DIGITAL ADS, EMAIL MARKETING
Two Tech for Campaigns teams worked to create awareness, persuade voters, and get out the vote using Facebook and email. They discovered successful messages for digital advertising and email channels, promoted events, raised name recognition, and engaged persuasion audiences.
Dr. Liz Snyder successfully flipped Alaska’s 27th House District, in east Anchorage, in 2020. A highly competitive swing seat within a red state, Liz defeated her opponent, a former incumbent, by only 11 votes.
Dr. Snyder finished her PhD when she was only 28 and entered the workforce. Ten years before, she accepted her dream job as a professor at the University of Anchorage Alaska and ever since has called Alaska her home. Now that she has been elected, Dr. Snyder is focused on providing affordable and quality healthcare, growing the economy, and strengthening Alaskan communities by making them safer.
Dr. Snyder ran an engaging campaign for the 27th House District in 2018, and ultimately came up short by less than 200 votes. Going into 2020, she knew that online outreach would be critical to closing the gap and helping her flip the seat.
"11 votes - that was the win margin in this race! It is so rewarding to know that our efforts made a real difference and helped Dr. Snyder flip her seat. This is the most direct, meaningful way for tech professionals to make an impact on our democracy."
Dr. Snyder had been active on social media since March 2019, but knew she would be in a close race again in 2020. The Digital Ads team managed paid marketing to grow Liz’s following on Facebook, targeting demographics identified as key opportunities. This team tested images and messaging in order to best increase Liz’s name recognition, call out the contrast between her and her opponent, and ultimately drive voter turnout.
The Email Marketing team helped Dr. Snyder grow and expand her existing email program. They created engaging emails to help with fundraising, event attendance, and voter turnout, building in best practices from the beginning regarding content planning and subscriber segmentation. Fundraising and event attendance were especially critical, as all 2020 races were fundamentally altered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The campaign served more than 700,000 digital ad impressions in a district of 18,200 people. Digital ads played a significant role in increasing awareness across the district, with voters seeing an average of 2 ads each day. Email marketing also led to increased voter awareness and fundraising. Despite limitations from COVID-19, the campaign exceeded its fundraising goals due to the effectiveness of its email fundraising program.
This win was critical for Alaska, helping ensure the Alaska State House had just enough support to organize under a multipartisan coalition caucus rather than full control by Republican representatives.
"I loved working with these teams. They were organized, pleasant, positive, experienced, smart, and always brought more to the table than we would have ever expected."
