Hi, I'm Iman

Marketing Plan for a Voter Registration Drive

Research Section

Organizational Background 

     The organization that I chose is the League of Women Voters, specifically the Kansas City branch. I don’t plan on bringing in another organization or doing any type of collaboration. The main goal of the organization is to help people get registered to vote. Working with another organization would not make sense for this specific project. 

     The League Of Women Voters of Kansas City serves the greater Kansas City area. They are part of a national organization, but because this project is about voter registration in Kansas City, the local branch is who I am working for. There isn’t really competition like there would be in the world of business, but there are other organizations will similar objections and goals as the League of Women Voters. 

     The largest competitor of ours would be Rock the Vote. They are a national organization that focuses on getting young people to register to vote as well as getting young people to go out and vote. They focus more on targeting young people and reminding them to vote on election day. They don’t have a local branch, so we wouldn’t have to worry too much about competing with them. They don’t hold events like we do. They focus more on education and awareness.

     The market isn’t really growing in the traditional sense. There will always be new voters and the number of Generation Z who are turning 18 is increase each day. Millennials are now the largest generation since they recently passed Baby Boomers. There are more of them than there are other generations. They also have the lowest voter turnout, despite being the majority demographic. The median age is also 38.8 years old, which means the average person is a millennial. This means there is a lot more work to get younger demographics out to the polls. Which is where my plan to hold a voter registration drive comes in.

Target Publics

     The target audience of this campaign is 18-29 year old’s who are not registered to vote. According to the U.S. Census data, around 45% of 18-29 year old’s vote. They have the lowest turnout rate. The 65+ demographic is at 72% for voter turnout. There is a huge disparity between younger and older generations. The data shows that a higher percentage of older generations show up to vote. 

     In Missouri, there are 951,395 people between the ages of 18-29 according to the census. This campaign has the potential to reach all of these people. Assuming most of them are eligible to vote, that’s just under one million people. Of course we would be targeting the people in this group who are not registered to vote. We would also like to see our message since the focus is also getting young voters who are in Missouri, specifically the Kansas City area, to participate and remind them to vote on election day. 

Communication Analysis 

     The League of Women Voters currently has an Instagram, Twitter and Facebook accounts. There do have a website for their branch as well which has press releases and other information about upcoming events. The local Kansas City branch doesn’t appear to have much in place when it comes to voter registration drives. There are a few press releases on their website, but there aren’t social media posts about their message or events. 

     Since the target audience is younger, specifically college students between the ages of 18-29, the focus should be more on social media than traditional media to get the message out. Since most of the demographic is on social media, posting about the event should primarily be done on social media like Twitter and Instagram. The majority of the demographic uses Twitter and Instagram more than Facebook. 

     One fifth of users under the age of 30 on Twitter report using it too many times to count in a single day according to the Pew Research Center. Also, 84% of 18 to 30 year old’s already have social media accounts, so it would be wise to take advantage of this. Since this is the case, Twitter will most likely be used to post about the event and spread the message. Instagram isn’t too far behind according to the data, so it will also be useful to help spread the message. 

     Flyers and brochures can also be used to spread information about the event on the UMKC campus. I think making flyers to hang up would be beneficial since it is a university and there are bulletin boards on campus. I think since younger generations use more technology we could even use QR codes that link to our website or our social media pages. The 18 to 29 demographic is more tech savvy and I just think it would be useful to take advantage of the bulletin boards on campus. 

     I also think press releases are necessary to put on the League of Women Voters of Kansas City website. It’s a good way to get the information about the event to the press who can cover the event and help spread the message about getting registered to vote. It would also help circulate on social media and spread the message on all avenues. 

Issue Analysis

     The target audience definitely needs to know that we are having a voter registration drive on the UMKC campus. They also need to know to vote on election and have their polling location information. The main issue we are addressing is the low voter turnout rate for the 18 to 29 age group. 

     The League of Women Voters of Kansas City have done events like this is the past and they have been fairly successful. It’s not a new idea, but they have never done a voter registration drive at UMKC before. Last year, they held one at MCC campus in Lee’s Summit, but not at UMKC or a large university. It did go well for them and they did have over 100 new voters registrations between all of their voter drives. They typically hold three each year and average around 120 new registrations. 

