Digital Door Knocking: Why Segmented Messaging Wins Elections
- Jaegar Laird
- Jun 19
- 7 min read
Would You Knock on Every Door With the Same Script?
Author: Jaegar Laird, Social Media & Political Consultant
Contact: jaegar@rogueconsultingco.com
Note: Rogue Advantage (www.rogueadvantage.com) is a digital political consulting firm based in Atlantic Canada. We’re proud to serve and support the Progressive Conservative Party of Nova Scotia, the Conservative Party of Canada, and related organizations.
Table of Contents
Introduction: From Exposure to ROI
Why posting for the sake of it won’t cut it—and what to do instead.
What Private Sector Marketing Gets Right
How companies target smarter and what political campaigns can learn from them.
Doorknocking vs. Posting
Your field game adapts in real-time. Why doesn’t your digital?
Real Campaigns, Real ROI
Proof that segmented messaging works—from vote jumps to flipped ridings.
Conclusion: Campaign like it’s 2025
How to bring real targeting into your campaign before the writ drops.
Our Expertise at Rogue Advantage
Find out how we can help implement digital strategies.
Introduction: From Exposure to ROI
What drives your online presence? Is it for views, followers, being told to do so, or all of the above? Let me be clear: turning digital activity into voters should drive what you do online.
Private sector and political digital marketing are out of sync. The private sector is meticulous about advertising to the right potential buyer. Politicians aren’t as concerned about putting their posts in front of the right people. More often than not they blast a single message to every voter.
I get that it takes less time to post and walk away, but it would also be less time consuming to recite a scripted message to every door regardless of neighbourhood or voting history. Digital tools like ads, search engine optimization, and segmented messaging are cheap, accessible, but not yet used by many politicians. These tools are used by businesses though–the private sector expects a return on investment (ROI) from their advertising, and they get their ROI online.
The reality is that politicians win and politicians lose, and as they hit the barbeque circuit this summer, they’re acutely aware that the campaign starts before the writ drops. The time to start converting your digital following into voters is now.
Instead of just posting, we can reach 1,000 people for $3-7. And instead of hoping they reach the right people, we can narrow down the audience based on location, age, sex, interest, and more. Our results from past campaigns show that this approach is working.
Simply put: we don’t need more posts, we need the right posts going to the right people.
What Private Sector Marketing Gets Right
The private sector is meticulous about reaching the right people with their ads. By narrowing their audience based on location, age, sex, interest, occupation, and past page activity, they can target specific customers.
Here is a simple example. If I was selling cribs with the private sector approach to digital advertising, I’d want to advertise to women between the ages of 20-40 who are interested in baby related content. I don’t want to pay to show my crib ads to 70 year old men. After I publish the ad, I can view how many people visited my website or bought a crib directly from my Meta dashboard. Digital marketing is a powerful tool, and companies take advantage of it. Companies expect a ROI from their advertising, and they get it online.
If I were to use the politician’s approach to selling cribs, I’d post a picture of me and the crib with a thumbs up. No ads, no targeting, and hopefully my post is seen by more potential mothers than 70 year old men. There’s no focus on conversion, only exposure.
Posting has its place and I don’t want to discourage it. Think of it as an echo chamber. For those already following you, they may see the post on their feed. If they share it with their friends it will get additional views. Likes and comments on a post encourage algorithms to promote that content. Some posts do very well because everyone can interact with them, but that success isn’t indicative of much. These people may be outside of your constituency, and you’re only gaining exposure. It’s hard to convert people into voters with posting.
Campaigns are unaware that vanity metrics such as likes on a post don’t mean much for conversions. In the next section I’ll compare door-knocking to an online presence and explain how campaigns can apply their expertise in the former to the latter.
Door-knocking vs. Posting
When you door-knock, what runs through your head when you go up the driveway?
When I volunteer I look at their house, yard, vehicle, porch and I make adjustments. When I saw a big truck and kids toys in the yard, I’d prepare to talk about the cost of child care and affordability in general. If a senior answered the door, I wouldn’t talk about the affordability of a new home. If a young person answers the door, I wouldn’t mention how we want to lower the retirement age.
The problem with posts is that each of these groups gets fed the same message. Unsurprisingly if I posted all four messages the affordability message would resonate the best with every group because it’s the broadest, but that doesn’t win. This approach has two main problems.
First, political views are dynamic. If the past few provincial, federal, and even US presidential elections have collectively proven anything, it’s that voter coalitions are constantly shifting. Posting a unified message could be like shooting blindly at a moving target. People are getting turned off by basic unified political messaging.
