Introduction

Developing and maintaining a political campaign website should be an ongoing campaign activity. Over the course of a campaign cycle, a candidate’s site should morph and change. Resist the urge to launch the website and then neglect it. Also, resist the urge to hastily throw a site together. Advance planning is a worthwhile investment.

This guide is for individuals creating website content for a political campaign website. Select tips are applicable to business, personal, and non-profit sites too.

TIP: When creating a new site or redesigning an existing one, don't create content separately from design. Great designs can look awful if there is not a good fit between content and design.

Step 1: Outline Site Structure

Think back to grade school and high school. Did your teachers stress outlining before writing? Put those outlining skills to work now to create a framework for planning the site's ultimate structure and thinking about the content to be created. If outlining doesn’t work for you, try  brainstorming using a tool like FigJam or Miro.

When a candidate first announces, you may start with a single page website with a short bio, how to support the candidate, and the appropriate legal information. Over the course of a campaign cycle, the site should evolve.

Typical Political Campaign Website Sections

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Standard website sections:

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More

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Step 3: Establish Target Audiences

A well-built political campaign website contains easily accessible and understandable content for:

• Voters
• Campaign contributors
• Volunteers / Staff
• Media
• Action groups
• Endorsing / opposing entities

Additional segmentations could be based on:

• Demographics: sex, age, location, employment, relationship status
• Socio-cultural dynamics: social, geographic, economic, political, historical
• Psychographics: ideas, passions, and beliefs
• Interests: habits, activities, hobbies
• Technology usage: types of devices used and frequency of use
• Media preferences: Newspaper, television, online, social media, word-of-mouth
• Voting history: registered vs. unregistered, past voting reliability, party affiliation
• Candidate / issue stance: decided vs. undecided

While it may seem strange to do so, search engines should be considered a “target audience.” Not considering how search engine algorithms index sites could impact what the electorate finds on a particular candidate.

Step 4: State Goals

At each campaign stage, what do voters care about? What does the campaign wish to achieve? A campaign website will look different on the day the candidacy is announced versus the days immediately preceding an election. In the former, a political candidate's site may be focused on publicizing the campaign's existence, whereas as election day nears, the emphasis may be persuading undecided voters and promoting turnout.

TIP: A well-built political campaign website informs, inspires, and mobilizes.

Make advance preparations so that updates are not forgotten or unnecessarily rushed. Create an editorial calendar or update the campaign’s marketing plan to document obvious website additions / changes / updates.

Step 4: Define Visitor Intent

Individuals visiting the site are there to be persuaded, informed, and / or mobilized. Offer site content that addresses the visitor’s reason(s) for visiting and where appropriate, move to action. Start by considering where the person came from:

• E-mail campaign blast
• Online advertising
• Offline media (TV ad, door hanger)
• Search engine
• Media coverage

Visitor intent could also be impacted by device, situation, and timing. While a fast-loading and responsive design is important throughout a campaign, it is especially important when voting is underway and undecided voters may be researching candidates on phones while waiting at polling locations.

Step 5: Craft Campaign Messaging

Websites are not constrained by time – as a radio spot is –  or in terms of size – like a full-page newspaper ad. Instead, websites are limited by a site visitor’s attention span, device size, and / or connection speed. Write content accordingly.

Begin by answering high-level questions, keeping in mind who the campaign has chosen to target:

• Who is the candidate?
• What is the campaign about?
• Where does the candidate wish to make an impact?
• When is the election?
• Why should website visitors care?
• How can website visitors show support?

After answering high-level questions, drill further...

About the Candidate

• What is the candidate passionate about?
• What are the candidate’s vision and values?
• What has the candidate achieved?
• What obstacles has the candidate faced? How did the candidate persevere? What was learned?
• Who has the candidate helped? How? What was the outcome?
• What should voters know about the candidate that they don’t already know?
• Who are the people in the candidate’s inner circle?

About the Candidate's Policies

• What problems does the candidate plan on solving? How? How will those policies be funded?
• What does success look like to the candidate in the short- and long-term?

