The Ultimate Guide to Send Election Campaign Text Messages

Political campaign texting has changed how candidates reach voters and boost turnout. If you’re reading this, you probably want to do the same. Many campaigns now send election campaign text messages to connect with voters instantly, mobilize supporters, and drive real engagement.

In the months before election day, you’re likely asking:

• How do I get out the vote and increase turnout?
• What’s the best way to raise funds?
• How can I add more volunteers to my campaign?
• How do I educate and mobilize voters?
• Can I engage in real conversations with supporters at scale?

This guide will show you how to send election campaign text messages that drive results. 

You’ll learn how to introduce text messaging into your election campaign strategy, create political campaign messages that work, and run a text messaging campaign for your upcoming elections.

Election campaign text messages: Use cases

Election campaign text messages are a powerful way to reach voters. Here are the top use cases for sending a text message during your election campaign, along with sample ideas for each.

1, Event invitation and alerts

The success of most campaign events depends on turnout. Invite supporters to rallies, town halls, and other events with a simple text message. When you send election campaign text messages for event invitations, you can boost attendance and engagement.

The best part is that you can also get them to RSVP via text using autoresponders. 

Filter out people who replied ‘No’ or didn’t turn up, and target them for your next campaign with a survey asking why they did not attend. 

2. Important updates and announcements

Poll results, media appearances, and campaign news need to reach your contacts fast. A text broadcast with a longcode can send 3,600 messages in an hour, while a shortcode can send up to 360,000.

Sending a timely election campaign text message ensures your supporters stay informed and connected.

3. Educative messages

Engage supporters on issues that matter to them. An educative election campaign text message can help clarify your stance on key topics, making it easier for voters to connect with your candidate and feel confident about their choice.

4. Offers and promotions

Reward early subscribers with offers like free fundraiser tickets or front-row rally seats. You can send election campaign text messages to promote special offers and drive fundraising, or highlight campaign store items to boost support.

5. Supporter surveys and collecting feedback

Surveys help you engage contacts and identify voters. A well-timed election campaign text message survey can provide valuable feedback on issues, candidate perception, or voting history, helping you refine your strategy. 

Now, tag your contacts based on their responses which will get synced with your CRM. You can now segment these contacts based on their responses and plan your follow-up campaign accordingly.

6. Endorsements

Share endorsements from local papers or high-profile supporters. Send election campaign text messages to share endorsements and build credibility, inspiring more people to support your candidate.

7. Fundraising

Reach out to donors and request contributions by showing the real-time impact of their support. An election campaign text message can be a powerful fundraising tool, especially when you keep communication transparent.

8. Volunteer recruitment

Send timely updates and volunteer opportunities to your most engaged supporters. Send election campaign text messages to recruit volunteers quickly, and offer alternatives for those who can’t donate money but want to help.

9. GOTV

Studies show that text messaging for political campaigns can increase voter turnout by around 1%. We all know how much that 1% can impact voting results. While elections aren’t until November, starting your campaign weeks in advance helps you stay on top of your contacts’ minds.

You can start by helping your contacts create a plan to vote. Sending your contacts information related to their polling location, date and time, etc., can help them get to the booths and vote.

Read Also: Text GOTV Reminder: What You Need to Know 

10. Election day reminder

Remind registered voters to cast their ballots and provide a link to find their polling place. Send election campaign text messages on election day to maximize turnout. Peer-to-peer texting adds a personal touch, making each message feel like a real conversation.

Read Also: SMS Campaigns Analytics and Reporting: How to Measure the Performance of Campaigns on CallHub

How to send election campaign text messages for upcoming elections

What steps form the base of a successful campaign? Let’s break it down.

Get voters to opt in to send election campaign text messages

Building a high-quality subscriber list is the backbone of all your campaigns. By turning your audience into contacts, you can engage with them personally and ultimately mobilize them to vote. 

SMS Opt-in campaigns are one way to collect consent for auto-texting and more information about your audience. This information you collect helps you segment your contacts into multiple lists for more accurate targeting.

Here’s how you can set this up:

Step 1: Rent a phone number and add your opt-in keyword. You can either rent a random number within the specified country, a 10DLC number, or a shortcode. 

Step 2: Select an existing contact list or create a new one in which all your new opt-ins get stored.

Step 3: Add a prompt and choose a response field. The response field needs to be aligned with the answer you’re expecting against your first prompt. 

Step 4: Add more follow-up prompts as needed.

Step 5: Add a thank you message.

Step 6: Say your contact didn’t respond to one of your prompts. In that case, you can resend that prompt after a specific number of hours or days.

Step 7: Hit ‘finish’.

Have your supporters text a keyword to your phone number. This will add them to your contact list and opted in for your campaign messages. Remember to use a short, catchy, and relevant keyword that people can remember easily. 

Ex: Text BIDEN to (555) 555-1234 to get all updates.

Integrate this messaging into your campaign materials and get the word out. Here are a few places you can display your message:

• Signages
• Flyers
• Your campaign website
• Posters
• Publications
• Social media
• Newsletters
• Podiums at events.

Add follow-up questions or requests to collect basic personal information right when they opt in. For example, you can collect their name, email address, zip code, and so on as soon as they send in the opt-in keyword. 

However, make sure you explicitly mention that they are expressing their consent to receive text messages from you by opting in. 

