‘Nipeni kura zenu!! Nipeni kura zenu!!’ These are familiar speeches that Kenyans will have to hear for the next one and a half years as the country gears up for the 2017 General Election. As the mwananchi prepares his or her vote to choose his or her next leader, candidates for various political seats are busy formulating their campaign machinery to solicit votes from their constituents. Campaign materials, such as T-shirts, posters, campaign vehicles (or choppers), campaign secretariat – and even handouts – are things that a politician will factor in when developing a budget for his political campaign. Not to be forgotten is a digital marketing strategy, which involves connecting with your followers on online platforms. Are you worried about coming up with an effective digital marketing strategy for your political campaign? The following steps should make the process a lot easier:

Who is your target audience?

The first step in effectively incorporating digital marketing in your political campaign is to understand your target audience. Even though most politicians have realised the potential of social media in reaching out to their supporters as well as potential supporters, most of them have no idea about the specifics of their target audience, including their demographic characteristics and browsing behaviours. As a politician, factual data about your target audience is important because this will guide you on the amount of money you need to fork out towards your digital marketing campaign.

Worry not about having to employ the services of the likes of Ipsos Synovate because most social media have made it possible for users to collect important statistics about social media use. For instance, if you are on Facebook, then you are in luck since the Facebook Ads Manager will enable you estimate the number of your target audience using specific characteristics, such as their geographical location, gender, age, interest as well as additional demographics.

Let’s say, for example, you are running for a Member of County Assembly (MCA) seat in Kariobangi North ward; the Ads Manager will provide you with the number of people in that geographical area who will subsequently constitute your target audience. Even better is the fact that you can filter your target audience by age to include those in the 18-40 age bracket who in this case may be the young people. You should know, however, that Facebook data are only estimates and not a reflection of the exact figures. Despite this, the estimated numbers will give you pointers on the number of voters you could pull to your sides.

What are the other competitors doing online?

Political competition in Kenya over the years has become fierce with the battle for voters not only being restricted to the physical environment but also in the online arena. Looking back at the General Elections in 2013, all the presidential candidates maintained an active social media presence where they constantly updated their supporters on their activities on the campaign trail, in addition to soliciting support from potential voters and soliciting funds for their political campaigns. In the upcoming General Election in 2017, you can only expect such social media activity to heighten.

As much as you will engage yourself in your own digital marketing campaign, you will have to keep a close eye on what your political competitors are doing online, including monitoring their websites and social media pages. From here, you can garner important information on the number of your rivals’ followers or supporters; level of audience engagement; digital marketing strategies employed as well as the current performance of these strategies. With this information at your fingertips, you can become a tougher competitor by developing digital marketing counter-strategies to that of your rivals.

Facebook is one such digital platform that will provide you with important statistics about your rivals’ digital marketing campaign, such as the number of their followers; number of posts every week as well as the number of engagement. Remember, when you want to monitor a page on Facebook, you will have to add it to your ‘pages to watch.’ Doing this would consequently notify the manager of that page that someone is monitoring his or her page. Since you would not want to call attention to yourself, it is best to use a different page that is completely unrelated to your campaign when monitoring the activities of other competitors on Facebook.

Who should be part of my digital marketing team?

The next question you need to ask yourself is who will constitute your digital marketing team for your political campaign. An important fact to remember when selecting who to include in your online marketing strategy is that accomplishing the goals of your campaign will not be dependent on a single person rather a cohesive group consisting of professionals or individuals with varied skills and talent. For starters, a digital marketing strategist is a must-have on your team as he or she will help you organize and implement your digital marketing strategy. You will also need a writer who will be authoring the articles, stories and news of your campaign trail as well as graphic designers and photographers to producing captivating images or graphics for the campaign.

For an effective engagement with your target audience, services of a social media manager will be necessary as they understand the techniques to apply in increasing visibility of your social media pages. Closely related to these are search engine marketers who will be integral in increasing the visibility and credibility of your website on Google. Other people who should constitute part of your digital marketing team include your campaign manager and other members of your political party – especially those concerned with communications – to ensure cohesiveness in your campaign as far as the dissemination of information is concerned.

