Technology Driven Voter Life Cycle

How do you win a campaign?
 
You win a campaign by focusing your limited resources on getting more votes than your opponent.

 Every one of your decisions should be directly linked to determining the most efficient way to get more votes.How do you get more votes? You build positive relationships with people who will vote for you.How do you build relationships? Just like your mom told you, “I am not your cleaning lady.” Wait, wrong mom quote. Here it is, “just be yourself and be a good listener.” It all comes down to communicating at the personal level with an individual, even when you are running a campaign.Companies customize their messaging to customers who are at different stages of the buying process using a 110 year old marketing model called the “purchasing funnel.” The purchasing funnel management model has finally become commonplace among modern political campaigns and is called the "voter life cycle."Technology has thrown gasoline on the ancient art of direct marketing. Political campaigns can now create, deliver, and automate highly customized messages to supporters and prospective voters in ways that were impossible just a cycle or two ago. The rapid spread of these techniques and strategies are a result of the increased availability of the online direct marketing tools that are so common among commercial online marketers.Lets get back to the classics. The following is my interpretation of the traditional marketing funnel applied to the political voter life cycle. Our political funnel is really shaped like an hourglass as successful candidates create supporters who are invested in promoting the success of the campaign. 

Unaware "It’s election time already? Who are all these candidates being talked about in the paper?"
Awareness "I keep seeing this Lincoln guy is running for President. Wonder who he is?"
Consideration "Ah, Lincoln is a Republican who wants to reduce taxes... This is good."
Conversion "If I vote, I will vote for this Lincoln guy.”
Loyalty "I will vote for Lincoln and am putting a bumper sticker on my car and a sign in my yard."
Advocacy “I am going to volunteer and get my friends and family to support Lincoln for President.”
Donor – 1x “I am going to put my money where my mouth is and make a donation to Lincoln.”
Donor – 1+ “This election is getting close. I am going to give a little more to make sure Lincoln wins.”
Fundraiser – Casual “I am going to drop an email to ask my friends and family to give to Lincoln.”
Fundraiser – Bundler “I am going to call all my friends and business acquaintances and ask them for a max-out donation for the campaign.”
Vote “I voted!!!”
GOTV “I am going to help get as many Lincoln voters as possible to the poles.”

Don’t let all this new technology and the constant onslaught of “shiny things” distract your campaign from the ancient practice of direct marketing. Direct marketing continues to be the best way to move supporters through the political funnel. What has changed for 2014 and beyond is the:

• number of options for the delivery of our campaign messages (broadcast, mail, email, online ads, online video, retargeting, social media, etc.)
• speed we can customize, deliver, test, and change messages
• ease at which a supporter can respond to campaign messages
• ability to track behavioral data on an individual voter basis

The theory is still the same. A campaign has to craft a compelling message that will drive a supporter to take action, recruit volunteers, give a donation, or get their butt to the polls. Getting the right messages to the right people at the right times will get the right box checked in the voting booth.The twist is that now you can track each of your supporters' actions and then customize the message for each supporter in real time through automation. The knock-on effect is that you can see your supporters as they move up and down the funnel. You can identify micro-segments and trends as supporters oscillate through the funnel.If you are starting with no supporters or a fresh data set, the first task is to categorize and flag your supporters to the general funnel segments in your campaign platform. It is critical that you set up a campaign data platform such as Crimson on day one. This investment will repay itself within hours. Once you have your supporters segmented, then you can focus on creating the business rules and messages you need to drive them through the funnel.Now it is time for the fun to begin.

1. Depending on where your campaign is in the election cycle and the quality of your supporter data, choose the segment of supporters on which you want to focus. Which population do you have to move from one segment to the next that would make the biggest impact on your campaign?
    
2. Craft 3 to 5 messages that you believe would move the support to the next segment.
    
3. Test each message on a sub-set of your target segment using different communication channels. Don’t forget to follow the channel appropriate usage rules for your message.
    
4. Track everything in your campaign platform database – what message was sent to which supporter at what time. Did the recipient respond and what action did they take? What did you learn about that individual?
    
5. Once you’ve found the message and channel that provides the best yield, try it on your full segment and make sure you record your user behavior back to your database.
    
6. Can you automate the delivery of this message to every new person who enters the general funnel segment? If so, do it now so you can move on to your next segment of supporters.
    
7. Rinse and repeat in your next segment.

As you move your focus through your segments, you will turn into a learning machine. You will see patterns of which messages appeal to which individuals. You will identify the triggers that move supporters up and down your funnel. You will identify micro-segments of supporters developing in each general segment.The other critical part is to make sure your campaign data platform is appropriate for the task. I recommend using a political specific tool that makes it easy for data to flow in and out. The best tools have automated normalization and smart matching processes. This means that new data flowing into the database is automatically matched with current contact records. If the data can’t be matched with a current contact record, then a new record is automatically created thus reducing the chances of duplicate creations and maximizing your data hygiene.The market leading Republican campaign data platform is Crimson, built by CMDI.Good luck and remember that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Keep a strong focus on the actions that will win you the most votes.