     The completion hasn’t done anything like this, at least in the greater Kansas City metro area. We don’t have to worry about the competition in that regard. However, the do more on social media and online to encourage young people to register to vote as well as show up to vote on election day. I think LWVKC could do more online to get their message out to the target audience. This is where Rock the Vote has more visibility and awareness of their message. Online and social media is not our strong area, but with a campaign like this it is necessary. 

     The challenge will be launching a social media/online campaign to encourage young people to get registered to vote. This hasn’t been done by the local branch on the local level, but I think with the right tools it can be successful. We’re also holding a voter registration drive, so getting the word out on social media could be challenging since we haven’t done a campaign of this size before. I think it might be challenging to spread the message to everyone in our target audience, but I think if we stick to using a Twitter and Instagram it can be successful. 

     The primary goal is to increase voter registration in the 18 to 29 demographic at UMKC. There will also be an event held on campus as well as a social media campaign to spread the message and encourage young people to register to vote. Also, informing our target audience to vote on election day. The main goal will be to increase the number of people we get registered to vote and also spread our message to a wider audience on social media. 

Planning Section 

     The primary goal of this project is to increase voter registration in the Kansas City area within the 18 to 29 age group, since this group has the lowest turnout. The League of Women Voters of Kansas City branch will be the I will outline my goals and objectives for this campaign and the tactics and strategies I plan on using to achieve these goals. 

     The main objective of the campaign is to increase voter registration in the target demographic. Since the last day to register is October 12, the campaign would have to start earlier. With this information, the League of Women Voters-Kansas City should hold voter registration drives. For the timeline, Spring would be an ideal time to launch the voter registration campaign. Since the LWVKC already holds events in the Fall before the election in November, I think it would also be good to hold at least one sometime in March. March is also Women’s History Month, so the drive would be a good event to also promote women’s history and the history of the League of Women Voters. Holding the event on the University of Missouri Kansas City campus would also be beneficial, since it’s where a large percentage of the target demographic is. I think it would be a smart idea to hold a voter drive earlier in the year as it would give new voters a chance to get through the process. In my personal experience, it took me five times to register to vote in the state of Kansas because I was a first time voter. It was later discovered that the state was doing this intentionally and the state of Kansas was sued. This is relevant because sometimes the state doesn’t always follow laws and rules. By registering earlier in the year and following up with newly registered voters we can have a better chance at ensuring that they get registered in time. That way nobody is stuck scrambling to register before October 12. As far as numbers go, we will plan to register more voters than last year through this additional March event.

     In 2021, LWVKC held three events and registered a combined total of 128 new voters. The goal for 2022 will be 170 new registered voters. That means having at least 43 new registrations at the March voter registration drive. This goal is feasible since we are only adding one event and each event averages about 42 new registrations. We would need to coordinate with UMKC, since the event would be held on their campus. The timetable would have us planning the event in February and getting volunteers signed up by the middle of February. Having the event on March 10, 20223, we would also need to have a rain location in the event of inclement weather since the event will be held outside. 

     The secondary goal is to follow up with everyone who gets registered. This is achievable since we can email or text the people who register to vote through us. This is an easy way to follow up with new voters and also a way to send them to the Missouri Secretary of State website so they can verify their voter registration. I think it can be achieved easily since we would already have their contact info. The goal would be to inform these new voters while also reminding them to vote in November. The last part of this goal is to inform voters about the upcoming election and give them relevant info. I think it would be beneficial to make a QR code that links to our website so that it’s easy to access. The LWV does have a social media presence, including teaming up with Vote411 (which falls under the LWV) and using social media influencers to educate voters. I think the LWVKC already has a good presence on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. At the national level, they have a TikTok account and have even featured celebrities like Cyndi Lauper informing voters. With all of that in consideration, that brings me to the actual implementation and tactics that will be used to spread the message and increase the number of registered voters within the 18 to 29 age group, since according to the Census Bureau voting rates are around 45% for this demographic. 

