This blog post will share insight from a wee bit of data on local elections underscoring the importance of having an online presence in getting you and your product elected and, secondly, using online testing to make sure you’re saying something interesting with your traditional media spend.
No Internet Marketing = Less Chance of Victory
Being a good democratic citizen, I voted in the municipal election of our little town north of Toronto on Monday. Sadly, it wasn’t easy. We had to choose one of two candidates for mayor. That was easy. (No Rob Ford to consider here : ) But then I had to pick eight town councilors out of 28 candidates! I’m sure like many people I could come up with two, three or four but eight!? That was tough. And, naturally I wanted to make an informed voting decision. So before I headed off to the voters booth, I did what hordes of consumers do when they’re trying to make a more informed buying decisions these days, I turned to the internet. I wasn’t alone. Here’s the search volume for the term ‘municipal election’ in Ontario using Google Trends. 
My town didn’t make it easy to find a list of candidates but I persisted and found a list. Then checked which had websites, read about them, got to know them a bit and went off and made my-now-informed voting decision. Done! I checked out the results in the morning but then, because I’m a curious data-driven internet marketing consultant, I correlated the results with own my experience as a voter / consumer. That’s where it got interesting: There were 6 incumbents and 22 new candidates vying for those 8 spots. Of those 22 new candidates 15 had websites. Amazingly in this day & age. 7 – or almost one-third! – did not have a website or any other internet marketing. How was I – or you? – to make an informed buying decision without a website to learn about them and their views. From the flyers sent in the mail? Obviously that’s a good way to reach some folks but for me – and most consumers these days – sorry that literature went straight to the trash with the other junk mail. 5 of the 6 incumbent candidates were re-elected. 3 new candidates were also elected. All three of those new candidates had websites and other internet marketing including banners on local news sites. How did the seven who did not have sites do? Read More
