Is Your Campaign Web Site Still in the Dark Ages?

So, all you candidates, do you have a campaign web site?

"Of course," you say.

Let's put it another way. Do you have a campaign web site with a purpose?

Again, "Of course," you say.

Well maybe, and maybe not.

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I've been looking at hundreds of political campaign web sites over the last few months. You would think that by the 2010 election political campaigns would have learned some things.

But it's pretty obvious that both political neophytes and veteran campaigners alike are still missing some basics.

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Unlike the plethora of social networking sites like FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube, and others, your campaign web site is something that you control.

When you control something, you can make it serve your purpose. But in order to serve your purpose, you first have to clearly define what the purpose of your campaign web site is.

So, what are some purposes?

• Collect donations
• Impress visitors with technological wizardry
• Inform voters about candidate
• Inform voters about positions on issues
• List campaign events
• Provide contact information
• Recruit volunteers
• Send voters to related sites
• Showcase endorsements
• Showcase media coverage
• Solicit feedback
• Collect voter contact information

While all are worthy purposes, there is only one that is really, really important. The rest are nice-to-haves, but will make very little difference in the success of your campaign.

Can you guess?

Here's a hint. I saved the best for last.

That's right. The most important purpose of your campaign web site is to collect voter contact information.

You disagree? You think collecting donations is more important? Or, perhaps, informing voters about your positions on issues?

Well, think again.

Voter contact information serves as the basis for all the purposes that you might have for your campaign web site.

How often are first-time visitors likely to make campaign contributions? Perhaps, less than one percent of the time.

If you make the primary purpose of your campaign web site to collect voter contact information, however, you can go back to those voters over and over again, at different times, with different appeals. When you hear marketers say that the money is in the list, that's what they're talking about.

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If I've persuaded you that collecting voter contact information should be your campaign web site's primary purpose or if you've already reached that conclusion, then your next question should be: Is my campaign web site serving that purpose?

Try this exercise:

• Find a clock or watch that tracks time in seconds.
• Ask a friend to serve as your guinea pig.
• Sit the friend in front of a computer.
• Instruct the friend to sign up for your campaign mailing list. (If you don't have such a function, then fire your web site consultant immediately.)
• Have the friend type in the address of your campaign web site.
• Time how long it takes your friend to complete your instruction.

If it takes less than 30 seconds, congratulate yourself and your web site consultant.

If it takes more than that, but under a minute, you're on the right track.

If it takes more than that, but under two minutes, you've got some work to do.

If it takes more than two minutes, go back to the drawing board and figure out where you're going wrong.

I'll cover how you get that contact information and how much information you should collect in a future article.