A few years ago, political marketing was primarily communication-based, approaching voters through direct marketing and advertising on traditional media.

Year after year, country after country, digital marketing seems to increasingly participate in political campaigns. The development of digital marketing tools and specialized platforms has allowed political marketing to take on a new dimension.

Previously, voters’ decisions were made in front of televisions through political programs and candidate appearances. Today, they are increasingly made on mobile devices. Whenever a voter turns to their phone or computer to learn more about a candidate, event, or news, it offers a huge opportunity for candidates to capture attention and convey maximum information using the right channels.

Campaigns and messages can now be hyper-personalized in a real one-to-one marketing logic, thus mobilizing supporters in much more organized relay systems on social networks. This requires strong involvement and greater professionalization of modern political communication that politicians must master.

The rise of digital media allows political actors to reach the masses very quickly, increasing depoliticization and personalization of political content with the ultimate goal of changing the political landscape and strengthening the democratic process.

Less than a month away from legislative, municipal, and professional elections in Morocco, political parties are hurrying to unveil their electoral programs for the September 8th rendezvous. The electoral campaign is in full swing, and political parties are striving to win the electoral challenge.

However, in the absence of printed materials and the prohibition of gatherings, the real challenge for political parties lies in succeeding digitally. Hence, we provide you with this white paper gathering the keys to a successful digital electoral campaign.

Does digital have a real impact?

Indeed, digital media are very useful for political campaigns. Thus, politicians should be aware of the impact of digital media, which can now constitute a permanent threat due to their ability to become uncontrollable rumor mills. Political campaigns have been using digital technologies for over a decade, developing increasingly sophisticated tools and techniques during each electoral cycle.

If the goal of a political campaign is to communicate with the electorate and convince them of the candidacy, then the digital marketing industry has been doing roughly the same since digital became an integral part of our lives. Political parties learn from digital marketing and apply it to campaigns whose mission is to attract more engagement from supporters in a short period of time.

During the U.S. elections, the whole world witnessed the power of media in supporting a candidate, disseminating messages, and animating public debate.

For example, Donald Trump had a clear advantage during the general election against Hillary Clinton, not only in terms of support on social media, twice as much for example on Facebook, but also more generally in terms of his digital footprint, meaning his ability to capture attention and to have his messages relayed, retweeted, and shared.

According to him: “Without Twitter, I probably wouldn’t be here. I have nearly a hundred million followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. I have my own media. I don’t need to rely on fake media.”

This was not the first time a U.S. president benefited from social media. During Barack Obama’s time, he even hired Chris Hughes, one of the co-founders of Facebook, who organized his online communication strategy based on his own website (barackobama.com), a standalone social network for supporters (mybarackobama.com), and effective use of traditional social networks (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube).

Download our white paper on 9 steps to succeed in your electoral campaign through Digital!