Text message marketing is a convenient and reliable way to communicate with supporters of your political campaign, organization, or advocacy group. Many groups are already using this marketing channel as part of their strategy to win elections and increase donations; in fact, political candidates and organizations sent more than 5 billion election-related text messages in October 2020 alone!
Political text messages can serve various purposes, from fundraising to increasing voter turnout to growing support for a cause. Organizations and political candidates aren’t sending messages simply for fun; SMS messages have strategic objectives and calls to action. The sender typically wants the recipient to do something, such as donate, register, vote, or spread the word. And it works—on average, many Tatango clients return $5 for every $1 they invest in text message marketing.
To accomplish the political organization’s objectives, often the sender wants subscribers to visit a website where they can complete an action, which raises a question: can you put a hyperlink in a political text message?
Yes, you can include a hyperlink in political text messages, and we highly recommend that candidates, organizations, and advocacy groups use hyperlinks in their text messages. This blog post covers everything you need to know about using hyperlinks in political text messages for your SMS campaigns.
Why Use Hyperlinks in Political Text Messages
Although you can send your supporters messages with no hyperlinks or calls to action, we recommend you clearly define a purpose for every message and include a CTA. Here’s why:
Incentive
Research shows 58 percent of consumers are more likely to engage in mobile advertising if it includes an offer, deal, or coupon. Political candidates or organizations may not be able to offer a coupon like retailers can, but they can still offer incentives.
Many political organizations and advocacy groups incentivize supporters to join their SMS campaign by offering exclusive, insider information or behind-the-scenes from the campaign trail. Incentives are a great place to use a hyperlink within your political text messages. Hyperlinks can lead to urgent, important information that you’re sharing first or exclusively with your SMS subscribers.
Call to Action
Calls to actions can vary from time-sensitive (e.g. vote today) and very important to less urgent (e.g. share your opinion on this policy issue). A study found that people who responded to text message CTAs were 9.6 percent more likely to vote than those who didn’t respond.
Many CTAs are hyperlinks, and we recommend political candidates, organizations, and advocacy groups use hyperlink CTAs. Include a hyperlink CTA to fill out a survey, check voter registration status, or donate to your political campaign. Not only do CTAs drive your campaign forward, but they have been proven to increase the likelihood of your recipients voting when it matters most.
Quick Open Rates
For organizations sending essential updates and urgent requests in their hyperlinks, we have good news! Recipients open 90 percent of SMS marketing messages, often within just three minutes of having received them. If the hyperlink you’re sending your subscribers requires immediate attention, the chances they’ll see it and open quickly are very high!
Political campaigns and candidates have a multifaceted approach to supporter communication. For urgent and time-sensitive updates, we highly recommend utilizing hyperlinks in text messages. Email is subject to spam filters, and recipients don’t check email as often as they check SMS messages.
Quick Read Rates
Not only will your subscribers open text messages that include hyperlinks more quickly, but they’re also almost certainly going to read those messages. Did you know that SMS marketing read rates exceeded 99 percent?
Does your campaign need to send out an urgent event update or reminder to register for an event? SMS messages that include a hyperlink are the perfect solution to ensure your supporters get the most recent updates and can take action right away.
Types of Text Messages that Include Hyperlinks
Political candidates, organizations, and advocacy groups have the option of utilizing two types of text messages to send hyperlinks to their supporters. Campaigns can send an SMS message or an MMS message to their subscribers.
SMS Message
Your SMS marketing messages can include up to 160 characters of text. Within the 160 characters of SMS text, you can also include:
- Plain text
- An emoji
- A phone number
- A hyperlink
MMS Message
Your MMS marketing messages can include up to 5,000 characters of text. Within that MMS message, you can include:
- Plain text
- A subject line
- A video
- An image
- A GIF
- A Vcard
- A sound file
- An emoji
- A phone number
- A hyperlink
Examples of Poltical Text Messages that Include Hyperlinks
SMS marketing has some surprisingly great statistics that make a convincing case for political candidates and organizations to utilize this channel. Adding hyperlinks to your text messages will only take them to the next level. Let’s examine a few ways political organizations, candidates, and advocacy groups can use hyperlinks within their political text messages.
Voting Registration
The main goal for political candidates and organizations is to get people to vote. One great way to use hyperlinks within your SMS marketing campaign is to send voting registration hyperlinks, voter status updates, and voting locations.
Surveys
Political candidates, organizations, and advocacy groups can benefit significantly from surveying their supporters. Surveys help organizations identify what’s most important to their supporters to have better communication with them. Additionally, surveys help supporters feel heard and included.
If your survey contains just one question, you don’t need a hyperlink. For longer surveys, we recommend sending a hyperlink to your supporters via text message.
Petitions
For organizations and political advocacy groups that provide important information regarding local and national issues, a great way to increase supporter involvement is by sending links to petitions.
Donations
Political candidates and organizations largely rely on donations to support the work they do. Using donation hyperlinks in your political text messages is a great way to raise funds for your campaign or organization.
Events
Including hyperlinks in your political text messages is a great way to get RSVPs and volunteer sign-ups and send time-sensitive updates and news about your events.
Why Use Tatango for Political Text Messaging
Tatango has been serving political organizations, candidates, and advocacy groups for over 13 years. Our platform is meticulously built yet easy to use. Our goal is to help organizations and candidates get the best outcomes from their text message marketing investments. Our political clients see an average of a $5 return for every $1 they invest in text message marketing.
We’d love to meet you, learn about your organization’s work, and discuss how Tatango can help you more efficiently and effectively communicate with your supporters. Contact us to find out more about using SMS marketing to raise donations and win your next election.
