e-campaigning in the new political landscape. what is the new landscape? what is the new coalition...
TRANSCRIPT
e-Campaigning in the new political landscape
What is the new landscape?
What is the new coalition government?
How long will the coalition last?
A third of MPs are new
Potential debate on policy issues
NGOs need to keep voice heard
Encouragement for social action
The role for each MP has now been amplified
Think about the targets and the targeting
Are MPs members of committees or the cabinet?
What interests do MPs have either inside or outside politics that could relate to your campaign?
More localised ‘asks’ or constituency based campaigning
Target by political party or activity
Get personal with your MP!
Redirect and filter
If MPs are part of different groups, committees or parties they should get different supporter messages
This will help to increase the message’s impact to the campaign target and the supporter too
Use these ‘filtered messages’ to help influence politicians. You’ll know that they have been receiving specific questions from their constituents so there is no excuse if they don’t reply!
Data mapping
Find out who your supporters’ MPs are and then send them segmented emails
This could be especially important if you know that certain constituencies are vital to your campaign’s success (e.g. marginal seats, wavering support etc)
The outbound emails to your supporters will need to explain the urgency of the situation and tell them they need to take action now
The landing page of the action should highlight the specific urgency too. Don’t forget to send different messages to MPs too.
This should help to increase your email open rates and e-action effectiveness
Call your MP!
An example of a ‘widget’
This could be an ask for your ‘super activists’
Based on ‘profiles’ you can just send emails to these supporters asking them to take action
If you have a strategy for your ‘supporter journey’in place, this could be a good test
The action should be linked to a feedbackmechanism so your supporters can let you knowwhat the MP said
You can then feed this information into your campaign. It will also help to engage your supporters!
Direct emails to politicians
Send emails directly to MPs, rather than getting your supporters to always do it
Ask them to support your cause directly, invite them to events, send them information etc…
Use similar tactics to supporter emails. Follow up if they have yet to reply and thank them if they have taken action or if they are interested in specific issues
Use reporting tools to analyse open rates, click through rates of emails
Let your supporters know what their MP’s responses are – pull this information into supporter actions
Use of webforms
If an email address isn’t available for a politician, set up an action that submits into a web form instead.
Or ask your supporters to go directly to that site.
The form fields that are on your action will need to be the same as the form that they are submitting into
And the character limit for the message will need to factored in.
For example the limit for the Number 10 site is 1,000 characters including any salutation or address blocks.
Be concise with your message!
Summary
Different messages for different MPs - ‘redirect and filter’
Communicate with your campaigners using conditional content
Get your supporters to call their MP – use widgets
Direct communications with MPs
Use of ‘webforms’ if you can’t get email addresses
Contact
Jonathan Purchase
Head of UK Market Development, Advocacy Online
020 7287 6864