Goal

In the 2018 race for Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis was facing the “rising star” of the Democratic party, Andrew Gillum. Gillum’s campaign was boosted by Hollywood celebrities, and Ron DeSantis needed to turn out the Republican base to win.

The Ron DeSantis for Governor campaign needed to invest in an email marketing program that targeted, reached, and turned out voters for Ron DeSantis before and on Election Day.

Two weeks before Election Day, Ron DeSantis was trailing Andrew Gillum by more than 5 points. On Election Day, DeSantis was trailing by 3.6 points. Mr. DeSantis’ margin of victory was just 32,463 votes, and the email GOTV program we implemented reached 32,483 undecided voters — 100% of his margin of victory.

How email marketing turns out voters

Campaign Inbox executed an aggressive email GOTV strategy to turn out voters for Ron DeSantis.

Tactics

Our tactics accomplished the following goals:

  • Vote-by-mail Ballot Request Program – to get registered voters to request their vote-by-mail ballot
  • Vote-by-mail Ballot Chase Program – to get registered voters who had received their ballot to return it
  • GOTV Program – to turn out registered voters to vote early or on election day
Strategy

This GOTV email campaign required a unique approach that segmented registered voters based on how they planned to vote and then reached them with the information they needed to vote for Ron DeSantis. Our strategy revolved around:

  • Segmentation: By surveying users and utilizing third-party data, we were able to segment registered voters based on how they intended to vote. This is critical to a voter contact program through email. Rather than sending mass emails until the email list was burnt out, we were able to develop ongoing, relationship-based contacts with registered voters to target and turn out voters.
  • Personalization: We communicated with each user with the information that was personalized to them — without bogging them down with mass GOTV emails. For example, if a user planned to vote by mail, we provided them with information only about voting by mail.
  • Direct calls to action: Reminders are helpful to voters, but it’s direct asks and links to the most relevant information that are going to turn out voters. If we knew a user had received their vote-by-mail ballot, we sent them an email with a link that contained information on how to return their vote-by-mail ballot. If they intended to vote early, we emailed them with a link to find their early voting location.

Winning Results

It worked: by properly segmenting users based on our survey data and third-party data, we were able to then target and reach users with personalized content to increase voter turnout. As a result, we:

  • Mr. DeSantis’ margin of victory was just 32,463 votes, and the email GOTV program we implemented reached 32,483 voters — 100% of his margin of victory.
  • We connected with each voter an average of 1.95 times, in total making 63,224 voter contacts.

Testimonial

“Campaign Inbox created and seamlessly executed a GOTV program that helped us target and connect with every last voter our campaign needed to win.” – Brad Herold, Campaign Manager, Ron DeSantis for Governor

How We Can Help You Win Elections

We understand voter turnout and persuasion are not accomplished with one message to a registered voter; it’s an ongoing conversation with your key voter turnout audiences.

That’s why email is critical to your GOTV strategy: we are able to target, segment, and reach registered voters.

Then, using our own survey data and third-party data, we are able to turn out voters for your campaign by sending multiple personalized messages that provide registered voters with the precise information they need to cast their vote — whether it’s by mail, early, or on election day.