Maintaining an online presence is extremely essential. If you want to get an answer to your question, without thinking twice, you would head over to Google and type your question out. As a political party or leader, your supporters will be searching for you online to get the information they need about you. Wondering how can you get started with setting up a website for your election campaign? In this article, you’ll learn the exact steps to do so.
Step 1: Identify your primary objective with your website
First of all, what is the main reason for your election campaign? A website is one of the greatest assets for political campaigns, as long as it is aligned with the campaign strategy. For instance, President Obama and Romney both had different strategies back in the 2020 US Presidential elections. Since it is Romney’s first election, his online strategy would be to gain followers, build followers and raise some funds for his election campaign. Hence, his election campaign website should be aligned with the strategy to ensure the website meets the campaign goals. As for Obama, this wouldn’t be his first time running for the election. Thus, his strategy would consist of updating his current existing supporters and ensuring they are still following him while gaining their trust. On each of these websites, for example, Romney’s website would have a section to become a new supporter and help fund the campaign. On Obama’s website, however, it would be his future plans for the next term if he were to be elected once again. Take your time to distinguish and identify the objectives at the start before proceeding.
Step 2: Pick a domain name
Your domain name should reflect the personal branding of your political campaign. Take Trump’s domain name as an example: www.donaldjtrump.com. If you are a new candidate, you can be a little creative by adding some special puns or sayings. One good example would be Pete Buttigieg when he created a domain name called www.peteforamerica.com, instead of the usual domain name consisting of his full name. Another great example would be www.julianforthefuture.com, a domain by Julian Castro. Try to use a domain name that doesn’t have a specific date or year, such as www.tulsi2020.com. This means you can’t reuse this domain name anymore for any future upcoming election campaigns. If you choose a domain name without any year or date, you are able to maintain the engagement, social media links and so on.
Step 3: Choosing an appropriate theme
Depending on your campaign budget, you can either opt to get a theme created from scratch or simply choose from the wide variety of ready-made templates found online. A good template is vital in order to attract and gain the attention of your followers. You could easily make use of content management systems (CMS) such as Wix or WordPress to set up your election campaign website. By using these platforms, there are more theme options for you to choose from, such as Festinger Vault and ThemeForest. If your campaign has a bigger budget, you can hire a web developer to design the entire website from scratch for you without the help of any website builders.
Step 4: Plan out your website structure
Once you’ve got the theme settled, you can lay down some of the important information you’d like to share on your website. Some of the common website structures include an about page, donation page, a volunteer recruitment form and so on. Some pretty neat functions including getting volunteers to sign up and contribute to the election campaign. Be sure to link all your social media accounts to your website as well.
Step 5: Maintain and update your website
Now that you’ve got all the technical stuff out of the way, you can focus more on putting up content on your website. Since election campaigns are always dynamic with various changes along the way, it is important to constantly update your website.
Great! You’ve officially set up your website. Now what? Market, promote and advertise! Nobody is going to find your election campaign website if you don’t implement the necessary best practices such as SEO, content marketing, SMS marketing, and many more. You could also be a little more creative by rewarding contributors with a special message just for him. The opportunities are endless when it comes to the online world.
