This is part 1 of 3 blogs posts: Past, Present and Future of Political Digital Marketing.

Is your campaign in the past and using old tactics of political digital marketing?

Political campaigns resist tactical evolution, especially if their tactics helped them win, and especially when those perceived tactics have a perceived value of helping them win again. Why? Campaigns have stakeholders – consultants, candidates and staff – who hold on to the status quo. Their intransigence to new tactics is the obstacle. It’s understandable. Why change what works?

Well, in digital political marketing, the proven tactics of your last election become out of date as soon as you win. The tactics you adopted at the beginning of your campaign, which could be 18 months before your victory, are not current. Trends change. Technology gets better. Metrics and analytics show a better way to reach your goals.

Political digital marketing is a growing force within election campaigns. The amount of money campaigns are spending on digital marketing proves this. Even if a campaign is doing the same old stuff, it is spending more money on digital marketing because all campaigns are doing more digitally. So, with an inevitable commitment to more digital marketing spending, a campaign should get out of the past and set its trajectory on the future of political digital marketing.

This blog post is going to tell you whether your campaign is stuck in the past. The next two posts will tell you if your campaign is in the present and whether your campaign is ready for the future of political digital marketing. Make an appointment with Ryan Gravatt at Raconteur Media if you’re already concerned about your campaign’s political digital marketing.

You’re campaign is stuck in the past IF…

You don’t have an email list

The name of the game in an election is scale quickly and frequently to your supporters and audience. Email checks all these boxes. A campaign operating without an email list is a campaign that will have to spend more to scale its reach quickly and frequently.

You are buying or renting email lists

Renting, buying or borrowing an email list is a failing tactic. Your campaign needs to build an email list from scratch. Renting, buying or borrowing an email list makes you feel like you’re going to scale quickly and frequently. But the truth is the emails you send are going to no one who knows you or cares much about your campaign. Worse, the messages may go to spam.

You don’t have a campaign Facebook page

Candidates need to use a campaign Facebook page – not their personal page. The differences are tremendous in order to scale quickly and frequently.

You are buying digital ads to target demographics

Digital advertising has many benefits and helps a campaign scale quickly and frequently. However, demographic target – ex: buying ads on foxnews.com because “this is the news site for my voters” – is a fast way to waste money without reaching voters. A campaign might as well light money on fire if it’s buying ads on sites rather than targeting voters.

Your campaign lets a generalist manage digital communication

Don’t confuse the ability to post on Facebook with the strategic expertise to manage a digital communication or marketing plan. Political digital marketing is an art and a science that builds upon itself. Too often, campaigns confuse motion with progress. If your campaign is allowing a generalist or even someone without proven political digital marketing expertise, your campaign will not scale quickly and frequently. In this scenario, your campaign is confusing motion ( posting on social media ) with progress ( actually touching voters and supporters and moving them into a deeper relationship with your campaign).