direct marketing & politics: converting your audience when you're selling ideas
DESCRIPTION
A presentation I gave on direct marketing, political campaigning and digital advocacy to a group of inbound marketers at a monthly marketing event called #InboundTO. I discussed identifying your audience, segmenting and micro-targeting and leverage paid and social media to drive qualified inbound traffic to your website or cause.TRANSCRIPT
DIRECT MARKETING & POLITICSConverting your audience when you’re selling ideas
A little about me
Campaigning
Measure public opinion
Manage crises and online reputations
Execute ‘political’ campaignsfor corporations and orgs.
3Today I want to talk about
three things
Segmenting & identifying your audience1
Micro-targeting & micro-messaging2
Fostering engagement &building community3
But first...
A little bit about the opinionenvironment in politics
In politics you deal with all kindsof people
ImmersedAngry
Apathetic
SupportiveEngaged
Hostile
ImmersedApathetic Engaged
ENGAGEMENT SPECTRUM
Opposed Supportive
SUPPORT SPECTRUM
The trick is to identify those most supportive and empower them to activate their network
Who do you activate and how?
ImmersedApathetic Engaged
ENGAGEMENT SPECTRUM
Opposed Supportive
SUPPORT SPECTRUM
IN POLITICS:
TAM = All eligible and registered voters
But really... ~50% turnout... so TAM/2
Of these 2/3 are indisposed in an equal market
So now we’re at TAM/6 who support you and will vote
To win you need >TAM/6... you need ~2.5x times that.
Where do you make up that gap?
A FEW THINGS:
First, the market is not equal.
The composition of the ~50% who vote can be manipulated
“Gap” voters straddle between parties and blur policy lines
With some voters the challenge is persuasion...
With others its getting them getting them out to the polls
SEGMENT& IDENTIFY
SEGMENT
Of voters who needs convincing and who needs to be activated?
Of the entire voter pool, which best align with our message and our policies?
How can I break out audience into more measurable chunks?
What’s the advantage of segmentation?
IDENTIFY
What is my voter’s profile?
Where do they live online?
What type of content are they viewing and how can they be reached?
MICRO-TARGET & MICRO-MESSAGE
MICRO-TARGET / MICRO-MESSAGE
If the air war is covering vast geographic regions and broad interest categories, then online we can do the inverse.
Message construction is often tailored the largest common denominator of the voting population... the X% we need in order to win.
Micro-target sub-sections with secondary policy message tracks... or additional value propositions
Micro-message! ID those audiences and talk to them about supporting value propositions
FOSTER ENGAGEMENT &BUILDING COMMUNITY
FOSTER ENGAGEMENT
Leverage social media and your social audience to get your message out.
Be available and responsive to your supporters... ignore your detractors
Reward your audience for engaging -- let them know you’re listening
Create a sense of community (and be platform agonistic about it)
BUILD COMMUNITY
In politics, you can’t win without passionate advocates.
The same holds true in marketing.
Communities aren’t defined by borders online, but if your product is geographical -- mirror that geography online.
And don’t forget to measure, measure, measure, measure, measure, measure, measure.
5Lessons I’ve learned from politics
Manageable is better thanmasterful.5
Speed kills.4
Tracking over time is thebest barometer formeasuring success.3
Pivoting is better than beating a dead horse.2
Winning is better than losing(so set yourself up for success)1
Q+A