Political campaigns can be a source of communication ideas for businesses and organizations looking to tell their story.
Make It Personal
To secure votes, politicians must foster a personal connection with potential voters. They accomplish this by sharing information about themselves, interacting directly with the audience, and fostering relationships.
Voters appreciate a candidate they can sympathize with and relate to on a certain level. Businesses and organizations can benefit from creating a similar personal connection with customers.
In your communications, showcase the human side of your business. Maintain professionalism, but find places to have fun, be relatable, and create a dialogue with the audience.
Social media is vital for candidates to reach an audience, and businesses should use the platforms in a similar way. In today’s digital climate, customers look to social media for customer service.
Being responsive on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can deepen trust in your business and strengthen credibility. By interacting on a personal level, you show you’re more than just a brand and care for your customers.
Have a Recognizable Brand
For political candidates, a personal brand is vital to picking up momentum in election season. Candidates with effective branding materials – such as a logo and a slogan – usually create larger followings.
Take these slogans for example:
- Make America Great Again – President Donald Trump
- Feel the Bern – Democratic Candidate Bernie Sanders
- We Like Ike – Former President Dwight Eisenhower
- Change We Can Believe In – Former President Barack Obama
The business sector is no different. The most successful businesses have effective slogans and logos that become ingrained in consumers’ minds. For example, you can’t see a “swoosh” without thinking Nike, or McDonald’s patented golden arches and not hear “I’m loving it” in your head.
Research is important when creating these branding materials. Make sure to test the logos and slogans through polls and focus groups to narrow down the best options. Logos and slogans help establish brand recognition, which can boost your business.
Use a Consistent Message
While on the campaign trail, candidates promote their platforms and consistently mention several main points.
Whether it’s health care, the economy, or education, these particular messages become a focal point of their campaign and appear in most of their communications – speeches, press releases, websites, and more.
Much like a slogan or logo, a consistent message can become synonymous with a candidate.
As a business, craft a message that resonates with your audience – this can be done by testing different messages with polling methods or focus groups.
Once you find something that works, use these points in all of your messaging – direct mail, digital ads, social media posts, and press releases. Candidates use all of these platforms to reach potential voters with their messaging, and businesses would be wise to do the same.
Plan Ahead
The most successful political campaigns are well-planned and calculated. Candidates use research and intuition to choose messages, places for rallies, audiences to target, and more.
Businesses should take the same approach. A strategic communications plan can bolster a business’ brand, expand its audience, and ensure its story is told effectively. The plan can include your message, where you will deliver it, and how you will package the story depending on the platform.
Candidates monitor public perception to see where they stand with their audience. They can pull from polls, media coverage, and personal feedback to decide how to move forward with their campaign. Businesses can do the same – conducting media monitoring to track reach and sentiment analysis.
At Sinclair, we know you have an important story to tell. We have the expertise and experience to create a strategic communications plan that is tailored to your needs and can accomplish all of your goals.
