Advertising during the election season can be a challenge as political ads use up the majority of airtime. As a result,  it might be difficult to find a time slot, but there are other ways to keep your business in front of your audience. You will need to be strategic if you want to stay ahead of competitors and remain consistent across multiple marketing channels.

If you want to maintain advertising consistency during the political season, then consider the following. These alternatives to TV advertising can help ensure your campaign doesn’t skip a beat during the election year.

1. OTT

Over-the-top (OTT) advertising is a great way to remain competitive and keep your business in the spotlight. While traditional TV ads might be harder to secure during election season, OTT ads can reach people through their TVs using a myriad of streaming platforms. You can also monitor stats in real-time and make instant changes to your creative. 

With OTT ads, you are likely to reach just as many, if not more, viewers, particularly younger ones. On average an OTT user spends more than two hours on a daily basis streaming content. The same report found that Millennials subscribing to even a single OTT service watch twice as much content as they do when watching live TV. OpenX also determined that 72% of OTT users recall specific ads, often because they're repeated several times during the same viewing sessions or over the course of multiple sessions.

Not only will advertising over streaming services help you with consistency, but it also gives you a chance to get your business in front of even more potential customers.

2. Email Campaigns

Email marketing remains one of the best ways to connect with prospects, leads, and existing customers at every stage of the sales funnel. Email is successful at leading people along their buyings journey, but it's also effective at increasing customer retention. Business professionals, 80% in fact, believes email marketing is responsible for increased retention.

When launching an email marketing campaign, you could start by encouraging people to sign up for your email list from your landing pages. From there,  begin sending relevant educational content via weekly emails that inform audiences. Topics would be specific to users based on the campaign they're in, which means you'd be sending only the content that interests them. Over time, leads would begin to trust you and consider your products or services as you educate them about your offerings. When it comes time to make that final buying decision, the lead is more likely to convert. After that initial sale, you can continue to promote offers, discounts, and additional content keeping that customer coming back.

Email marketing is a great medium to keep your brand top-of-mind with consumers during the election year. While airtime might be filled with political ads, sending your company’s latest updates directly to their inbox will help ensure your message gets seen.

3. Lifestyle Segments 

If you want to reach audiences throughout the Greater Kansas City area, Better Kansas City lifestyle segments can help you connect with the community. Better Kansas City are lifestyle segments which run in our 9AM news, Monday thru Friday.  These segments highlight what makes the city a great place to live, work, and play. 

The show often advertises local businesses not just within the segments, but also via social media. KCTV5 News at 9AM  has many loyal viewers who are interested in what the city has to offer. If you have a local business that needs more promotion, these lifestyle segments can help compensate for other TV ads throughout the election. In addition to getting more airtime by advertising during the show, it gives you more time to get viewers familiar with your brand.

4. Homepage Takeovers

Home page takeovers can be an effective means of putting your business at the forefront of people's attention. Homepage takeovers entail temporarily "taking over" another website's home page to advertise your business, with a design that matches your brand and messaging. For example, you might notice when IMDb promotes a new film by modifying the design of their home page or others to reflect the theme of the film. Sometimes a site like ESPN.com might promote a particular sponsor through home page takeovers, as well.

Homepage takeovers can be a great way to increase click-through rates and encourage more people to visit your website. If you manage to land a takeover on a website that many people regularly visit and trust, this could lend a tremendous amount of credibility to your brand and help keep eyes on you during the election season. 

5. Sponsorships

Sponsorships are among the best ways to increase brand awareness and maximize revenue, either through TV or other platforms. Sports sponsorships in particular are extremely effective at getting attention and generating sales. In 2018, sports sponsorships brought in $17.7 billion dollars in revenue, and that number is projected to grow to $22.2 billion by 2022. 

A majority of revenue from sports sponsorships comes from TV ads, while digital marketing efforts and other offline campaigns can supplement those ads. Of course, there are many other sponsorship opportunities out there beyond sports which include media, financial, and promotional sponsorships. These opportunities will help keep your brand messaging consistent during the political season.

6. Social Media

Today, you're missing out on a majority of audiences if you're neglecting to use social media for marketing. Over half of the earth's population currently uses social media, with 2019 alone bringing in 321 million people to reach a total of 3.8 billion users in 2020. That's a 9% increase from the 3.48 billion users on social media the previous year. Figure out where your audiences like to spend their time, whether it's on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, and launch campaigns on these platforms to promote your company and engage with users.

All of these channels can be extremely effective in compensating for a loss of TV ad space during the political season. However, it's important to maintain advertising consistency on every platform if you want to increase traffic, engagement, and sales. Working with a reliable media partner can help you get the most from your ad campaigns, with consistent creative that maximize your reach and influence, even when politics are taking over the airwaves.