Have you considered the role of digital marketing in politics? With the continual rise of the digital sphere since the advent of the internet, digital media now plays a substantial role in the everyday lives of many people. Beyond simply interacting with content online, though, people are also impacted by powerful new marketing tactics advertisers are using to capture new markets.
These new techniques aren’t just being used by corporations, but even political campaigns are jumping on the bandwagon. While advertising has played an important role in political campaigns since the mid 1900’s, new data driven approaches in digital marketing have departed from the old, broad stroke models of radio, television, and direct mail.
Data-Driven Marketing Techniques Now Used in Politics
With modern advancements in computational software and AI, it is now easier than ever to collect and analyze huge sets of data. Through the continuous collection of data via monitoring the behavior patterns of individuals online, predictive algorithms are able to target ads to very specific audiences, allowing campaigns to more readily connect with those likely to support their causes.
Even cloud computing is beginning to be adapted for the needs of political campaigns trying to take advantage of digital marketing tools – specialty firms using cloud-based technologies give campaigns extensive resources for data mining and targeting voters. Dealing with such large amounts of data can offer its own sets of challenges, however. As such, campaigns are also starting to take advantage of DMPs, or data management platforms.
The function of the DMP is to centralize control of the masses of data regarding the campaign and its audience, which helps to better streamline digital marketing efforts. Want to understand how advanced audience targeting has become in modern politics? Campaigns have even begun to utilize individual voter files to send targeted advertisements to specific individuals at exact times when it is predicted they will be most receptive to the message.
Other tactics include cross-device targeting, predictive lookalike modeling, and geolocation targeting. All of these techniques help campaigns be more precise in their efforts to advertise candidates.
Neuromarketing and Emotion-Based Targeting
In addition to technological advancements in information processing, digital marketing has also picked up on cutting-edge developments in neuroscience and personality psychology to craft more impactful advertisements. These techniques, called neuromarketing and emotion-based targeting work to extend the depth of influence political campaigns can exercise through their marketing efforts. These types of psychological targeting function through crafting persuasive appeals suited to the specific psychological needs of the targeted groups.
High profile firms such as Cambridge Analytica have adopted a five trait model of personality specifically in the context of digital marketing in politics, which has since caused many to raise ethical concerns regarding the degree of influence this type of marketing can have.
Impact of Digital Marketing in Politics
The story isn’t all grim. As a result of new digital marketing tactics, political campaigns have had renewed success in engaging voters – especially younger demographics – and even improving overall voter turnout.
Digital marketing has also helped grow grassroots politics and small-donor fundraising by allowing campaigns to more easily and efficiently connect with specific groups. Hopefully, incorporating these new marketing techniques into the political process will continue to make politics more accessible for more people and improve the function of our democracy.
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