Campaign Tactics
Peer-to-peer and broadcast texting, GOTV, text banking, fundraising, and list growth, the tactics that win voter contact.
Cultivating and Upgrading Donors by Text
Texting isn't just for the fundraising ask, it's for building donor relationships over time. Here's how campaigns use text to cultivate, thank, and upgrade donors, and why the relationship matters more than any single ask.
Multilingual Texting, Reaching Voters in Their Language
Reaching voters in the language they prefer lifts response and shows respect. Here's how campaigns run multilingual texting programs, from segmentation by language to translation quality, and why it matters for turnout.
What's a Good Response Rate for Political Texts?
It depends entirely on the ask, consented, well-targeted lists with a clear question see meaningfully higher engagement than cold blasts, but there's no single magic number. Track your own baseline and improve it; comparing to a stranger's stat is noise.
How Should I Handle Links in Campaign Texts?
Use a branded or campaign-domain link, not a free public URL shortener, those are heavily associated with spam and get filtered. One link per message, pointing somewhere that matches the text, keeps delivery clean and clicks honest.
Text-to-Donate, How It Works and the Rules
Text-to-donate turns a text into a gift with a tap. Here's how text-to-donate works for campaigns, the difference from carrier billing, and the compliance rules that come with raising money by text.
Drip Campaigns, Automated Text Sequences for Voters
A drip campaign sends a planned sequence of texts over time, triggered by an action or a date. Here's how campaigns use automated text sequences to onboard, nurture, and convert voters, and where automation helps and hurts.
Handling Hostile and Negative Text Replies
Every texting program gets angry replies. Here's how volunteers should handle hostile and negative responses, when to disengage, when to honor an opt-out, and how to protect both the voter relationship and the volunteer.
Coalition and Endorsement Texting
A message from a trusted group or endorser lands harder than one from the campaign. Here's how campaigns use coalition and endorsement texting to borrow credibility, the compliance care it takes, and how to coordinate it.
Texting Strategy for a Primary Campaign
Primaries reward texting more than general elections, low turnout, a narrow universe, and persuadable partisans. Here's how to build a primary texting strategy around ID, persuasion, and turning out a small, high-value electorate.
What's the Best Time of Day to Text Voters?
Within legal quiet hours (8am-9pm recipient local time), late afternoon and early evening tend to engage best, people are off work and on their phones. But the hard rule comes first, send only within each recipient's local window, then optimize inside it.
Can I Text Voters a Reminder to Return Their Mail Ballot?
Yes, to consented contacts, and it's one of the highest-value texts you can send. A timely, specific ballot-chase reminder ('your mail ballot is due, here's how to return it') moves return rates, especially paired with each voter's status where you have it.
GOTV Texting in Vote-by-Mail States
In vote-by-mail states, GOTV isn't a single Election Day push, it's a weeks-long ballot chase. Here's how texting drives turnout in mail-heavy states, from ballot tracking to the return deadline.