In the 2024 election season, many voters received staggering numbers of political text messages. How does a political campaign make those messages count and stand out?
Whether you’re working to turn out voters, solicit donations, spread awareness, or build name recognition, here are three takeaways we learned from 2024 that can make your conservative campaign texting more effective.
1. Personalize Your Text Messages
Nobody likes getting a generic political message that says and means nothing. SMS spam is more widespread than ever and a HUGE obstacle for our industry.
If it looks like spam, people will ignore it, block you, or opt out quickly.
To overcome this challenge, we found that using the candidate’s name or other real names helps. In addition, speak on issues that matter most to your audience.
If you can, merge the recipient’s first name with small touches like “Hey, Jason” instead of “Hello friend.” This makes a big difference.
But remember, garbage data will get you garbage results. People are more likely to respond positively when they feel like you’re talking directly to them.
2. Don’t Be Afraid to be Creative
Too many political texts look the same. If you want to stand out, do something different.
In 2024, we constantly confirmed that using humor, sending a quick poll, or dropping in an emoji or two makes your political SMS feel more human.
Think about what would make YOU stop scrolling and actually read a text. Maybe use a catchy first line to get them to open the text? The text preview on mobile devices is your first line of attack.
Boring doesn’t keep people engaged. Creativity does.
3. Track Your Metrics
If you’re seeing astronomical opt-outs, do you know what went wrong? If your click rate is under 2%, why wasn’t your call to action more persuasive? Tracking these and other metrics is critical to a successful texting campaign.
If your recipients are opting out at a rate of more than 2% on fundraising or 4% on voter contact, we learned you may not be talking to the right people.
Your targeted audience should be precise when sending a text blast. This helps preserve your sending reputation, ensures you aren’t wasting your dollars, and can result in a better ROI.
It’s tough to fit everything you want to say into a single text, but including a trackable link in each message keeps people engaged by giving them a clear next step to take. You can then follow up with two different messages to two different audiences for further engagement: those who clicked and those who didn’t.
If you’re not tracking what happens after you hit send, you’re texting in the dark.
30 Million Reasons to Work With Arena on Your Next Political Texting Campaign
In the past four years, Arena has delivered over 30 million SMS and MMS texts for our Republican campaign and advocacy clients. Contact us and learn how we can help you win!
