A strong online presence is essential to run a competitive campaign. Creating a polished, successful political campaign website ensures you have enough visibility as a candidate. This guide to political websites will help you understand exactly what your campaign website needs to accomplish, where to get a website, and the best do’s and don’ts to help you build a solid online presence that accomplishes your goals.
What Are the Main Goals of a Political Campaign Website?
A good campaign website accomplishes three main goals:
- Build trust in both your campaign and the candidate. Does your website encourage engagement? Does the site establish trust in your campaign’s brand or your leadership abilities? Your website is the best place to showcase your political brand. To show your voters that you’re active in their communities. To show voters your values. To encourage potential voters and website visitors to interact with your campaign (through surveys, contact forms, or donation buttons).
- Present a clear path for the user journey. Is your candidate's website user-friendly? Mobile friendly? Is the menu easy to navigate?
Build your website with the user’s journey in mind. Map out the path you want users to take through your website, from the landing page to your key issues to the call-to-action (CTA) pages. A user-friendly website with clear paths to donate or action buttons and other CTAs will increase conversion for your campaign site.
- Communicate your political messaging. Are your positions on important issues featured prominently on your campaign website? You only have a few seconds to grab the voters’ attention, and how the site presents information will ultimately impact how long they stay on your page.
Your website should include easy-to-digest snippets summarizing your political identity and campaign platform.
How Do I Get a Political Website?
You have several options for how to get your political website built: website builders, freelance designers, or media consultant firms.
You can use a website builder like Wix, WordPress, or Squarespace to access political campaign website templates that will allow you to build your new website easily. If your campaign relies on grassroots funding, this option can be a cost-effective way to get a free or low-cost political campaign website that’s polished and professional-looking.
Using a political campaign website builder like those listed above also allows you to hand over the site design to professional website designers. You can hire freelance website designers on sites like Upwork, Fiverr, or Freelancer, with abundant freelancers who can improve your site. If you want to skip website builders altogether, freelancers can also build a website from scratch or customize a campaign website.
Your final option is to use a media consultant firm specializing in political branding, though this option will likely carry the biggest price tag.
Which option is best for you and your campaign to achieve a strong online presence? The answer depends on your campaign's tech-savvy, budget, time constraints, etc.
What Are the Do’s and Don’ts of Building a Political Campaign Website?
Keep in mind the main goals of your campaign website: (1) to build trust in your campaign by (2) presenting voters an easy path to (3) a clear message.
Do incorporate website design trends
The best political campaign websites follow modern trends in political website design. As you design your website, ask yourself a couple of questions:
- Does your website have a sense of movement? Candidates are incorporating moving elements into their websites increasingly more often.
You can see this tendency in the use of ambient video. Rep. Katie Porter’s website offers a perfect example.
Senator Elizabeth Warren’s website incorporates movement in a couple of interesting ways, including via a video slideshow of old photos and interactive text.
Incorporating motion into your campaign website design conveys a sense of action, something voters look for in their preferred candidates.
Another way to show voters that you’re in touch with the issues that impact them is by asking yourself this next question.
- Is your website mobile-friendly? People’s dependence on mobile devices has only grown. That means having a functional, mobile-friendly layout for your campaign website is more important than ever.
Don’t miss donation opportunities
Another design trend worth discussing is using full-width banners that feature tiered donation options. This banner increases conversion on your website by allowing people to pick from several donation options. It also gives people the option to customize the amount. Look at Cori Bush’s political campaign website for an example:
You can also encourage donations by including call-to-action buttons and by gathering emails. DON’T overlook the importance of gathering emails! An email list is a potential donor list.
Cori Bush’s homepage shows that she uses a full-width banner, an email collection form to build her mailing list, and a donation button prominently (but noninvasively) displayed in the top corner.
The site design is simple and effective at drawing the user’s attention through the journey Cori mapped out for them.
But that’s not all you should consider when making a homepage for your campaign website. Let’s shift gears away from trends to evergreen ideas for constructing a website.
Do have clear, visible messaging on the homepage
The homepage of any effective website must capture the user’s attention. You want to greet voters and website visitors with an engaging photo or visual presentation but don’t forget why most voters visit your website. They’re looking for more information about you as a candidate and your campaign.
That’s why it’s always wise to incorporate a one- to two-sentence summary of your campaign’s mission statement. You don’t want your users to scroll too much or too far to find your mission. Keep a clear message toward the top of your homepage to increase the retention rate on your campaign website. Think of that message as an elevator pitch for voters visiting your candidate's website.
Bernie Sanders’ campaign website provides an excellent example of a good campaign mission statement summary:
Don’t have a cluttered homepage
Having a homepage that’s too busy will detract from your political campaign’s messaging. Throwing everything at the wall is tempting, but a visually pleasing homepage that doesn’t overwhelm the user is key to mapping out the user’s experience.
Each homepage element should draw the user toward the next step in their journey—to encourage participation and engagement. Remember, the homepage is the virtual face of your political campaign. The best way to avoid clutter? Use a single photo in your banners, and keep text and menu bars succinct.
Do have an issues page
One way to keep the clutter on your homepage to a minimum is to have an issues page. That way, you can highlight your campaign’s positions on important issues in greater detail without overstuffing your menu.
It’s also helpful to have a downloadable PDF file available that allows voters to take the information with them. Pairing free downloadables with email collection CTAs can increase your conversion rates.
Don’t skimp on the About page
Unlike the homepage, the About page should be more robust. Your About page is a vital source of information for voters. This page not only lets people get to know you better, it helps them understand your history and how they can relate to you as a person.
The About page develops your campaign’s brand and helps clear up space on your homepage. Combine different elements like photos and text to make your About page dynamic and engaging. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez provides an excellent example of a rich About page on her campaign website. Save all your biography information for your own About page.
Do focus on engagement
Part of the purpose behind your site's Issues or About pages—or even the downloadable PDFs you offer—is to increase engagement. Encouraging engagement in your voters increases trust in your brand and fuels the conversion from viewer to donor or supporter.
Here are a few ways to create engagement:
- Link to your social media (don’t link to platforms you don’t use, helping to avoid clutter)
- Use clear call-to-action buttons for volunteering or donating
- Email collection forms to join the campaign or before downloading campaign materials
- Constituent surveys allow voters to give you feedback on the issues that matter to them and your campaign.
Putting It All Together
When setting up your political campaign website, these do’s and don’ts offer top-notch advice to ensure you get it right. That you build trust in both your campaign and you, the candidate. You present a clear path for the user journey in which you communicate your political messaging.
There’s a lot of room for creative liberty when building a campaign website to meet those goals. Above all, follow the basic tips outlined above to ensure your website reaches the most people possible and converts them into engaged donors or supporters of your campaign.
