What is branding? 7 Ways to effectively market your candidate

Branding is perhaps one of the most important pieces to a successful political campaign and it is often overlooked by candidates ranging from local politics to presidential races. Branding is also one of the most difficult components that even a great campaign manager can come up with because it requires many intricate pieces that compose the strategy.

Branding is the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other products. In this case, the product is your political candidate and you’re selling your candidate to the constituents. We’ve compiled a 7-point list for your reading pleasure to help you effectively market your candidate and to see results come voting season.

Brand your candidate in compelling ways

It’s not enough to simply create a website and a logo for your candidate and think your candidate’s marketing needs are finished. Your competitors also have a logo and a website, so what distinguishes your campaign from the others? This lies in the branding. You need to go the extra mile when marketing your candidate, which includes tailoring the website and logo to the personality of your candidate. Every graphic that is made must differentiate your product from the competition on all mediums. Every piece of typography that is used must separate your candidate from the opponents. You want your candidate to have some charisma that is associated with the brand and something that your constituents can relate to and remember when voting day is here.

Educate the voters with captivating material elements

The prospective voters need to know more about your candidate, and this can easily be achieved through digital formatting. However, a physical informational material can be even more effective when used correctly. Your prospective voters want a brochure that they can handily reference when thinking about who to vote for. That brochure should not just be a slab of text (unless you want to bore your potential voters). It should have delightful graphics and typography that flows as to communicate in the optimal way possible to prospective voters.

Content is King

The content that is written for your candidate must be able to gauge the interest of the voter base and effectively communicate your candidate’s positions and personality to the voters. Your candidate is not a greedy politician who will corrupt the system and ignore constituents pleas for help. The content on your website, brochures, advertisements, and on other communication platforms gives you an opportunity to distance yourselves from the ‘greedy-politician’ stereotype, and instead cast a morally righteous tone that would likely get your more votes. Nothing should substitute great content writing, not even the most beautiful graphics can make up for lackluster content for your candidate.

Have a beautifully-crafted website

It would be optimal to have a website that not only communicates well to the voters, but also makes sense for the industry. You don’t want a website that is dull and looks like your candidate is stuck in the 1990s, and you don’t want a website that has too many graphics and futuristic navigation that may alienate the older generation of voters that want to find out more about your candidate. You need to find the effective medium between the two that has interesting content and meaningful graphics but doesn’t go too far in being cutting edge. The colors should accurately reflect your candidate and the typography should legible and traditional.  We deal with all kinds of E-commerce solutions present in the market. In case of any inquiry regarding Ecommerce website development, drop us a message anytime.

Get on social media

Social media may seem like an odd avenue to pursue, but times have changed, and if we learned anything from Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign is that social media can win elections. Set up social media fronts on all of the major platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter in order to connect with prospective voters. It’s not just young people that’s on social media; voters of all ages are using the platforms listed above, so do not ignore this medium of communication to connect with your voters. Make sure you are not posting too much or posting any controversial content on them, as that can have detrimental effects on your candidate.

Connect with the voters through email

Don’t be afraid to get in on the email-marketing campaigns. Your competitors are doing it, and you’d be foolish not to as well. But it wouldn’t be sound to send out newsletters just because everyone else is doing it, you need to make sure that the content is good (see above) and that you are providing valuable information that the voters need to have. Promote your social media page on it, advertise clothing and yard signs, do all that is needed to market your candidate well to the voters, as email marketing is an efficient means of doing so.

Advertise on the most efficient mediums

Advertising is harder than it seems on the surface. Your ads need to have compelling content and captivating graphics to catch the attention of the voters and to secure their votes. Use social media to advertise and promote posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Contact local newspapers and get your candidate on the print ads. Billboard signs, bus stops, banners, T-shirts, etc. You need to find the advertising platform that will get you the best ROIs, as all localities will have differing optimal advertising mediums.

Branding your candidate takes plenty more than the basics, and the sooner your campaign understands that, the better you will be at securing votes for your business. If you need help with branding, get in contact with us at Mad Mind Studios and we can help you get on the track to success.