Start your campaign: Send election campaign text messages

CallHub helps you achieve a highly targeted reach and robust engagement. The tools and features of our political texting service are designed to run campaigns involving all the use cases we discussed earlier.  

1. Sign up with CallHub

We provide a 14-day free trial along with crediting your account with $3, without asking for your credit card details. Explore all you want before you decide on a pricing plan. You can also choose to go with a pay-as-you-go model. 

2. Rent a phone number

There are different numbers you can choose from. 

You can use a shortcode to send text messages, but being expensive to rent, they make the most sense when you need to send many text messages. Because while with long codes, you can send 1 message per second, shortcodes allow you to send 100 messages in the same timeframe. 

However, a 10DLC number doesn’t fall in this category of long codes that let you send only one message per second. 

On CallHub, you can rent a 10DLC, which will allow you to send high-volume texts while staying compliant with the latest US carrier regulations. 

Read Also: Your Complete Guide To A2P 10DLC Compliance For Texting 

3. Upload your contact list or import it from your CRM

You can add contacts into CallHub in 2 ways:

• By uploading a CSV file.
• By integrating a CRM and importing your contacts.

Any changes made to your contacts’ information, such as updating the email IDs, sync with your CRM too.

Check if you already use one of our existing integrations. If not, you can integrate any database with CallHub using Zapier. 

4. Add your message

Add the text message script to be used in your campaign. Keep in mind that the character limit for a single text message is 160 characters. Messages longer than 160 characters get split into multiple segments. 

70% of marketers using advanced personalization are seeing a 200% ROI, shows a study. So, personalize your message.

CallHub lets you personalize your text message by using merge tags like {first_name} and custom fields such as {voting_booth}. These get replaced by values associated with each contact before your text goes out. 

5. Set up automated or manual responses for text broadcasts

If your call to action is asking your voters to reply with their answers, set up keyword responses in your campaign to manage them. For example, when someone texts “RSVP” to an invite text, send them a “Thank you” message. 

This will let them know that you have received their response and appropriate action is being taken. This feature comes in handy when you’ve asked your contact to reply with a keyword, that is, the expected reply is a keyword you’ve set.

But, what if your contact replies to your message with an unexpected question?

In that case, you can manually respond to each reply. CallHub lets you add your email address on which you want to receive the responses to your text message. You can reply to them using your manager dashboard in real-time.

6. Schedule your campaign in your contacts’ timezone

Reach your contacts at a time they are available by scheduling the text messages in your contacts’ timezone on CallHub. You can decide on what day of the week these texts should be sent and between which hours of the day, and just enable contacts’ timezone to use this feature.

Read Also: 11 Top Features of a Political Texting Tool (+ Election Campaign SMS Message Templates) 

How to send election campaign text messages that work

One of the important steps in the whole campaign process is to get the messaging right so your contacts are compelled to take the desired action. 

Let’s see how you can do that.

1. Be clear and compelling

Engaging your potential voters needs to include clear information at every stage of your campaign. For instance, your initial communication should inform your contacts about you, your party, your campaign, and your plan to improve the citizens’ lives.

2. Humanize your message

While your text message should position you as a leader, humanizing it can attract more voters. The more human you sound, the more likely your supporters connect with your candidate. 

So, keep your message natural, and use text abbreviations, emojis, etc. to sound human. 

3. Incorporate MMS to improve responses

MMS is a text message format that accommodates an image, video, audio, and GIF, with up to 1600 characters of text.

Adding an eye-popping graphic to your text message can grab your contacts’ attention and encourage them to read your message. A study also showed that MMS had a 20% higher response rate than SMS. 

The graphic can be a picture of your campaign store item or adding a personal touch using a voice or video recording of your candidate, a screenshot of a news headline or tweet. 

Read Also: MMS Marketing best practices to boost your mobile marketing efforts

4. Add a relevant link to your messages

Whenever you need your contacts to visit another platform from your text, include a link for the same. CallHub’s Link Shortener and Tracker shortens your links, so they take up less space and look clean.

Here are a few more amazing things to know about our Link Shortener and Tracker. I say ‘amazing’ because it’s designed in such a way that in addition to saving cost by saving space, you can minimize filtrations, increase engagement, and increase conversions.  

Make sure the platform you’re leading them to is mobile-optimized, so your contacts’ experience is not hampered. Of course, there isn’t much you can do with an external platform, but if it’s your campaign website, your donation page, etc., look out for responsiveness. 

5. Include a strong call to action to send election campaign text messages

A powerful call to action is necessary to get your contacts to act. Strong verbs and time quantifiers like ‘vote today’, ‘donate now’, etc. help you do that. 

Be it asking your supporters to share their opinion on a specific issue, visit your website, or contact your representatives, end your text with that call to action.

Here’s a guide to help you create the best election campaign messaging, testing it within and outside your voter base, and distributing it across channels. 

Run a free campaign to send election campaign text messages

Create an account for free and access CallHub’s texting software to run campaigns around all possible use cases while staying compliant with the laws and regulations. With the $6 credited to your account when you sign up, you can send more than 300 text messages.

You also get an extra $3 into your account, which you can use across all campaigns by completing KYC, if you’re in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, or France. 

If you need more information, talk to our product experts.  

Featured image: Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

FAQs: send election campaign text messages

Sindhu Prabhu

A marketer with 5+ years of experience. Loves sharing insights on making campaigns work better, connecting with your audience effectively, and using smart communication strategies that deliver results.