It’s 2021 (almost) and online advertising and digital marketing have emerged as critical pieces of any modern political campaign puzzle. In Canada and around the world, online advertising is now considered a strategic advantage and something no campaign can take lightly. Many successful campaigns boast of professional communication teams well-versed in storytelling, platform building and media management. However, only few campaigns can claim to have the technical skills and expertise when it comes to digital marketing. Consequently, this is where hiring a political digital marketing agency can come into play.
Most importantly, strategic political marketing isn’t about just posting regular content and looking at the likes and shares. A well-defined and executed online advertising and digital marketing strategy can mean the difference between winning and losing an election. Choosing the best political digital marketing agency isn’t very straightforward. Firstly, this phenomenon is relatively new to Canada. Secondly, digital marketing evolves all the time. For instance, new algorithm rules, techniques, and platforms emerge almost every day. Above all, keeping on top of all these changes and mastering the various platforms isn’t something a political campaign can always afford to do in-house.
Additionally, choosing the best political digital marketing agency for your campaign or political organization isn’t like finding an agency for a business. Political marketing has various nuances and differences from traditional digital marketing. To clarify, some of the key differences include the following –
- Shorter campaign periods vs the long-term approach in business marketing
- Budgetary concerns and legal reporting requirements
- Personality-driven platforms vs a business ‘entity’ or brand
Confused?
Worry not! We’re here to help you choose the best political digital marketing agency for your next campaign or political office. Most importantly, we have tabulated this process in 5 easy steps for every campaign manager or political organizer to follow.
5 Steps to Choose the Best Political Digital Marketing Agency
1. Identify Your Key Requirements
Political candidates and organizations are unique. Likewise, the requirements when it comes to online advertising and digital marketing are unique to each campaign. Many campaigns just need some help to manage their online ads. On the other hand, there are others that need a complete ‘full-service’ approach to build strategy, setup online presence, engage with the audience, run ads, report, optimize and more. You can call it the ‘project’ vs the ‘full-service’ idea.
Further, a good starting point for any candidate or organization should be to list down the key requirements unique to your situation. You may answer the following questions and create some helpful background text on your requirements before you look for the best political digital marketing agency.
- Do you already have a website? Or is this something you need done?
- What about your social media handles?
- Can your team create and post content for you or is this something you need help with?
- How much digital marketing expertise do you have within yourself or your team?
- How much time can you invest on your own? Do you prefer a hands-off approach?
2. Define Marketing Objectives
Moreover, it’s important that you define the key results you expect out of your political digital marketing agency. Without a clear list of goals, measuring a proposal or outcomes isn’t possible. While the ultimate goal for any political campaign is electoral victory, translating that into measurable marketing goals is the key.
Most importantly, focus should be on the goals that matter – not vanity metrics like post likes and comments.
For example, building online profile, growing website traffic, identifying supporters or right audience could be the objectives for first-time candidates. On the other hand, incumbent candidates or political office holders may care more about engagement and conversion metrics with their constituents.
3. Set Your Evaluation Criteria
Firstly, set the parameters you’ll use to compare one agency vs the other before you begin reaching out. For instance, some of the key questions that you may include in your criteria are –
- Budget – How much will the project or full service cost you? Is there any flexibility on the price? Is advertising spend included or extra? In short, cheap isn’t always good so do factor in overall value an agency brings
- Credentials – How much past experience with political campaigns the agency has? Who are the team members? Who exactly is going to work on your account? What’s their professional accomplishments?
- Recommendations – Are there any references the agency can provide? Other politicians, candidates or organizations who used their services and achieved desired results?
- Culture and Working Style – Certainly, a political digital marketing agency will be part of your overall campaign team. How well do you think they will work with you and other members of your team? Do they believe in your platform/party/ideas? What’s their working style and does it match yours? Are their words merely jargon or you can understand what they aim to accomplish easily? Go with your hunch and focus on the ‘fit’.
4. Ask for Ideas and a Proposal
After that, reach out to a few agencies and get them to submit ideas and an outline proposal to work on your political campaign or project. Consider the time and ease of first-time communication as additional factors for your evaluation. In addition, bring on your campaign manager and or other team members to form a small committee for a fair analysis.
5. Evaluate and Select
Lastly, compare the proposals you received with the evaluation criteria you set in step 3 and discover the best political digital marketing agency for your campaign!
To sum up, online advertising and digital marketing are critical aspects for you to include in your political campaign strategy. In the same vein, choosing the right agency and team to work for you can make all the difference.
If you’re looking for digital marketing services in the Canadian political world, learn more about EOK Consults here. You can also explore our services or contact us here.
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