[Webinar] Using petitions to build your email list

April 4, 2023 | Brandon Blumenherst
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Email lists are one of the most valuable assets on any campaign. By building a large, engaged email list, you can communicate at scale easily with your supporters and encourage them to take action. But what if your email list isn’t engaged, or you want to grow your email list? Petitions may be the key for your campaign to build a more engaged email list with more supporters looking to act on specific issues. Watch our webinar about using petitions to build your email list with CivicShout CEO, Josh Nelson, and Craig Grella and Michael Murray from NGP VAN. 

Why should your campaign use petitions to build your email list? 

Petitions are an ethical and sustainable way to build your email community at scale and keep it engaged over time. They allow like-minded users to opt-in to receive future communications from your campaign, helping ensure your deliverability rates remain high to share calls to action to engaged supporters easily.  
 
Using petitions as an email acquisition tool also allows you to tag supporters with the issues that are important to them and follow up with them in the future to take action or send a fundraising appeal to support your work on that issue. After supporters sign a petition, you can direct supporters to take additional action, like signing up for a volunteer shift or donating online.  

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What types of petitions can you create to grow your email list?

Whether you’re planning to lobby a lawmaker to support or oppose a bill, push a company to adopt more climate-friendly practices, or show support or opposition to new community initiatives, petitions can be a valuable tool to drive action. You can also generate additional petitions based on current events to drive timely sign-ups from individuals looking to take action for a relevant issue or event. 

Once you create your petition, you can share it on your social media accounts, through email, or text messages, and encourage others to spread the word. These petitions can help you channel fired-up individuals to become supporters or volunteers for your organization and build your email list to generate more action in the future. 

What do you do with the information you gather from your petitions? 

Petition platforms, like CivicShout, help you grow your supporter base and email lists, but what do you do with that information afterward? Using a centralized database like NGP, you can easily set up automations and capture all the relevant engagement data in one unified location (no downloading or uploading required!) CivicShout integrates seamlessly with EveryAction, and will soon offer an NGP integration as well, saving organizations and campaigns time by uploading valuable information directly into a centralized supporter database. 

Once people sign your petition, you can act on that information to drive additional action. Campaigns and organizations can set up an engaging onboarding process for these new supporters through automations. Automations (like those available in Targeted Email and Mobile Messaging) can help you onboard and engage new supporters based on decisions they do or don’t make. For instance, you could set up an automated welcome series that sends an email to your new supporters that thanks them for supporting your campaign or cause and then asks them to volunteer or donate. These automations run continuously behind the scenes to actively engage supporters and drive more action for your campaign or organization.

As a valuable, ethical, and sustainable email acquisition tool, petitions offer a way to increase supporter engagement and raise more money by helping you build a larger and more engaged email list. Request a demo today to learn more about how NGP VAN software can help you achieve your campaign goals! 

If you are looking for more information on how to run for office, download our How to Win Your Local Election Guide!  

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Additional Resources 

Want to learn more about how NGP VAN software can support your campaign? Here are a few additional resources to help you build your email lists, engage supporters and donors, and win your race!