How to Choose a Political Campaign Website Builder
A political campaign website builder can get a candidate online quickly and affordably. But choosing one based only on templates or monthly price misses the larger issue.
A campaign website has a job to do. It needs to introduce the candidate, explain the race, collect supporter information, promote events, direct visitors to donations, publish updates, and change emphasis as Election Day approaches.
You can do all of that with a general-purpose website builder. The difference is how much you have to figure out and assemble yourself.
Online Candidate has built political campaign websites for more than 20 years. Over that time, we’ve seen candidates use custom developers, volunteers, general website builders, political platforms, and just about every combination in between.
Based on that experience, these are the things we think matter most.
Start With the Campaign, Not the Website Builder
Most website builders can create pages, display photos, add navigation, and publish forms. Those are basic website functions.
A political campaign usually needs a more specific structure:
- Candidate biography
- Issues or priorities
- Donations
- Volunteer recruitment
- Endorsements
- Campaign news
- Events
- Contact information
- Voting and election information
- Clear calls to action
For an experienced web developer, creating those pieces is straightforward. For a first-time candidate trying to launch quickly, deciding what the website needs can take longer than actually building it.
That’s one advantage of a political-specific website builder: you’re not beginning with a blank business template and trying to turn it into a campaign site.
The basic structure should already make sense for someone running for office. For a closer look at what each section should accomplish, review the pages every political campaign website should include.
What First-Time Candidates Often Underestimate
A website builder for first-time political candidates should do more than provide attractive templates. It should help the campaign understand what needs to be prepared before the site can launch. In our experience, the website software is rarely the biggest delay. Candidates are more likely to be waiting for a final biography, headshot, issue statements, campaign disclaimer, donation account, office and district information, or decisions about who will receive volunteer submissions.
A campaign-specific builder should provide a useful starting structure, but candidates should also look for setup guidance, relevant examples, and access to support when they aren’t sure what belongs on the site. Those things can matter more to a first-time candidate than having dozens of design options.
Experience With Your Type of Race Matters
This is something candidates don’t always consider until there’s a problem.
Building a website for a political campaign is not quite the same as building one for a restaurant, law firm, or local contractor. Even within politics, different races have different priorities.
A sheriff candidate may emphasize professional qualifications and law-enforcement experience, while a school board candidate may focus more heavily on district priorities and community involvement. Judicial campaigns can face additional restrictions on what candidates may say or how they present themselves.
A website company doesn’t need to act as your election attorney, and candidates should always confirm legal requirements with the appropriate election authority or counsel. But there is value in working with people who have built websites for the type of office you’re seeking and have seen the issues that can trip candidates up.
Experience also helps with the smaller decisions: what pages matter, what voters look for, where calls to action belong, and what campaigns commonly forget before launch.
Make Sure the Site Can Change as the Race Changes
A campaign website built six months before Election Day shouldn’t look exactly the same six days before Election Day.
Early on, the emphasis may be biography, issues, and introducing the candidate. As the campaign develops, endorsements, news, volunteer recruitment, fundraising, and events become more important.
Later, the homepage may need to shift toward early voting, absentee information, Election Day reminders, or a final fundraising push.
Campaign staff should be able to add or edit pages, publish news and events, update calls to action, and promote time-sensitive information without waiting for a developer. In politics, two business days can be a long time. The candidate or a trusted campaign staff member should be able to handle routine updates directly.
Pay Attention to What Happens After Someone Fills Out a Form
Nearly every website builder can create a contact form.
The better question is: What happens to the information afterward?
Campaign websites may collect contact requests, volunteer and email signups, endorsements, yard sign requests, and other supporter responses. If those submissions exist only as individual emails, they become surprisingly easy to lose. Find out whether the website keeps a record of submissions and whether campaign staff can review them later.
Online Candidate, for example, stores website form submissions in the administration area. Campaign staff can review contact, volunteer, endorsement, donation-related, and email signup activity rather than depending entirely on the original email notification.
That does not make the website a full voter database or CRM. Smaller campaigns may not need one, while larger campaigns with more extensive organizing needs may want a dedicated system alongside the website.
Know which level you actually need.
Your Donation Platform Should Be Your Choice
We generally prefer integrating an established political fundraising service rather than having the website itself act as the campaign’s payment processor.
Services such as ActBlue, WinRed, Anedot, and other fundraising platforms are built around political contributions and their associated requirements.
