There are several reasons why people decide not to partake in an election. One of the most frequent is, “It doesn’t make a difference anyway!” This is a short sentence with a large statement behind it. Because if you listen closer, at least part of this sentence is claiming, “I myself cannot change anything.”
Getting to the root of the matter is certainly not easy, but possible. After all, it comes down to your communication with the voters – and you have them in your hand.
In our series of articles “10 Tips to Increase Voter Participation” we explain to you how you can fine tune your communication to motivate voters. Let’s begin!
TIP 1: THE FUNCTIONAL APPROACH
“It’s not enough to address a topic. One has to address the people.” – Stanislaw Jerzey Lec, Polish author-
A functional approach on its own can have great effect. What does that mean? Let’s take an example from a typical day in the office:
The executive of a company is sending an email to his team with the prompt for ideas for a new campaign (Example 1). He will certainly receive a response from some of his workers, but not all of them. Some of them just don’t have the time, categorise a mass email as unimportant, or think that they don’t have much to contribute to a campaign.
Example 1:
Dear Team, on the lookout for new ideas, we need your support!
Yet if he sends emails to individual departments and makes the connection to the respective team function (example 2), more replies will land in his inbox.
Example 2:
Dear Design Team, do you have any visual input for our new campaign?
Why is it like that?
It’s simple: By employing a functional approach, he incorporates the individual teams into the creative process. He conveys that every opinion is important and all departments can contribute.
And what does that have to do with an election?
When it comes to an election, allocation of roles can motivate people during the greeting and in the text. Address voters as “Dear Voter”, for instance, and you form a direct connection between the person addressed and their function as a voter.
Much like the team members from the aforementioned company, the recipients are told the following: “You are the person voting, and you have the cards in your hand. This is because you are part of the whole.”
Using the role of the recipient while addressing them forms identity. And this is what will contribute to more voters making use of their right to vote.
Picture source: Pixabay.com