Secondly, consider the principle of diminishing marginal utility. This concept comes from economics and it states that for each unit of X consumed, the additional satisfaction gained from each extra unit decreases. The first hamburger is better than the second. Every view should count, or else you risk swamping or alienating potential voters with constant messaging that misses the mark. We can take a more precise approach and target the right people at the right time to avoid this problem.
Instead of having to balance having a broad message with making an impact, we can frame an issue like affordability differently for young people, young families, and seniors by blending broad messaging with targeted messaging, too.
As politicians hit the barbeque circuit this summer, they’re aware that the campaign starts before the writ drops. Some dedicate one day a week to door-knocking while in office so that the campaign never really stops.
With that in mind, now is a great time to experiment with what groups in your constituency engage online, where they are, who they are, and how we can get their vote. The airwaves are jammed during election time, but it’s not so noisy right now. Take advantage of this space and breathing room to build your online presence now.
Real Campaigns, Real ROI
Scott Armstrong, Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley: Location
In Colchester-Musquodoboit Valley, former Conservative MP and provincial newcomer Scott Armstrong used location based targeting to engage with a community regarding a hyper-specific issue. When door-knocking he discovered that residents were having issues with an intersection nearby. Rather than posting a video to his whole following, we ran a targeted ad to that community and the surrounding area showcasing Scott at the intersection explaining what he would do. The ad received noticeable engagement and provided a direct line of communication with affected community members.
Dr. Stephen Ellis, Cumberland-Colchester: Age
In Cumberland–Colchester, Conservative incumbent Stephen Ellis increased his vote count by over 4,100 votes, a 22% jump from 2021 to 2025. Instead of relying on a single broad message, we ran different ads for different voters based on age. Younger voters saw housing messaging. Seniors saw content about CPP and retirement. Facebook was used to reach older demographics, while Instagram carried youth-facing content. The tone, platform, and pitch were all adjusted, just like they would be at the door.
Brycen Jenkins, Central Nova: Interest/Engagement
In Central Nova, first-time candidate Brycen Jenkins increased the Conservative vote by over 60%. Interest-based targeting let us zero in on fishers and working-class voters who didn’t follow the campaign page and weren’t glued to political coverage. We also re-engaged people who had liked, shared, or commented on earlier posts. In effect, we built a digital follow-up list for that specific issue.
All of these campaigns blended posting and targeted ads to deliver their message and increase the number of voters.
Our Expertise at Rogue Advantage
These strategies aren’t industry standard for a reason: they take time, skill, and precision. That’s what Rogue Advantage delivers.
Rogue Advantage gives your campaign the digital edge to win. Unlike traditional agencies, we bring private-sector expertise, AI-driven insights, and real-time strategy without the bloated costs.
When it comes to having a digital advantage and winning, the numbers speak for themselves.
15 custom-built political websites launched.
230,000+ engaged voters through precisely targeted ads.
83% of our retained clients won their elections.
What We Offer
Election Cycle | Between Elections |
Voter Identification & GOTV • Build voter lists using data from targeted messaging • Integrate social media profiles with existing voter profiles • Deliver targeted turnout messages to identified supportersElection Digital Strategy • Integrated campaign messaging • Competitor & issue tracking • Weekly reports & voter insights • 24/7 crisis response Social & Media Listening • AI-powered monitoring of voter sentiment • Track opposition attacks before they escalate • Data-driven insights to refine campaign strategy Political Ad Strategy & Execution • Facebook, Instagram, Google, and more • Precision targeting by geography & demographics • Real-time ad performance adjustments | Social Media Growth & Strategy • Expand your audience & influence • Competitor monitoring & strategic content planning • Bi-monthly engagement & analytics Website Development & Security • Custom-built campaign sites optimized for voter engagement • SEO-friendly design to rank higher on Google • Donation platform & email list integration Social Media Training Course • Build platform skills on Facebook, Instagram, and Canva • Learn about effective copywriting, content planning & political storytelling • Includes digital GOTV, analytics, and best practices tailored for your campaign and constituency |
Get in touch with us today.
If your social media strategy ends with a post, you’re leaving votes on the table. We help you win online—before, during, and after election day.
Wade MacCallum, Founder
Email: wade@rogueconsultingco.com
Phone: (902) 401-9775
About Jaegar Laird
Jaegar is passionate about politics, communications, and strategy. He has worked as a Page in the Nova Scotia Legislature and as a Political Assistant to an MLA, gaining firsthand insight into politics and government. He's been a key member of campaign teams where he has implemented digital strategies, crafted targeted ad campaigns, and pushed a winning message. Jaegar studies Economics and Political Science at Dalhousie University. In his spare time he enjoys photography, and playing guitar, bass, and drums.
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