Your website builder should make it easy to use whichever fundraising provider fits your campaign.
It should also let you promote donations throughout the site. A donation link doesn’t belong only on a Donate page.
Donation calls to action may belong in the website header, homepage promotions, campaign news, events, landing pages, and time-sensitive announcements—not only on the Donate page. When fundraising matters, supporters shouldn’t have to hunt for the contribution link.
Decide How Much Website Work You Really Want to Do
DIY website builders cost less partly because the campaign provides the labor. Someone still has to choose the design, organize the pages, add branding and content, configure forms and donation links, and proofread the finished site.
For some campaigns, that’s no problem. They have someone comfortable doing it and would rather keep the cost down. Of course, price is only part of that decision. Our guide to political campaign website costs compares the financial and time commitments involved in different approaches.
This is why we don’t think the decision is DIY website vs. professionally designed website. The better question is: How much help does the campaign need getting started?
Compare the Main Campaign Website Options
| Website option | Best suited for | What the campaign handles | Main tradeoff |
|---|---|---|---|
| General website builder | Campaigns with someone who already understands websites | Site structure, campaign pages, forms, donation links, technical setup, and maintenance | Flexible and inexpensive, but requires more decisions and setup |
| Campaign-specific website builder | Local and first-time candidates who want a campaign-ready structure | Content, photographs, branding choices, and routine updates | Faster starting point, but the campaign still does the initial setup |
| Campaign platform with professional setup | Candidates who want to launch quickly without building everything themselves | Providing materials, reviewing the site, and approving the finished setup | Higher initial cost in exchange for less campaign labor |
| Custom developer or agency | Larger campaigns or sites with unusual requirements | Project direction, approvals, and ongoing vendor coordination | Maximum flexibility, but generally the highest cost and greatest vendor dependence |
These options can all produce a professional campaign website. The practical difference is how much planning, setup, technical work, and ongoing support the campaign expects to handle itself.
Don’t Let a Cheap Website Cost You Control
Domain ownership is one of the least interesting parts of building a campaign website — until something goes wrong.
We’ve seen candidates lose access to domains because a volunteer, consultant, or web designer registered the name under their own account.
Before launching, know:
- Who registered the domain
- Who controls the registrar account
- Whether the campaign can change its DNS settings
- Whether the domain can be transferred
- What happens to it after the election
The same principle applies to other campaign accounts. Important digital assets should remain under campaign control rather than being tied exclusively to one volunteer or vendor.
This matters beyond the current election. Candidates often run again.
A domain that seemed temporary during a first campaign can become valuable several years later.
Check the Boring Technical Details
Templates get most of the attention when people shop for website builders. Some less exciting features matter more over the life of the site.
Confirm that the service includes or supports:
- Secure HTTPS hosting
- Mobile-friendly design
- Backups and reliable hosting
- Page titles and meta descriptions
- Social sharing controls
- Analytics or analytics integration
- Search engine verification
- Campaign email addresses or an easy way to use outside email
- The ability to give campaign staff their own administrative access
- Direct control over routine, time-sensitive website changes
- The ability to verify and retain access to services such as Google Analytics and Search Console
For search visibility, the basics matter most. The site should clearly identify the candidate’s full name, office sought, location or district, and election information.
You don’t need an elaborate SEO system to accomplish that. You do need control over the basic information search engines and voters use to understand the site.
Find Out What Support Really Means
Almost every software service claims to offer support.
Find out what that means before you need it.
Can you email someone? Submit a support request? Call? Is there useful documentation? Does support understand political campaigns or only the software itself?
This becomes more important as Election Day gets closer.
A candidate trying to update voting information, fix a form, or change an urgent homepage message doesn’t care that the software is normally easy to use. They care about getting the problem resolved.
One advantage of working with a company focused on campaigns is that the support staff should understand why the change matters and why timing can be important.
What About Wix, Squarespace, WordPress, and Other General Website Platforms?
They can all be used to create political campaign websites.
These are capable website platforms, and a campaign can build an excellent site with any of them. The distinction is that they are general-purpose platforms rather than systems designed around political campaigns.
If you already know one of those systems, have an experienced developer, or need something a specialized campaign platform cannot provide, a general website platform may be the right choice.
