Candidates running for the 2016 US Presidential elections are using innovative online strategies to attract citizens and turn them into prospective voters. This particular strategy is not a new one either. It helped current US president Barack Obama to win the last two elections back in 2008 and 2012. The candidates are establishing their own personal brands, and attracting voters by leveraging that.
Over 120 million Americans are expected to vote this year to choose their President. For the sake of convenience let’s divide American citizens into 2 major contact lists aka segments: Democrats and Republicans. Most of the election campaigns are designed to woo these 2 segments- either to acquire new followers or retain existing supporters. Obviously, the candidate with an upper hand in tech will be able to reach out, engage and convert most number of voters.
Traditionally elections focused on offline campaigns mostly face2face and digitally via television debates but none comes closer to the power marketing automation tech tools have to offer. Since 2008, the presidential elections have seen large budgets allocated to the modern digital mediums like websites, apps, social media etc. and the results have been encouraging.
The digital tool that Barrack Obama use in 2008 and 2012 elections was called Dashboard. The moment he started using it, it brought about an evolution in the process of campaigning during elections.
While these candidates are rallying voters in different parts of the US as part of their offline strategy, serving selective yet relevant content on their websites is part of their online strategy.
Marketing automation is one such tool that has aided the presidential candidates. It uses relevant content targeted at specific audience to attract them and convert them. So, it is perhaps the secret weapon that is being used by candidates to win the election.
With the right amount of resources and tools, there is literally no limits when it comes to influencing consumer behaviour through online media.
A Deeper Level of Understanding
Marketing automation allows the candidate to capture information of prospects and volunteers when they register, and then leverage the tracking features to trace their digital footprints. Both parties benefit. While the candidate gets access to more information, better analytics, the prospect does not have to register over and over again for every event.
In addition to that, tools like automation has eliminated the need to invest time and energy to track down qualified leads or in this case, volunteers and prospective voters. You can just segment them and score them to find out who is qualified and who is not.
All Ears
Marketing automation allows its users to listen to what people have to say about them. Users can track them and receive valuable insights and analytical data. Candidates can actually tap into any social media channel at any given point in time to find out how the world is reacting to their actions.
That itself makes a big impact as to how a personal brand like a presidential candidate spends their campaign budget. Automation is changing the way of presidential elections, and this is just the beginning.
With these insights, candidates can aim to build a brand more humane in nature. Marketing automation focuses on engaging the audience in a non-invasive way and so far it has been a great success all over.
One can say that automation tools serve as a candidate’s source of truth during these times. When you can track every movement, there is not much to hide, is there?
Paving Way for Something New
The advantage of analytical data along with insights is that presidential candidates can target their audience in a relevant fashion. They can segment their audience as per their information and preferences, then send them relevant content for their perusal. It is a novel way of engaging audience, one that is necessary at this point of time. After all, content is what runs a marketing automation tool, without crisp content, it is just another marketing tool.
The nature of the campaign does not matter when it comes to making decisions based on user data. Whether it is political or business, the focus remains the same. When it comes to converting a lead to a voter, it means getting believers to influence their friends and family, and influencing complete strangers through the power of compelling content.
When it comes to closing the deal, well, you will just have to wait it out and see for yourself when the election results are revealed.
Marketing automation also generates closed-loop reports on every prospect letting a candidate know which lead came from which campaign. It lets the candidate camp to effectively analyze how election campaigns are performing.
Marketing automation is a game-changer in all aspects of life. Marketers have benefited from it and so have sales representatives. It is already being used by presidential candidates, and who knows what’s next? Technology may already have an answer to who's winning the 2016 US Presidential elections. For the rest of us, waiting until the results are announced is the only option.
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