VoteByMail in Florida + Effct | Increasing VoteByMail Applications

How we reached 180K voters in Florida, resulting in 240 completed mail-in ballot applications

Voting accessibility

At Effct we’ve made it our mission to address voter accessibility by removing barriers often used for voter suppression across the country. We believe that if we elevate the voices left out of our Democracy we are empowering more voters to be heard, thus making our society better for everyone.

Our partnership with VotebyMail.io has enabled us to reach disenfranchised voters with a practical tool that gives them an alternative to in-person voting by applying to vote via mail-in ballot.

VoteByMail.io’s state-of-the-art technology, developed by lead engineers at Google and Nike, gives voters an online application to register for a mail-in ballot in less than 2 minutes. Following the application's approval, a ballot is delivered directly to their door.

In many states across the country, “no excuse” voting by mail doesn’t equal “easy access” to vote by mail.

Our partnership with Votebymail.io is a simple way to enable all voters to apply for their mail-in ballot.

Our campaign in Florida

In Hillsborough County, Florida, we used digital to reach and lead voters to apply for a mail-in ballot through VoteByMail.io.

Through a combination of engaging creative and sophisticated targeting, we instilled trust for the VoteByMail.io online application and compelled voters to complete the online form. Given we had a short window and a limited budget to deploy this targeting campaign we chose to geographically focus on one county in Florida and use two methods of outreach: social media and text messaging. We used Facebook for brand awareness and legitimacy to drive traffic and conversions for application submissions; and texting for reaching sourced and segmented Hillsborough County voters.

These efforts resulted in over 180,000 voters reached, and 240 applications submitted. Our most successful channel was text messaging where we achieved a cost-per-conversion of $5.

Effct.org has proven experience in converting Vote by Mail online registrations as low as $1.19 evidenced by our work Civic Nebraska. Our work in Florida with VoteByMail.io provided us with a deeper understanding of how to effectively convert online applications from voters.

Connect With Effct

Votebymail.io's partnership with Effct.org was a tremendous experience. Working with Uriel and the Effct team enabled us to reach voters in Florida with our easy-to-use Vote By Mail ballot application. Effct's fast-paced work ethic and their attention to detail ensured that we were targeting underserved voters who benefit the most from a vote by mail option. Their metric centric approach to digital targeting allowed us to maximize the resources we had available and compel the maximum number of voters to apply for a mail-in ballot. We are excited to continue to work with them in order to make voting more accessible for all voters.

Brett Clark

Votebymail.io

By the Numbers

180,000

Voters Reached

1,403

Unique Website Visitors

240

Applications completed

$5.28

Cost per Completed Application via text

Digital Tactics

Targeted Text Messaging

Effct created and managed a text messaging campaign that sent 21,189 voters messages and garnered 92 application form submissions, at a cost of $13.22 per VoteByMail submission. Our high-quality data helped us reach reply rates of 16%.

Targeted Social Media

Facebook proved to be a good channel to target voters with brand awareness and conversion ads. Through it, we were able to get 3,582 total clicks and 1,894 conversions. In total we reached 163,841 voters

which resulted in 148 VoteByMail submissions.

Targeted

Re-Targeting

The landing page's overall bounce rate was 58.89%, which is above the industry average. However, the data also reflected that 69% of website visitors that entered their zip code never completed the application. We then proceeded to retarget those individuals with specific ads which proved to be effective.