The tradeoff isn’t necessarily quality. It’s how much campaign-specific work you need to do yourself. A general platform doesn’t automatically know that you need an Issues section, volunteer signup, donation integration, endorsement area, campaign disclaimer, election information, or an Election Day call to action.
You choose the pieces, decide how they fit together, and configure them. That flexibility can be an advantage when a campaign has unusual technical requirements or someone experienced managing the website. For many local candidates, however, it can also mean spending time making decisions that a campaign-specific system has already addressed.
For someone who knows websites, that’s manageable.
For a candidate whose goal is simply to get a credible campaign website online and move on to campaigning, a political-specific platform can remove a lot of unnecessary decision-making.
Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Campaign Website Builder
Before committing to a service, get answers to the questions that will affect your campaign:
- Is the platform designed specifically for political campaigns?
- Has the provider built websites for candidates running for my type of office?
- What campaign-specific pages and tools are included?
- Can campaign staff update the site without coding?
- How are volunteer, contact, and other form submissions stored?
- Can I use my preferred political fundraising service?
- Can the site match our campaign branding?
- Who controls the domain name?
- Are secure hosting and SSL included?
- Can multiple campaign staff members have access?
- What SEO, analytics, and social-sharing controls are available?
- What support is available when something goes wrong?
- Can I get professional design or setup assistance if I need it later?
- What happens to the website and domain after the election?
- Are there setup charges, contracts, or other fees beyond the advertised price?
- If I leave the service, what website content, data, and other digital assets can I retain or transfer?
- How much work will my campaign need to do before the website is ready to launch?
The cheapest platform isn’t automatically the best value. Neither is the one with the longest feature list.
The right choice is the one that fits the campaign’s resources, technical ability, timeline, and actual needs.
Online Candidate’s Political Campaign Website Builder
Online Candidate has specialized in campaign websites since 2004. Over that time, we’ve worked with candidates running for municipal, county, school board, judicial, law-enforcement, state, and federal offices.
That experience has shaped the platform as much as the software itself.
In 2026, we introduced an updated campaign website platform with improved editing, expanded event management, additional campaign engagement tools, and more ways to promote donations and important campaign information.
The platform includes campaign-specific pages, contact and volunteer forms, endorsement management, stored submission records, news and events, donation integrations, landing pages, election countdowns, announcement bars, popover messages, website analytics, SEO controls, and other tools designed around candidate websites.
You can review the campaign website features for a more detailed list.
Candidates who want to handle the setup themselves can use our Political Campaign Website Builder for $29 per month with no long-term contract.
Candidates who would rather not build the initial site themselves can choose professional design or content setup instead. All campaign website packages use the same platform. That means candidates can choose how much setup help they want without choosing a different website system. A campaign can start with the level of assistance that fits its budget and technical comfort, then manage routine updates itself after launch.
Additional Resources:
Election Website Basics You Should Know
Whether you’re just considering a run for office or you’ve already begun the process, even most local campaigns have an online component. There are many advantages to fundraising and advertising online. You can raise more money, increase exposure, and improve voter turnout.
Here are tips to establish your online presence and plan a website for your political campaign.
Get the right domain name
It all starts with the basics. That’s choosing a good campaign domain name. Simple is often best. And what could be simpler than your own name? If your name is John Jones, go with johnjones.com. If your name is already registered, try a variation of it (e.g., johnqjones.com).
You may want to avoid the year or the elected position you seek in your domain name. What if you win? You may still want to use your website after the election to keep in touch with constituents and recycle the domain for future elections. Again, simple is best.
Don’t make your domain too long. Even though you can have over 60 characters in your domain name, how many voters will actually remember to type a domain name like electjohnjonesformayberrytowncouncil.com?
Pick several domain names before you start, just in case your first choices are already taken.
While it’s possible to register the domain name of an opponent, we don’t recommend doing so. Underhanded tricks like that are easily brought to light and can backfire against you, particularly in smaller campaigns. Also, registering the legal name of an opponent and using it maliciously could get you into legal hot water.
At the same time, there isn’t much use in trying to purchase all of the domain names that could possibly be used against you. Instead, spend your efforts promoting your own message.
Basic political campaign website pages and features
Here’s a quick checklist of pages that any local political campaign website should include:
- Candidate Biography: Background information about the candidate.
- Issues pages: Stake your positions against those of your opponent.
- Endorsements: These can be included on their own page or scattered throughout the website. If you link directly to the source material, it’s even better.