     The tactics and strategies that I will use include posting tweets, the first one to promote the new voter drive at UMKC, and the second one to remind voters to check their registration. I plan on using Twitter since one fifth of users under the age of 30 report visiting the site too many times to count. This means that Twitter is a very popular and frequently visited social media by our target audience. 62% of Twitter users ages 18 to 29 say the site has increased their understanding of current events in the last year. This is important since we are educating 18 to 29 year old voters and trying to register more people within this demographic. Tweets on Twitter will be the main social media platform that is used for this event and campaign. 

     The second part is having a press release to inform the public that we are holding a voter registration drive at the UMKC campus in March. I also plan on including the same information in our monthly newsletter that emailed out to our members. The press release will be given to UMKC so it can be distributed to their students. I also plan on posting this on the LWVKC.org in our newsroom. I’d also like to have an email sent out to the students with a flyer that has the event information on it so they can be aware. These will all be ways to inform our key audience about the upcoming voter registration drive. 

     The last part is actually making the flyer. The purpose of the flyer is to have it be distributed on the UMKC campus and put on bulletin boards and other places where students would see it. The flyer would have the event information on it including the time and date, the location, the rain location and the name of our organization. I’d also think it would be a good idea to put a QR code that links to WLVKC.org on the flyer. This way the students would be able to get more information about who we are and what we do. I’m not sure if this is possible, (I’m not tech savvy) but it would be cool to have a calendar link in the QR code that would allow students to add the event to their calendar so they don’t forget. We’re going to pretend that it is for the time being. If it’s not, then just a QR code to the website will be enough. With all of this to consider, I think these are the best tactics and strategies to implement in order to spread our message and have a successful event. 

Evaluation 

     After the event, the success would be measured by comparing the number of people we got registered to vote with our goal. Our goal was 43 new registered voters. Hopefully, the event would have been a success and we would have met our goal. For visibility of the campaign, I would look at the social media posts that we put out and check to see what the total engagement was. I would plan on using these analytics to gauge the visibility of the message and to see how many students were reached. 

     The key message of registering to vote will be difficult to measure, so I plan on comparing numbers from last year with this year. I would also look at our social media pages to check for engagement and impressions to compare with the previous year to see if it increased or not. Hopefully, the message and campaign were successful and we had an increase in our numbers.

     For the volunteers we had who helped during the event, I would send them thank you cards. I would also make a social media post after the event to thank the volunteers and everyone who came out to register with us. Assuming it was a success, I would thank everyone who helped us meet our target goal and share the numbers in the post along with pictures from the event.

Works Cited

Sept 22, 2021 document: <a href="https://www.lwvkc.org/content.aspx?page_id=86&amp;club_id=477430&amp;item_id=111536">https://www.lwvkc.org/content.aspx?page_id=86&amp;club_id=477430&amp;item_id=111536</a> <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2017/comm/voting-rates-age.html">https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/2017/comm/voting-rates-age.html</a> <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/11/15/the-behaviors-and-attitudes-of-u-s-adults-on-twitter/pdl_11-15-21_twitter-0_5/">https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/11/15/the-behaviors-and-attitudes-of-u-s-adults-on-twitter/pdl_11-15-21_twitter-0_5/</a>

Press Release for the Event

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Jane Fonda

League of Women Voters

Janefonda@lwvkc.org

(816) 321-7654 

THE LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF KANSAS CITY HOLD VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVE AT UMKC CAMPUS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (March 13, 2023) –The League of Women Voters of Kansas City will hold a voter registration drive at UMKC campus. The event will start at 10 a.m. on Wednesday outside the main entrance of the Miller Nichols Library. Volunteers will have a table and signs encouraging students to register to vote. They will also be showing students how to check their registration online. 

Volunteers will also hand out cards with a QR code that links to the Missouri Secretary of State website where students can check the status of their registration as well as a link to the League of Women Voters website. 

The event will conclude at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 14. In the event of rain or severe weather, the drive will move inside of the UMKC Student Union by the main entrance, which is located on the corner of 51st Street and Cherry Street. 

The League of Women Voters of KC plans on returning to campus to do another voter registration drive in the fall. This will give them a chance to follow up with students who have registered and help them make a voting plan as well as help register more students. For more information, please visit https://www.lwvkc.org/

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