Anyone who works on a political campaign knows the importance of building, organizing, and maintaining dialogues with media contacts. There’s a symbiotic relationship between journalists and political campaigns, with each side benefitting from access to the other, and keeping channels open while starting new ones is key to success.
But the intensity and pace of political and election campaigns can make organizing anything a serious challenge. With a million things to do, emails to answer, calls to return, and places to be, who has time for that?
That’s why PR tools like Prowly can easily turn into the best CRM for political campaigns and deliver a major boost to the digital strategy of any campaign manager. It’s the perfect way to find & build a media audience, create and share materials with them and get them interested enough in your candidate and campaign to give you the coverage you’re looking for.
But how can a platform made for public relations professionals fit into the world of political campaigns? Because they share a fundamental goal: getting media exposure. Here’s how Prowly can be used as political campaign management software.
How to use Prowly PR software for political campaign management
Find media contacts
Sure, in a political campaign many journalists will find you but can you ever get enough media oxygen as election day nears?
Whether you want to offer interview access, share a press release, or just open a new line of communication, Prowly makes it easy to reach out to new contacts from all over the media world through its Media Database.
It’s a carefully curated listing of over a million media contacts that can be filtered by publication, geographical location, journalist focus, and more. Just mark the ones you want to contact, add them to your media list, and they’re ready to receive your next email or press release.
There’s no need to comb through the internet, looking for journalists who might be interested in covering your candidate and trying to get their contact information.
There’s also no need to limit your media exposure to inbound coverage and having a whole team dedicated to knocking on media doors to get them interested in your campaign message. Even with a tight budget and limited staff, you can achieve the same level of outbound activity as campaigns with far more resources.
Use Prowly to boost your political candidate and even the playing field when it comes to effective digital strategies for media outreach. Take a shortcut to an instant list of verified, active media contacts with the Media Database and use Prowly as your CRM for political campaigns afterward.
Create press releases
What about the materials you need to send to all those contacts you’ve made?
Press releases are a fundamental part of any political campaign and it’s not unusual to get started on the next one right after the previous one has gone out. In a compressed race to the finish line, your candidate will want to achieve the highest possible media profile in the shortest amount of time and press releases are one of the key formats for getting your message out.
Traditional newswires that use the shotgun approach — send your release out to the widest possible circle and assume that at least someone in its range is interested — are not only inefficient (and surprisingly expensive), but do nothing to make you stand out. Your message carries their name and is put into the same pipeline as countless other messages distributed through their network.
What reason do journalists have to be interested in yet another press release sent to them by a wire service that keeps their inbox full?
Their one-size-fits-all approach extends to the visual construction of your press release, which is placed in the same template as the thousands of other announcements they send out every day.
There’s a better way. With Prowly, you get all the tools you need to create impressive, professional-grade press releases that you can send straight to your media contacts. It’s an easy-to-use tool that lets you customize everything with a simple drag & drop editor. You can include interactive elements, videos, and share them with a simple link or embed them in an email.
Creating your own press release means having full control over its appearance and the opportunity to impress, as opposed to being just another cookie-cutter release on a newswire.
Having a great contact list is just the start — use PR software and be sure that you’re sharing something worth their attention.
Get your message out
Now it’s time to share that amazing press release you’ve created. Where do you start?
If you use Prowly as your political campaign management software, you can just continue in the same place. The tool lets you easily move between your contacts (both your own lists and any you’ve imported from our Media Database), the press release creator, and everything you need to send your message out.
Emails sent through Prowly have high deliverability thanks to the stellar domain reputation, meaning your message lands in inboxes rather than spam folders. Also, helpful automatic suggestions further improve deliverability and engagement with the content of your message, which can be embedded directly in the mail or included as a link.
After you’ve sent your press release or media pitch out, you can track engagement with your emails and know who’s opening and clicking and who isn’t. Use this info to learn which contacts are ready for the next step in the conversation, which need more time, and which might not be worth the effort.
One tool for managing contacts, creating press releases, and sending your message out means no information silos, no fragmented processes, and no multiple platforms to access and learn. Streamline your candidate’s media message from start to finish with PR software!
Maintain an online newsroom
Press releases are a necessary and useful part of your outreach but sending them out one by one means that any journalist who is just getting interested in your candidate may or may be able to discover what they’ve missed. That’s where online newsrooms come in.
With your online newsroom, you can upload all of your press releases and other materials and make them accessible to anyone through links or search. Your newsroom can be branded to be consistent with your website or campaign themes. It’s like a library of anything and everything you want to share about your candidate, easily shared with a link.
It’s your go-to source for anyone who wants access to the entire history of your communications.
All the content in your online newsroom is fully editable. Quick updates, edits, and corrections (yes, it happens…) are easy. You can integrate it with your social media channels and optimize it for SEO purposes. On top of a convenient way to share your campaign and candidate information, you get an increased online presence to further boost your profile!
Read more about PR strategies & tools for political campaigns →
The votes are in—political campaign management has never been easier
A brand is a brand, whether it represents a product for sale or a political candidate and both need effective media management for the same reason mentioned earlier — getting media coverage.
If you’re looking for a force multiplier that can empower your campaign with a new level of media-savvy polish and organizational efficiency, have a look at what Prowly can do for you.
Cover photo by Joakim Honkasalo