- Campaign news page or blog: Featuring campaign news that is regularly updated.
- Contact or volunteer form: This should be included along with ‘real-world’ contact information. A good volunteer form that suggests ways that a volunteer can help may spur more responses. Someone might not want to do door-to-door solicitation for you, but they might put a sign in their yard or agree to send postcards to neighbors.
- Secure online fund raising.
- Voter registration information: If running for political office, be sure to link to your state’s online registration application.
- Contact Information: This can be for the organization or for specific campaign members (volunteer organizers, etc.).
Online Candidate website setup includes a questionnaire to help you plan your content, site features, and design elements.
Additional website features include:
- Links to your social media and donation pages.
- Ability to upload and download content: This provides easier distribution of policy papers, forms, etc. Let supporters print their own materials.
- Site Policies: Most people don’t read “legalese,” but a good privacy policy helps build trust, particularly with potential donors. It’s best to be restrictive with your privacy policy and promise not to sell or share visitor information with anyone.
- Printable Pages: Allow your visitors to print pages in a printer-friendly format.
Who should run your election campaign website?
Everyone has a role in a local campaign. Generally, the candidate focuses on campaigning; the campaign manager runs the campaign behind the scenes; the volunteer coordinator organizes the volunteer team; etc. Your campaign may want to recruit a volunteer web coordinator. They can post website updates, compose and send e-newsletters, set up your fundraising page, and handle your online advertising.
Whoever maintains your website should be responsible for working with others to maintain the campaign focus and theme online.
So now you know the answer to, “What do I need for a local campaign website?” And that’s just one aspect of running an online campaign. There’s also online fundraising, social media, advertising on the web, and your online reputation to manage.
It’s not easy, but like everything else in a political campaign, it takes proper planning and smart execution.
Running for Office as an Online Candidate is our exclusive e-book, packed with tips and strategies to develop and promote a local campaign website.
5 Key Information Pieces Your Campaign Website Needs
Political campaign websites often miss the simple things.
The design may look fine. The candidate photo may be professional. The donation button may work and is prominent. But if a voter cannot quickly figure out who the candidate is, where the race is, what office is involved, or how to help, the site is not doing its job.
That happens more often than you’d think. After working with local and state campaign websites for years, we’ve seen the same avoidable problems show up again and again: missing locations, outdated election dates, vague issue pages, and contact information that are hard to find.
A campaign website needs to answer these basic questions immediately. It should make things easy for voters, reporters, local organizations, volunteers, donors, and anyone else trying to understand or share your election campaign.
Here are five details every campaign website should include.
1. State/Municipality/Office Sought
Don’t assume visitors know where your campaign is located.
Many campaign websites say something like “Jane Smith for Mayor” without clearly stating the city, town, county, district, or state. That can create confusion, especially when place names are repeated across the country. Be specific.
For example:
Weak: Jane Smith for Mayor
Better: Jane Smith for Mayor of Springfield, Illinois
If you’re running for office in Orange County, specify whether that means Orange County, New York; Orange County, California; Orange County, Florida; or somewhere else.
This is especially important for local candidates. A voter may see your yard sign, hear your name at an event, or come across a social media post and then search for you later. Your website should quickly confirm that they’ve found the right campaign.
At minimum, your site should clearly state:
- the candidate’s full ballot name
- the office sought
- the municipality, county, district, or state
- the election year, when relevant
This information belongs on the home page, the About page, site footer, and only any major issue page.
2. The Election Date
Most voters won’t know when the election is, especially if the election is in the spring or it’s a primary date.
Your website should list your election date clearly, including the year. This is especially important for local races, primaries, special elections, and runoff elections.
Weak: Vote on Election Day
Better: Vote Tuesday, November 5, 2026
If applicable, include:
- primary election date
- general election date
- early voting dates
- absentee or mail ballot deadlines
- voter registration deadline
The year matters. Plenty of old campaign websites remain online long after Election Day. Some still ask people to vote in elections that ended years ago. If your site stays online after the campaign, the date helps visitors understand whether the information is current or historical.
If you run again later, update this information early. Nothing makes a campaign look neglected faster than an old election date on the homepage. This is especially common when a candidate reuses an old website or announces early for a later election cycle.
3. Basic Voting Information
Your website should give voters a clear path to reliable election information.
