Once every four years, the landscape of marketing flips upside down. A U.S. presidential election brings added volatility and complexity to how marketers reach, interact, and form emotional connections with their target audiences.
For example, U.S. political advertising increases significantly during an election year, often from an estimated $1-2 billion to up to $12-15 billion, leaving less capacity and higher costs for marketers. Adding to the challenges, more advertising means more clutter, creating a higher degree of difficulty in reaching audiences and capturing their attention.
The same is true for earned and shared media. More messages are disseminated daily, making it harder to break through and establish the emotional connections that drive brand awareness and purchasing decisions.
Finally, while economists say consumer spending does not change considerably in election years, businesses often hold off on large investments in the months leading up to election day.
To preserve consumer awareness and drive continued business results, marketers must use deeper levels of rationale when making strategy and budget decisions in the months leading up to the U.S. presidential election.
For example, the same social media or SEM buy likely won’t reach or resonate with the same number of consumers or businesses within a target audience. To the same end, a well-crafted and researched pitch likely won’t land with reporters across the country who are prioritizing election-based coverage over their traditional beats.
As with any marketing endeavor, finding and attacking the white space and windows of opportunity will lead to the strongest results. A market of historically high volume and clutter adds difficulty, but this proven best practice remains.
Start by observing every corner of your marketing program and asking the tough questions to find the white space:
- Have we been reaching the same target audiences at the same rate in recent months?
- Has reaching our audiences become more expensive?
- Are we seeing smaller engagement rates?
- If we are seeing a decrease in impressions and engagement, and/or an increase in costs, where is that taking place and by how much?
- Have particular pieces of content or messages performed better than others?
- What are our customers or clients saying? Are their purchasing habits or their overall spending outlook changing? If so, how?
- What channels and messages will help us most efficiently reach our audiences and build or maintain connections with them in the short term?
Election season represents one of the more difficult times for marketers to deliver business outcomes. From more competition and clutter to overall uncertainty, the marketing puzzle has more pieces.
An analytical approach will help sort out the complexity. By finding and attacking the white space, no matter how small it is, marketers will find success in the challenging landscape of a U.S. election. It’s what we do for our clients every day.