Positioning Against Competitor(s)

• How is the candidate different / better than others seeking the same office?
• How do competitors position themselves in regards to the candidate?

External Supporters

• What “social proof” (testimonials, endorsements, op-eds, and awards) does the candidate posess?
• What is it about the candidate that supporters love?

Miscellaneous

• What questions are repeatedly asked about the candidate?
• What misconceptions exist about the candidate?
• What else do voters need to know to make an educated decision at the ballot box?
• Are there any remaining concerns of the electorate that have not yet been addressed?

Step 6: Articulate Calls-to-Action (CTAs)

You want site visitors to take action: Leading up to election day, you want site visitors to support your campaign by making a donation, joining your newsletter, and signing up to volunteer. Then, once voting is underway, you want your backers to vote for you.

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How readily a site visitor takes action may depend on the strength of your relationship with the person, the type of action, and how much time it takes to complete. A visitor who does not know you or your campaign may not donate as readily as someone who has been on your mailing list for awhile.

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Effective CTAs are:

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When creating calls-to-action, consider how the person will have arrived on your campaign site. Will it have been from a targeted email blast? Online ad? Should the message change based on if the person has visited the site before? 

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Remember to test placement, language, and appearance of your calls to action. What works for one campaign may not work for another. Review analytics and if possible, perform A/B tests, to determine what is / isn’t working for you.

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TIP: Too many calls to action lead to inaction.Avoid placing calls to action next to one another. If no other options exist, create hierarchy by modifying the design to prioritize the preferred action. This could be done by making a button for the primary action more appealing in some way compared to surrounding options.

TIP: Donate or Contribute? Choose the verb that aligns with the candidate’s political views.

Step 7: Write Quality Content

Don’t write for everyone. Focus on the campaign’s target groups. Focus on the visitor’s intent. Focus on the campaign’s site goals. Then, develop useful and authentic content that resonates with site visitors. Write content as if conversing with a friend. Allow each sentence to naturally flow from one to the next, drawing the reader in instinctually.

Content writing tips:

• Use the words, phrases, and tone utilized by the candidate and the candidate’s supporters.
• Be human, authentic, and knowledgeable.
• Experiment with emotive language.
• Create curiosity.
• Write for the audiences targeted by the campaign first, search engines second.
• Utilize specific and active language. Replace passive wording with powerful action verbs. Not sure if a sentence is passive? Add "by monkeys" to the end. If it still makes sense, it's passive.
• Avoid pretentious jargon, cliches / buzzwords, circular constructions, and vulgarity.
• Create interactive and engaging visual content. Add GIFs, memes, polls, surveys, videos, countdown timers, etc. where appropriate. Expand the campaign’s social reach by incorporating "click-to-tweet," "pin this," etc. calls to action with easily shareable content.
• Link internally. Don’t just say the candidate has a position on an issue. Link to the policy. This keep visitors on the campaign site and aids search engine indexing / positioning.
• Weave trust elements -- testimonials, endorsements, and similar social proof -- throughout the site, in addition to having sections devoted to showing who is supporting the candidate. 
• Repeat, repeat, repeat. Not every page will be read by site visitors. Repeat campaign themes and messaging without being repetitive.
• Hierarchize information and pages. Don’t have a lengthy page on something that is not important to the candidate and a skimpy page on one that is.
• Write search engine and meta snippets during the overall writing process instead of leaving it to the end (and potentially forgetting to do it.)

Site visitors scan. Maximize comprehension by structuring content for easy understanding on phones, tablets, and computers. Before creating content, think about how content should look to site visitors to minimize re-writes.