You do not need to recreate your county or state election website. In fact, it is usually better not to. Summarize the essentials, then link to the official source for details such as voter registration, polling places, early voting, absentee or mail ballot rules, district maps, and deadlines.
For example, a school board candidate website might include:
Election Day is Tuesday, May 14, 2026. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Check your polling place through the county Board of Elections.
Then link directly to the official election office. This keeps the information useful without making the campaign responsible for maintaining every election rule or polling-place update.
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4. Specific Local Issues
Local campaigns should sound local. State campaign websites should address state issues and congressional websites should address national issues. Sometimes local candidates do not stay in their lane. We often see candidates use issue language from larger races, even when the office they are seeking has no direct control over those issues.
Don’t rely on issue language that could apply anywhere. A town board candidate should not just say “fix traffic problems.” Say which traffic problems. Mention Main Street, Route 17, the school drop-off area, or the intersection residents complain about at every meeting.
The same applies to spending, public safety, development, schools, taxes, or local services. A vague line like “I support responsible spending” is generic and easy for a reader to ignore. A more useful version would be: Jane Smith will review the town’s road maintenance budget and push for clearer reporting on project costs.
Specific details show voters that you understand the community and the responsibilities of the office.
This doesn’t mean every issue page needs to become a long policy paper. In many local races, a short explanation with a few concrete examples is enough. The goal is not to make the page longer. The goal is to make it sound like it belongs to your race, not anyone else’s.
5. Full Contact Information
Make it easy for people to reach your campaign.
That includes voters with questions, reporters checking details, local organizations sending candidate questionnaires, donors looking for contribution information, and volunteers who want to help.
At minimum, your site should include a campaign email address or contact form. This can include your campaign mailing address, phone number, and links to your official social media accounts.
If you want to write in the first person, try adding a quote box and a call to action written in the third person.
Don’t want to publish a personal phone number? Use a campaign phone number or contact form. If you don’t want to list a home address, use a campaign mailing address or P.O. box.
Your contact page information has one job, to provide a clear path for people who need to reach the campaign. If people cannot contact you while you are asking for their vote, they may question how responsive you will be if elected.
Bonus Tip: Use the Candidate’s Name
Too many campaign websites are written almost entirely in the first person. The candidate is referred to as “I” or “my,” but the candidate’s actual name barely appears.
For example:
I am running because I believe our town deserves better.
That can work in a personal letter or homepage message, but your site should also use the candidate’s full name.
A clearer version would be: Jane Smith is running for Town Council because she believes Springfield deserves safer streets, better budget oversight, and more responsive local government.
You can still write in the first person where it makes sense. Just make sure the site also clearly states the candidate’s full ballot name, office sought, and location.
This also helps reporters, voter guides, local party pages, and civic organizations get the facts right when they pull information from your website.
Final Check
Before launching or updating your campaign website, ask whether a first-time visitor can answer these questions within a few seconds.
A simple test is to open your website on a phone and pretend you know nothing about the candidate. Within 10 seconds, can you identify the candidate, office, location, election date, and next action? If not, the site needs clearer information.
Don’t only check the homepage. A visitor may land on your About page, Issues page, Donate page, Volunteer page, or a page shared by someone else. Consider every page on your site as a potential landing page.
A political campaign website doesn’t need to be complicated. But it does need to be clear. Your voters and supporter deserve it.
Related:
- Writing Content For Your Campaign Website – Examples
- Write an Optimized Political Press Release
- Creating a Political Campaign Swipe File
Get your campaign website created fast and easy with Online Candidate. Designed for political candidates and organizations, we offer affordable political website packages and options. Find out which package is best for you.
When To Start Your Political Campaign Website
Once you’ve decided to run for office, when should your political campaign website be started? The short answer is as early as you can.
In fact, the process of building a political website will force you to pull together elements you will later need for your print materials and signage. This material includes:
- A logo design
- Candidate photos
- Content, including your candidate bio and issue positions
Putting together the content for a site will actually help pull together the larger elements of your voter advertising.
Have a primary to win?
A website could make all the difference, particularly in local elections. Turnout for primary elections are usually low, and because of this, every vote counts.
Two types of people vote in primary elections
Those people are dedicated party supporters and those who take their voting privileges seriously. Just 20% of eligible voters vote in primaries, and they tend to be more highly partisan than the average voter. Putting up a campaign website during a primary gives the impression that a candidate is in the race for the long haul.
