We’re putting a stop to greenhouse gas emissions by 2025. Vote #1 for ABC Party this election: bit.ly/abc-more-info Opt Out reply STOP
- Show your support this Saturday at Michelle’s café! Your candidate will be answering questions on how they’re working to alleviate unemployment. Opt Out reply STOP
2. Organising volunteers
Many political parties are backed by their volunteers, who volunteer their time at local campaign meetings, handing out how-to-vote cards on election day and more. SMS provides an easy way for you to organise your volunteers, including sending them notifications, event reminders and more.
Examples:
- Your presence is requested at the ABC Party campaign meeting on Friday, 9th May at People’s Restaurant. We’d love your support.
- We need volunteers for our mailbox drop in Palmview area. Can you help? Bit.ly/pv-drop
- Are you available on election day? Lunch is on us for volunteers assisting at polling booths across the city. We’d love your help: bit.ly/poll-day
3. SMS reminders to cast votes
One of the easiest ways to get in front of your voters is to send a political SMS broadcast reminding them to cast their vote on election day. In some countries, including Australia, voting is compulsory and so a friendly reminder can go a long way.
Examples:
- Don’t forget to cast your vote this election day! Polls open at 9am. Vote #1 for ABC Party and help us make a difference! Opt Out Reply STOP
- Jason, the polling booths close tonight at 6.00pm! Make sure to get your vote in and have your voice heard. Vote #1 for XYZ Party Opt Out Reply STOP
- Are you ready to vote tomorrow? We’re ready to start making a difference in your local area. Vote #1 for FEG Party Opt Out Reply STOP
4. Links to find a local polling booth
Elections don’t happen often, so make sure your voters know exactly where to go by sending a political SMS with a link to find their local polling booth. Utilise 2-way SMS to get your voters engaged.
Example:
You: "Peter, tomorrow is election day! Do you know where to vote? Reply with your postcode and we’ll send you polling booths in your local area"
Peter: "4553"
You: "There are 6 local polling booths for your area. View more here: bit.ly/where-to-vote"
5. Election result announcements
After the election is ended, you can take the opportunity to send your voters a political SMS broadcast to let them know if any of your candidates won their local area election, or were successfully voted in.
Examples:
- Hi Felicity, thanks for your vote! We’re pleased to announce that Janet Joseph will now be your local Member of Parliament. Any questions or concerns? Get in touch here: bit.ly/janet-joseph
- Your new Prime Minister is Fred Frankly! We appreciated your support at the polls this year. Find out more about Fred’s plans for Australia here: bit.ly/fred-frankly
- Thanks for your vote, Michael! We congratulate Kiara Knight on gaining a seat in Parliament!
Political SMS Marketing Software
When choosing software to use consider what features will make the biggest impact to your campaign. Notifyre offers:
✓ Scheduling tools: Plan ahead and put your bulk text messages campaigns on autopilot.
✓ Smooth start: Upload SMS marketing contact lists to use merge fields and contact groups. Import 100,000+ contacts at once.
✓ SMS personalisation: Make messages count with custom merge fields, emojis, Unicode and more.
✓ Stay compliant: Use subscriber tools to manage opt-ins and opt-outs.
✓ Live campaign reporting: Measure the effectiveness of your bulk SMS campaigns.
5 Ways to Send Political SMS Campaigns
Notifyre’s SMS gateway enables campaign managers to send messages via any device through the method that best suits them. Here are 4 ways to send SMS online with Notifyre:
- Email to SMS – Send your political SMS messages without ever leaving your email client. Compatible with Gmail™, Outlook™, Yahoo!® and more.
- SMS broadcast– Ensure your election alerts, reminders and political text messages reach your entire audience, all at once. Send a bulk SMS to your entire audience in one click with SMS personalisation using merge fields.
- 2-way SMS – give your voters the opportunity to reply to your political SMS message with SMS replies for up to 48 hours at no charge, or purchase a virtual SMS number to receive unlimited SMS replies from voters. Choose a local number specific to your area for your political campaign.
- SMS API – Seamlessly add SMS messaging into your existing systems and apps using the Notifyre SMS API.
- Zapier SMS - Connect Zapier to Notifyre’s online SMS service to start sending text messages automatically.
Create SMS Opt-In Forms for Political Text Messaging
Creating an SMS opt-in form for your political campaign is an effective way to reach your constituents and keep them informed. However, it's best practice to gather consent using an online form before sending text messages. Here are 7 ways how you can grow your opt-in list.
Clear Call to Action: Ensure your form includes a clear call to action. Make it obvious that by submitting their phone number, recipients know they are agreeing to receive political campaign updates via SMS.
Opt-Out Information: Your form should include instructions on how individuals can opt out of receiving messages. A simple message like, "Text STOP to opt out at any time," should be displayed when filling out the form.
Enhance Your Political Campaign with SMS Marketing
The sky is the limit when preparing and managing your political campaign. By utilising SMS marketing, you can reach your voters before, on and after election day. Start sending SMS messages today with Notifyre and take full advantage of our SMS features to enrich your message and make your political campaign stand out from the rest. Sign up to get started!
You can also explore SMS tools for law firms and legal services to strengthen client relationships and keep cases moving forward with Notifyre SMS.
Increase engagement with mass text message marketing
Create contact groups to manage your contacts, opt-ins, opt-out lists and more, all in one place.
Slide into inboxes with SMS Marketing
Use scheduling tools, SMS templates and bulk contact upload to send SMS broadcasts.
Big Impact, Low Cost with Online SMS
Get unbeatable value with Notifyre’s pay-as-you-go SMS. Send smarter, save more!