The NRCC came to us looking to communicate targeted closing arguments to key voters. Across 17 swing districts, they had 1.8 million voters they wanted to make sure saw their persuasive messaging during the critical final weeks of the 2018 midterm elections.
How do you cut through the clutter in a busy election year and make sure voters see your ads? Use the digital marketing channel that has the highest engagement rate of all – SMS. 90% of texts are read within 5 minutes.
How we did it
We targeted in-district cell phones armed with three variants of persuasive ads for each of the 17 congressional districts. Personalizing the creative to each recipient, we partnered with Opn Sesame to send nearly 2 million texts. Despite the fact that users did not directly opt-in to receive these texts, we had an impressive 95.9% retention rate for our messages.
How were we able to text so many voters? Peer-to-peer (P2P) texting allows you to send text messages to anyone you have the mobile number for without needing the user to opt-in first. It’s similar to how a call center works. A team of human texters physically sends each individual message in order to comply with all FCC and TCPA rules.
KEY METRIC
1,799,652 — The number of SMS messages we sent.
What we learned
Peer-to-peer text messages are personal - so make sure the content is personalized. With the right tools, you can send high-volume 1:1 communications to exactly the right people. Marketing campaigns should mirror real-life communication behaviors: when time is of the essence, send a text.