Maximizing online readability:

• Prioritize for mobile devices. Google started prioritizing mobile-first indexing in 2016. Average time on mobile devices was 4.8 hours / day in 2021. 
• Think in blocks. Logically structure content for easy comprehension by skimmers and close readers alike.
• Use headings and subheadings. Ensure headlines make sense without supporting information.
• Write short sentences and paragraphs utilizing concise wording. Consider paragraphs between 2 - 4 sentences.
• Highlight key points. Bold and / or italicize initial sentences, important statements, and transitions.
• Include bullet points and numbered lists which can be quicker to read and understand than lengthy lists of comma-separated items.
• Offer a mix of content types. Lure readers with an assortment of shareable visual elements, including graphics, photos, infographics, pull quotes, and video.
• Utilize white space. Crowded designs can be hard to read, especially on mobile devices.
• Be consistent. As much as possible, pages should look similar to one another. Exceptions might be donation and volunteer pages that embed third-party widgets. Landing pages may also be different.
• Assign each page a clear purpose. Then, tie each page’s CTAs to campaign goals.

Step 8: Proofread and Finalize Content

Do not skip reviewing content for readability / accuracy and obtaining appropriate sign-offs before launching a campaign site. Obvious omissions and falsehoods could spark unnecessary controversy.

Finalization tips:

• Use online tools to check grammar, readability, and make overall improvements:

• Hemingway App
• Readable
• Grammarly
• Grammar Checker
• Plagiarism Check
• Cliche Finder
• Related Words

• Remove all extra words, including "very," "really," and "that"
• Look for words / phrases that are often used incorrectly, like affect vs effect
• Read copy out loud
• Read copy backwards
• Remove tangents. Stay on point and message.
• Verify links and cited sources.
• Re-read first and last paragraphs. Do they add value?
• Are there clear goals and CTAs?

Step 7: Review and Adjust Website Content

Content may appear amazing on the 8.5” x 11” printed page, in a Google doc, or Notion page. But how does it look once part of the overall website design?

During final sign-off, ask:

• Does the site pass the first impression test? Consider getting perspective from a range of folks, especially those who were not involved with developing the site.
• Is key information visible and easy to find?
• Is content compelling?
• Do CTAs prompt action? Are they placed appropriately?
• Does the site support the campaign’s overall goals?
• Is the site optimized for search engines? (aka SEO friendly)?

TIP: Check site across a variety of platforms. How does it look on phones? Tablets? Desktop? Do links appear as hyperlinks? Is it possible on mobile to scroll without accidentally clicking on links? If not, content adjustments may be warranted or mobile only-content created.

A more extensive list of items to check can be found in our website launch checklist do's and dont's.

Step 8: Release Site

After vetting the site, make it live by publishing it. This process varies, depending on how the site was developed.

It never hurts to double and triple check links and forms.

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TIP: Depending on how the site was built, turn off the staging site during testing in case there are any hard-coded links to a staging or development site. 

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It’s also a good time to take a manual back-up of the site, to ensure that auto-backups are happening. 

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This is also a good time to review who has access to the site. Account access may have been shared with individuals or vendors during the development process that do not need access moving forward.

Step 9: Maintain Released Site

The work doesn’t stop once it is released. Throughout the campaign, ask: What topics are top of mind for:

• The campaign?
• Contenders?
• The electorate?

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What topics on the site and social media are resonating? Update site content to address these issues and support other marketing efforts by the campaign. Continue updating until an appropriate time after the election.

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TIP: Once the site is launched, continue collecting content. While some parts of the site may not change throughout the campaign, others will evolve. Update throughout the course of the campaign.

Bonus Action: Recycle Content

Campaigns are busy. Creating new content for social media, email blasts, etc. can drain resources. Instead of constantly creating new content, pause from time to time and review the website and campaign materials. Are there ways to repackage and reuse existing content? Aggregated pieces should continue to reflect the campaign overall, unless being used specifically to test new messaging and / or as outreach to new target audiences.

Potential options for repurposing content:

• Republish blog posts on other social platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Medium, Tumblr, or LinkedIn.
• Turn policies into a slideshow or video montage
• Create infographics

Conclusion

Simplify political campaign site content creation by planning.

Content creation and maintenance is only one aspect of managing a campaign website.

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