Facebook has just shy of 2 billion active users currently. It’s an integrated part of life. Every campaign has a Facebook page now. But what if a more effective and less costly way to reach voters on line was plain, old fashioned email?
As social media exploded over the last decade or so, first with MySpace and then with Facebook and Twitter, many professed that email would become pointless. They were wrong.
If anything, email has become more important to candidates wanting to win an election, more over Facebook or any other social media platform.
Here’s 3 reasons sending email is more important to your political campaign than Facebook.
1. More People Have Email Than Are On Facebook
By the fall of 2016, 1.7 billion people were on Facebook according to this article by Optinmonster.
But email had 2.6 billion unique users.
Everyone I know has at least one email address. Some, like me, have more than one.
We all need email to log in to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but also to order things on Amazon, and to install apps on our smart phones.
Email hasn’t died. It’s grown and is continuing to grow.
If there’s a voter in your district with a computer or a smart phone, (there’s a darn good chance of that), they have an email address where your campaign can reach them.
2. Email is the First Thing People Check Each Day
The first thing people are likely to do online each day is check their email.
Research conducted by ExactTarget shows “58% of online consumers check email as their first online activity of the day.”
Comparatively, only 11% make checking Facebook their first daily online activity.
With this insight, you can also see the importance for your campaign to reach the voters first thing in the morning.
You should even consider sending emails an hour or so before people wake up. This will help put your email near the top of their inbox when they do rise.
3. Email Reaches More People Than Facebook
On average, 21.73% of email recipients open the messages they receive, according to research by Get Response.
Perhaps that seems low, but let’s take a look at Facebook.
Social@Ogilvy reports, the average reach for a Facebook page post without paid advertising is only 6%.
That means if your campaign has 2,000 voter email addresses, 434 voters on average will see your messages.
Now if your campaigns’ Facebook page has 2,000 fans, without buying an ad, only 120 on average will see your post.
Facebook is a for profit company, so this shouldn’t surprise anyone. But if you have a limited campaign budget, then Facebook becomes less effective for you.
Inversely, email becomes an extremely attractive option for online campaign communications.
Campaign Take-Aways
I firmly believe both Facebook and email have important places in your campaigns.
However, too many candidates stress over Facebook, while paying little mind to email. Don’t do that.
Make email as important of a priority as Facebook for your campaign.
Build your email list starting with your friends and supporters. Get voter emails from your elections official or a reputable data vendor. Collect email addresses from voters who visit your website.
Use email smartly and effectively and it’ll be another tool you can use to reach the voters and win your election.
If you want to learn more about using email on your campaign, check out this article: 15 Best Email Practices for Winning Political Candidates.