Content Strategy
This project is part of a larger political campaign design epic.
(2 months)
Situation
A political candidate during the COVID-19 pandemic needed a contact-free way to reach voters and raise funds. All other media would direct traffic to this website.
Task
Design and build a website that allows the candidate to:
- Showcase her qualifications
- Describe her platform
- Collect donations
- Promote merchandise
- Coordinate lawn signage
- Recruit campaign volunteers
Action
I began with research and brand development for the candidate. I also established a content strategy that relied heavily on UX writing.
I personally contributed:
- Payment systems (PayPal)
- Event systems (Eventbrite)
- Social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
- Several domain names
- Web hosting and environment setup
- Content Management System setup (WordPress)
- Content authoring
- Graphic design
- Information architecture
- Custom development
- System maintenance
![Political campaign website screenshot of voteamada.com](https://frostsimula.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/amvs_mayor-495x1024.jpg)
Voters typically only have 1 way to donate, and they rarely know how their funds are being spent. I set up multiple options online:
- One-time donation by PayPal
- Recurring monthly donation by PayPal
- One-time donations by Venmo
Then it occurred to me to set up a web store, where every merchandise item had a suggested amount, but voters had the option to donate any amount. This way, voters would feel like their contribution went towards something specific.
I used WooCommerce to set up the web store. Its integrated inventory and order status system were extremely handy for tracking lawn signs, because they would need to be collected from voters after the election.
![A teal colored political campaign lawn sign reads Vote Amáda Márquez Simula for Mayor. voteamada.com](https://frostsimula.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/vote_amada_teal_lawn_sign-1024x538.jpg)
Result
Reducing the size of the home screen header and moving impactful content above the scroll reduced the bounce rate. Small improvements to calls to action had a significant impact. For example, adding a “radio tower” background to the newsletter signup form increased subscriptions by nearly 22%. Streamlining the donation process led to more recurring donations. In total, the website collected $12,724.54 for the campaign.