How to run an effective local or devolved elections action: a checklist

Local and devolved elections are a huge opportunity for campaigners to influence decision-makers, but only if your email to target action is clear, relevant and easy to engage with for both your target and your supporters.

Here’s our practical checklist to help you design an engaging email to target action with impact. This checklist combines practical tips with lessons from our recent research into what makes advocacy actions effective.

Start with a realistic, relevant ask

When developing an action, start with a very clear call to action. Think about:

  • Is this something this candidate can actually influence?
  • Does it sit within the powers of a local authority or devolved parliament? If not, they can’t do anything about it.
  • Is it specific enough to act on? 
  • Is it clear what I’m asking them to do? (Put it early in your email or even the subject line).

Key takeaway: If you’re targeting devolved governments (e.g. the Scottish Parliament or Senedd Cymru), make sure your ask reflects candidates’ actual responsibilities and interests, not Westminster’s.

Make the message clearly relevant to your target

Candidates are far more likely to engage when email messages feel relevant to them and their work. Make sure you tailor your message to the target, for example by:

  • Reflecting their position or their role (candidate vs incumbent, their position in their party, role on committees, etc)
  • Reference local context or impact - why does this issue matter locally?
  • Consider adding the name of the constituency or supporter’s town in the subject line or email body, so the target can see the message from a constituent.

Key takeaway: Messages should feel relevant to local context and reflect why the target should care. Messages that are not tailored to the target’s role or constituency are unlikely to be effective.

Help supporters to personalise messages

Aim for quality, personalised messages over volume. If every message looks identical, they’re easier for your target or their team to dismiss.

To increase impact, try to make it easy for supporters to personalise their message. You can do this by asking supporters to explain why the issue matters to them and including their answer in a template email. You could:

  • Prompt supporters to add a personal line or story
  • Ask a simple question and insert their answer into the message
  • Let them tweak the subject line or opening sentence
  • Ask supporters to choose which issue is most important to them, and offer draft email copy highlighting that topic.

Key takeaway: Pushing up the number of personalised messages should be a priority. Many charities are not utilising the power of personalised messages to targets. In our survey, only 14% of campaigners were confident that over half of supporter messages were personalised during their recent email to target actions.

Keep your call to action simple and focused

If your ask isn’t clear and compelling, supporters are less likely to take your action. Your supporter should instantly understand:

  • What they’re being asked to do
  • Why it matters now
  • Who they’re contacting and why

Also make sure:

  • You get to the point quickly
  • If you’re running actions across different nations or regions, create clear, separate landing pages for each area.

Avoid:

  • Overloading the action with multiple asks
  • Adding long or complex explanations before the action
  • Having generic pages that don’t feel relevant
  • Using policy language that’s hard for most supporters (or busy decision makers) to digest.

Make sure your messages actually arrive in the target’s inbox

You need to make sure your target actually receives the emails in their inbox, and that they’re easy to read and respond to. For example:

  • Emails shouldn’t come from a single, generic email address. It should be one email address per constituent. Impact Stack handles this for you.
  • The “from” address should accept replies, not just a reply-to
  • Include your charity’s name somewhere so candidates can follow up
  • Keep emails simple, avoiding heavy HTML templates or a lot of formatting.

Key takeaway: If your emails don’t look or behave like real messages, they’re less likely to be read, or even delivered properly. Don't work hard on a campaign action and risk it not being delivered to the target’s email box.

Consider whether email is the best delivery method

Email to target is a powerful campaigning tool, but it’s not always the only (or best) option and you should think carefully about how you use it.

Think about:

  • The timing of the send, when is the best time to reach the candidate to influence them? (What else is happening at the time?)
  • Phased delivery (e.g. waves of messages over time, rather than sending them all at once)
  • Digest formats instead of instant sends
  • Collect messages to deliver later to each candidate, e.g using Match to Target
  • Does each candidate have a publicly available email address? If not, how will you deliver messages to them instead?
  • Combining with other tactics (social media, media, supporters in-person meetings). Do the action in conjunction with other activities so you’re coming at your target from multiple angles.
  • Is there a creative way to deliver supporter messages to get attention? For example, single parent support charity Gingerbread's action used Impact Stack's Match to Target action type to collect messages from supporters ready to deliver them to new MPs after the election, along with a gingerbread person and information on how Gingerbread's resources can help with the MP's casework.

Nudge supporters who don’t take action

No one opens and reads all their promotional email, so make sure you send chasers. Remember to:

  • Send a reminder
  • Test different framing or urgency
  • Highlight urgency and what’s important

Reminder emails are still underused by charities, and are a great way to get the most out of your existing supporter base. Only 14% of the organisations who had asked a supporter to take a campaign action sent even a single reminder or chaser during the period we looked at in our recent survey.

Plan for what happens after the action

What happens after a supporter has sent a message? Think about:

  • Supporters who have taken your action are often likely to take a follow-up action. What can you ask them to do? E.g. Meet with the politician? Come to an event? Make a donation?
  • How can supporters pass on responses from candidates?
  • How will you report back to supporters on how this action went?

The goal is for supporters to build a relationship with the successful candidate. Make sure you’re offering next steps for action takers to take, and reporting back on how this action went - and what you’re planning next.

Want to build actions that engage and influence decision makers?


The most effective election actions don’t just generate volume. They deliver personalised, engaging messages that actually arrive in your  targets’ email box. And you need powerful software that allows you to do this.

Impact Stack is built to make sure that your supporter emails land safely in targets’ inboxes in a format that they can handle and respond to.

And they need to reach the right person, once you have a UK postcode, the supporter record is automatically matched with the UK constituency, devolved nation and council area.

Book your free Impact Stack demo now.

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