Securing a domain name early gives you an opportunity to promote the site in every piece of campaign literature right from the start. Online information can help influence primary voters who seek out information about the candidates. Once a primary is over, the site content can be expanded and modified to focus on the general election audience.
Waiting until the last minute or following an opponent’s lead limits a campaign website’s effectiveness. By holding off, you’ve lost an opportunity to influence voters. It takes time to build online support, not only through a website, but through social media and other online advertising channels.
By starting late, you will have little time to promote your new site. Just building out a campaign site in response to an opponent’s site can look to many as if you’re simply following the others’ lead. A ‘wanna-be’ site, if you will…
Some candidates for office are required to hold off on campaigning activities during certain times. Judicial candidates, in particular, fall under legal restrictions. Check your election rules for how and when you are able to actively begin campaign activities.
Related: Why Starting Your Campaign Website Early Makes Sense
With Online Candidate, it costs less than a mailing to create a political campaign website for state and local candidates. Having a website created early will give the recipients of your first mailing a destination to find out more about the campaign. They can learn how they can help, and where they can contribute to keep the campaign rolling to election victory.
One Vote Can Make All The Difference
It’s true. A single vote can change the course of a local election – or it can even change history!
Consider these examples:
- By one vote in 1875, France chose a republican rather than a monarchical form of government.
- One vote cost King Charles I of England his head in 1649.
- President Andrew Johnson survived his Senate impeachment trial by a single vote.
- California, Oregon, Texas, and Washington were each admitted as states by a margin of one vote each.
- Two races that tied in Kentucky were decided by coin tosses. (One extra vote, and the tosses wouldn’t have been needed.)
- A tied city council race was decided by the draw of a hat.
For those people that believe their vote doesn’t count, they couldn’t be more wrong. If the course of history was changed by a single vote, imagine what a single vote will do for a local race.
And if that isn’t enough to push for every last voter, consider these quotes:
- “You’ve got to vote, vote, vote, vote. That’s it; that’s the way we move forward.” — Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017
- “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader
- “Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use it.” — Susan B. Anthony, women’s rights activist during the 20th century suffrage movement.
- “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.” – Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States
Theoretically, a single ballot could even make the difference in a presidential race. But the odds are long.
Get your supporters fired up and get them out to the polls. Every vote counts!
Creating an Online Campaign Strategy Template
For many political candidates, creating a digital campaign strategy can be difficult. Just as you need a plan to attract volunteers and deliver signs, you’ll need to put together a marketing strategy for your online presence.
These strategies are important when running a local political campaign.
It starts with a name
One of the first things to do in putting together a digital campaign strategy is to choose your primary handle. This should be a standard name that you use for all your online activity. This usually includes candidate’s name combined with ‘vote’ or ‘elect’ or the position that is sought.
For example, you may decide to go with something like ‘smithformayor’. You would use this handle for your website domain name (i.e. smithformayor.com). You would also use smithformayor (or Smith for Mayor) as the name for your social media accounts. This helps build a consistent online brand for your campaign.
If you plan to have a long-term career in politics, you may want to use a more generic ‘vote’ or ‘elect’ in the handle. That way, you can reuse your website and social media profiles in future elections.
Tip: Make sure the your chosen handle is not already in use. And don’t print offline materials with a website domain before you have a site in place. We’ve seen campaigns mess up print brochures because the domain name they listed was already taken when they finally went to register it.
The hub of your online campaign
A well-designed campaign website instills trust and confidence. It can make your organization appear larger than it really is. A website gives you a head start in building up social media followers, email subscribers, volunteers – and even donors if you begin early enough.
You will want to plan out your initial content early. It will make putting your site together a lot easier.
A campaign website generally includes these pages:
- Home Page
- About the Candidate
- Issue Pages
- Donation Page
- Endorsements
- Voter Information
- Contact Page
- Disclaimers (privacy and terms of use)
Putting content together early can help you focus on why you are running and what you hope to accomplish.
Many candidates find the writing process to be difficult. Online Candidate provides sample text and copy on our client resource site. We also have website worksheets when clients order to help make the process easier.
Using social media for outreach and support
Building an online network before you launch your political campaign gives you a leg up when you announce your intention to run. Friends and fans will be the first to check out your campaign website and help your fundraising and volunteer efforts.
When creating a social media strategy for your political campaign, stake your claim early. The primary social media platforms for smaller campaigns are Facebook and Twitter.
