Political elections are incredibly complex, and every branch of government is unique in how it campaigns and fundraises. Each congressional district includes about 700,000 people, so congressional candidates have a smaller audience from which to gather funds than state senators. Representatives heavily rely on small-dollar donations from individuals in their district to help get their message out and secure a victory.
A large amount of congressional funding comes from individuals, so a strong communications strategy is vital to election success. Candidates must understand the unique audiences within their district and communicate with them to properly fundraise and secure a victory.
Winning candidates have a diverse method of communicating with supporters and gathering funds. One of these very successful methods of fundraising is SMS messaging. Campaigns who wish to get the best ROI for their SMS messaging investment utilize text message marketing software.
The following blog will discuss the key functionalities within SMS marketing software that help congressional candidates effectively fundraise and secure a victory.
Subscriber Profiles
To properly fundraise from members of your congressional district, understanding your audience is vital. The Tatango SMS marketing platform has a subscriber profile for every supporter who opts in to your SMS campaign. Subscriber profiles allow congressional campaigns to collect basic and advanced data like survey results to ensure you know what topics your district’s members care most about and potentially will be willing to donate to help support.
Subscriber Segmentation
With Tatango, your congressional campaign can segment subscribers based on the data stored in the subscriber profiles. For example, you can segment your audience based on location, age, or gender, or even on the policies that subscribers care about most. Then you can send each audience segment personalized messages based on those attributes.
Additionally, your congressional campaign may want to segment its audience based on donor status. Donor status segmentation can help your staff create different campaigns with unique messages targeting avid donors and those who’ve never donated.
Subscriber Analytics
Data is a congressional campaign’s best friend, especially when the margins in a race are small. Understanding your audience and how they behave is vital for successfully gathering donations and bringing in new supporters. When segmenting your audience and creating custom campaigns based on that information, make sure you review the data to ensure your donation SMS messages resonate with your audience.
Subscriber analytics will also help you determine which advertisements in your SMS marketing campaign work best and which ones may need to be revised or retired.
Messaging Workflows
A congressional campaign’s communications strategy is usually outlined in advance, including the fundraising messaging. The Tatango SMS marketing platform allows your campaign to create messaging workflows that easily and efficiently bring your communications strategy to life. Messaging workflows can be very simple (like sending a personalized thank-you message when you receive a donation) or more complex, helping you gather information you can use later to share issue-specific stances and raise more money.
Messaging Automations
Messaging automations are a great way to improve efficiency in your congressional campaign communications and ensure every new subscriber and supporter receives a message from you. With messaging automation, welcoming new supporters and sending them donation-related messages is simple and ensures the fundraising process is consistent.
Not only are messaging automations easy to use, but they can also be updated, paused, or stopped at any time. Tatango gives campaign staff all controls to ensure they can make changes at any time, day or night.
Messaging Analytics
The best way to improve your congressional campaign’s donation strategy is to understand what’s working well and what isn’t performing as planned. Congressional campaigns that use Tatango have vast amounts of data at their fingertips that can help them determine the health of their SMS fundraising campaigns. Dive deep into your messaging analytics to identify what could be adjusted and what should be duplicated and resent more often.
Are messages that focus on issue-specific funding more effective, or do messages that provide a timely incentive (like a campaign T-shirt) work better? Messaging data is your best friend and will help you identify what resonates most with the members of your district and how you can get the best ROI for your investment.
Integrations
Congressional campaigns typically use more than one technology to communicate with their supporters and gather donations. Things can get confusing if campaign staff members have to jump from one technology to another, and sometimes actions can be overlooked in the process. This is where technology integrations come into play. Tatango integrates with CRM systems to help make communication planning and execution a breeze. Most importantly, Tatango integrates with fundraising software.
Technology integration creates a safe and secure way to gather funds. Integrations also create an extremely efficient way to fundraising—and efficiency means a higher ROI. Tatango integrates with all political SMS fundraising software and CRMs, such as ActBlue, WinRed, EveryAction, Anedot, NationBuilder, and many others.
Partner with Tatango to Help Your Congressional Campaign Win
Tatango has been partnering with congressional campaigns for over 13 years, helping them gather donations and secure election victories. On average, Tatango’s political clients see an ROI of $5 for every $1 they invest in SMS marketing.
We’d love to partner with you and help you efficiently and effectively gather donations for your campaign. Chat with an SMS marketing expert today.
