How to Use Database Marketing in a Political Campaign
- 1). Understand what a database is, the importance of database marketing and how the practice applies to every aspect of a political campaign. In this instance, a database is simply a list of names of people who have a relationship with a campaign in some way. They may be contributers, citizens who wrote letters, volunteers, registered voters or people who the candidate may have met on the trail.
Database marketing then becomes essential to capitalizing on the information you have. In fact, the two words campaigning and marketing become synonymous. A database helps you to understand who your supporters are and how you can capture non and potential supporters best. If used to it's potential in creative and innovative ways, your database will give you an edge over any opponent. - 2). Start building a comprehensive mailing list. In any political campaign, the candidate is only as strong as his/her visibility and name recognition. A campaign must look at every event, meeting, fundraiser or rally as an opportunity to build their mailing list. Why is a mailing list even needed: Votes, Volunteers and Campaign Contributions.
- 3). Use database marketing to speak to your audience about the issues they want to hear. Target your audience. Because you now have your database, you know where they live, where they work, and in some instances what issues interest them most based on letters you may have received. Use this to your advantage. Look for trends and act based on your findings. Categorize people based on their interest and send out coorespondance based on this. Take your polical campaign to the next level.
Database marketing becomes similar to putting pieces of a puzzle together. For example, you may notice that you have a small segment of blue collar supporters in your database. This may mean that you need to beef up your marketing with trade and civil unions. Think of creative ways to do this. Likewise, you may notice you have a large segment of supporters in a particular community. Send communications that speak directly to the issues of that community for a personalized touch. - 4). Use your database to understand what type of givers your contributers are and what fundraising methods work best to reach them. Not only should you log how much each person gave, but the circumstance in which they give. Did you have a fundraiser? Did the contributer mail in their gift or give online? Do you notice a difference in the amounts raised depending on the political event or climate? Does giving decrease at a certain time of the year? As in the previous step, gather this information to analyze what is working or not working for the campaign. Adjust your fundraising efforts accordingly. Test the effectiveness of new ways to reach your voters and supporters.
- 5). Communicate with constituencies even when not campaigning. Maintain a constant line of communication. During the course of the campaign season, contact information was captured and logged in your database. Continue to reach out about events, issues and special announcements throughout the year. Create loyal to your politcal message and essentially your next campaign. Continue to build your database everyday.
- 6). Eventually, you will need to convert your database over into a professional system that can capture the information you need and create reports easily. Spend the extra money. It will be worth it to your staff in the end. There are companies who specialize in political campaigns and reporting software.