Of the two, Facebook is your best bet for its ability to target specific user demographics. Twitter is does not have the same advertising reach.
Start using a social media platform ONLY if you are willing to commit to maintaining it. It’s better to avoid using a platform than to create an account on one and let it grow stagnant.
Develop a content strategy for your social media. Plan ahead of time some general content that your campaign will post. This would include pre-planned event announcements, endorsements, election countdowns, etc. Other content will be produced throughout the election. Part of your social media activities will be responding to current news, your opposition’s activities and other events.
Consider your online fundraising options
An online political campaign strategy is not complete without a means for online fundraising. A campaign for local office can easily cost a few thousand dollars. In large city or state-wide elections, the costs may reach millions. If you want an idea of the potential cost of your election, research previous races for the same office.
Starting a political campaign can be tough. You will need initial seed money along with a campaign bank account. These days, people expect candidates and organizations to accept online donations. A number of services process political transactions online. Many have tools that go beyond simple transaction processing and bank transfers. They may allow you to take donations directly through your Facebook page, provide landing page creation and let you track multiple fundraising channels.
Crowdfunding is similar to traditional fundraising, but with a twist; it is a process where individuals pool money and other resources online to fund projects. It can help candidates who cannot afford to self-fund their own campaign.
What paid advertising channels will you use?
You are going to want to budget some money for online marketing and advertising. You may want to start with Facebook ads and Google Adwords early in the campaign to help build awareness.
Later in the campaign, you may want to increase your spend and expand into Facebook advertising for targeted posts and retargeting to build additional awareness.
- Social Media Advertising, Facebook in particular
- Google Adwords, though there are many restrictions these days.
- Retargeting services.
- IP Targeting to reach specific voter households
For campaigns with limited budgets, make sure that you have enough money in reserve to make a final advertising push. Turnout is critical, especially in local elections.
Campaign email is still a powerful tool
In this case, we’re not talking about email accounts, but how you will use your email list to maintain contact with your subscribers. If you plan to send emails to a large number of subscribers, it is essential to use an email marketing service. The use of an email service will help ensure that your messages are delivered and provide important tracking and automation tools.
A few of the more popular email vendors include, but are not limited to:
- AWeber.com (we use this service)
- MailChimp.com (has a free version)
Autoresponders are designed to get your message to the same audience repeatedly. Most autoresponder sequences are seven or so messages – based on the old seven-message marketing rule. You’ll want to lay out a template ahead of time for what those messages will be and the timetable for which they will be sent.
Email is one of the most important tools for online fundraising. The more subscribers you attract, the better.
Monitor your campaign’s online reputation
How do you plan to monitor your campaign and your opponent’s campaign? It is important to keep up with what people are saying about you online. Several people should be monitoring your social media campaigns and keeping up with online mentions about the candidate and campaign.
Start with Google Alerts and free sites like SocialMention.com. Consider investing in paid solutions like SproutSocial.
Put together a Get Out The Vote (GOTV) plan
As Election Day nears, you will need to pull out all the stops. Everything gets pushed, including your online advertising, social media updates, fundraising pushes and email updates. Plan your GOTV strategy early. Don’t wait until the last minute.
Have your campaign ads ready and the pitches already written. Remind supporters to vote the week before, the days before, the night before – and throughout Election Day. (A lot of people do not vote until the evening. ) Don’t quit pushing until the polls close!
Consider going outside the box
More sophisticated campaigns may use text messaging or even phone apps as a means of keeping in contact with supporters. Other campaigns may engage in video conferencing for online ‘Town Hall” meetings. Every political campaign has a different mix of resources and money.
Campaign plans can and do change, but it pays to have a good foundation at the start. Use the ideas here to put together a strategy for your digital side of your political campaign. You’ll have financial and resource limits that you will need to work within. It’s better to do what you can well than to try to do everything poorly.
Just as you have a campaign calendar for offline activities, you should also have a calendar for your online activities. Campaign events, fundraisers, GOTV efforts and such should all have online components planned out. Write them down and put together a schedule.
Whatever you do, just don’t wing it!
For more information on planning your online campaign strategy, check out Running for Office as an Online Candidate. Our exclusive guide provides a blueprint for local candidates who want to use the web to help win their election. It’s available in PDF, Kindle and print through Amazon.
Online Candidate makes it easy to launch your political website and build your online presence.
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