In the wake of COVID-19, campaigns across the U.S. have been forced to adjust their voter outreach strategy. With in-person events no longer possible, candidates and their teams have had to take operations online.

Below, please find best practices for keeping your campaign active on digital during this pandemic.

TAKE EVENTS ONLINE

Now more than ever, it’s vital for campaigns to continue voter outreach. While in-person events are vital to grassroots efforts, they can’t proceed as planned. Instead, use technologies like Zoom or Facebook Live to take events online. These can be private or public, and they allow for audience interaction to replicate an in-person event as much as possible.

💡Bonus Tip: Do you have a connection to a medical professional, community leader, or another individual who is involved with COVID-19 response? Hosting a joint event with them as a guest speaker will provide value to audiences, encouraging more people to tune in and engage.

STAY ENGAGED WITH VOTERS

Supporters want to hear from you, but there is concern about generating backlash from continuing fundraising. If your campaign has paused fundraising, audiences can still be engaged with emails containing helpful information, wellness checks, and other personalized, non-political messages.

💡Bonus Tip: Keep major donors engaged and rewarded by offering donor-only virtual campaign briefings and/or one-on-one video chat sessions.

FUNDRAISE TASTEFULLY

For many campaigns, fundraising can’t stop. And now, the majority of fundraising efforts have to be done on digital. Of course, donation asks should remain tasteful in the context of a global pandemic. We recommend to not mention the virus directly, instead using messaging on why a donation is needed now more than ever.

💡Bonus Tip: Work an appropriate fundraising ask into your online events. Direct viewers to a unique donate page URL to better track donors that were acquired through the event.

CAPITALIZE ON THE MOMENT

Audiences are not as receptive to ultra-partisan messages right now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still engage them on what is top of mind for all of us. Through COVID-specific landing pages, Facebook Q&A Campaigns, or content thanking the frontline responders and workers, we can use relevant news of the day to stay active on people’s social media feeds.

💡Bonus Tip: Despite record online engagement, many brands have stopped running advertising on digital to make room in their budgets. As a result, competition for ad space is much lower than it was just weeks ago, allowing us to get more bang for our advertising buck. Now is a perfect time to continue, increase, or even start your digital advertising efforts.

We’ve had many clients ask if it’s appropriate to be running advertising at this time. We’ve shared screenshots of ads the president’s campaign is running as of April 8. We hope it’s helpful context as you weigh decisions about ad spending at this time.

Have a question, or want our help implementing one of the strategies mentioned above? Please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team at [email protected]!