Which social media pages do I need for my marketing strategy?

The good news is that the social media landscape provides you with an array of choices as far as the platforms for your digital marketing strategy are concerned. However, the use of such platforms will depend on the type of your target audience including their demographic characteristics as well as interests. Examples of social media platforms at your disposal include Facebook Page, Twitter Account, YouTube Channel as well as Instagram, among others.

Register your digital brands

As an influential figure, chances are that unscrupulous people will establish parody social media accounts as well as fake websites bearing your name to try and tarnish your publicity or defraud innocent citizens. You can guard against this by registering the domain name for your website and claiming your username on Twitter and Facebook before your opponents form fake accounts with the same name. Verifying your social media accounts to show that they are authentic will also safeguard your identity by distinguishing it from the fake ones.

Be a blogger

Blogging is an activity that you should undertake by yourself rather than delegate it to someone else who may not understand your stand on various issues affecting members of the public you seek to serve. Granted, the campaign trail may be too tiring to allow you time to blog. On the flipside, blogging by yourself can create a tight bond with your followers/readers as it shows a personal touch to the lives of people. Examples of topical ideas you could focus on include policy problems affecting your area; sights and sounds of your area; practical solutions to societal problems (e.g. corruption, food insecurity, water shortage) as well as interesting facts or history of your areas.

Avoid the temptation to negatively portray your opponents in your blog posts as some of your followers may consider you a petty person focused on subjective and not, objective issues. Blogging on your own does not mean totally ignoring the services of a professional writer who can help you create captivating blog posts that engage your followers/readers.

Become a v-logger

Another tool to use in presenting your message to potential voters is a video, which could be a short recording of you talking about an issue that affects your target audience. Much in the same way as blogging, v-logging should be a regular activity. It is advantageous when some of your voters are people who abhor reading through multiple pages of literature on your political manifesto. Some people may not even understand the core message or the gist of your literature even after reading it. Therefore, by watching your videos, these people can quickly and simply understand what you are trying to put across to them. You could also increase your popularity and visibility online since you can share these videos on Google-owned YouTube, which can help you improve your ranking on the search engine.  Kindly watch this video  by Gary Vaynerchuck.

Invest in digital marketing tools

Bearing in mind that the upcoming General Elections in 2017 will see heightened digital marketing activities, making use of digital marketing tools will be important in realizing the goals of your strategy by making it productive, easier and faster. Do not be at a loss over where or how to find these tools as Google provides an array of tools that you can easily obtain by signing in through one account. Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Keyword Calendar as well as Google Drive are tools that you will find useful in tracking the performance of your digital marketing strategy.

Follow other relevant groups

Netting more traffic to your social media pages can become a reality if you connect with other social media groups engaging with the same audience you are targeting. For instance, if you are vying for a political seat in Changamwe, you could scout Facebook for groups of communities that bring together Facebook users from that area and connect with them. Apart from earning more followers, you can also obtain a clearer picture of your constituents’ needs and provide the right answers to their queries.

Make use of paid ads

Paid online advertising, such as Facebook Ad and Google Adwords are efficient for boosting your digital marketing campaign by increasing their reach and level of engagement.

Work with influential bloggers

If you have a close relationship with any authority blogger, then now would be the best time to engage his or her services in reaching out to your target audience. By virtue of their huge following or readership among your target audience, these bloggers could shape opinions and perceptions of you by authoring articles that paint you in a positive light. Such articles of these bloggers could be news stories of your contributions to development at the grassroots.

Digital marketing strategies for political campaigns are not a one-size-fits-all rather they require tailoring to effectively reach out to the intended audiences/voters. This means that you may need to tailor some of the aforementioned tips to suit your political campaign as far as the type of voters you are targeting as well as the kind of political seat you are eyeing. Are there any tips or tricks you feel we forgot to include in this guide on establishing a digital marketing strategy for a political campaign? Feel free to leave a comment and do not to forget to share this article with your friends on social media.