Today’s highly charged political climate has created an increased emphasis on rallying and securing voters and supporters. Outreach is more important than ever before. And, when done correctly, will provide the necessary data to support a successful political campaign. Over time, political dialing has proven to be an effective way to reach voters and potential supporters.
We’ll look at the ways outbound political dialing campaigns are helpful, how political dialing differs from other outbound dialing campaigns, types of effective scripts, and dialing methods used to contact voters.
How Are Outbound Political Dialing Campaigns Helpful?
Outbound political dialing campaigns are an effective and important method of outreach in today’s political campaigns. Potential voters receive bombardments of messages in all forms of media, including online, television, print, and others. Reaching out directly via phone is an opportunity to break through the clutter. This ensures the right voters are hearing your message and have the opportunity to get involved.
Political dialing campaigns have the potential to reach more voters with the support of targeted software and other technology. Phone calls provide an opportunity to gather vital voter information and gauge support for your candidate. Once you have identified the voters most likely to support your candidate, phone campaigns help you quickly communicate messages about appearances, rallies, events, and more to thousands of people.
Phone campaigns are a useful motivational tool and provide a personal touch to politics. Fundraising and volunteer recruitment efforts will see a boost through one-on-one conversations. In addition, people may be more likely to donate their money or time when they feel like a campaign represents their best interests.
How Does Political Dialing Differ from Other Campaign Methods?
There are laws around political dialing campaigns and they differ from other campaign methods. The main difference is in how to deliver the message to the voter.
For example, the FCC allows campaign robocalls to landline phones, but cell phones and other digital devices require prior consent from the party. On the other hand, political texts may be sent to potential voters regardless of consent. In traditional outbound campaigns, texts follow the same rules as robocalling.
If you are going to use prerecorded voice message calls of any kind, be sure to address the following information:
- You must state clearly the identity of the business, individual, or entity initiating the call at the start of the message.
- You must provide the phone number of the calling party during or after the message.
Additionally, political dialing campaigns do not require scrubbing against the Do Not Call list. Rules also vary by state so it is important to be aware of any specific provisions or regulations for your area.
What Type of Scripts Are Most Effective?
In order to communicate the right message, an effective script goes a long way. The caller should be personable, while conveying a message that resonates with the voter on the end of the line. The script must tailor to the voter based on the purpose of the call. The following are examples of some campaign scripts:
- Voter identification – intended to reach as many people as possible, while identifying voters and any issues that are important to them.
- Volunteer recruitment – intended to reach established supporters of your candidate. These should be interactive and engage in a conversation about items of concern to the voter which may be important enough to make the voter want to volunteer.
- Voter persuasion – used to sway undecided voters to support your candidate; can serve as a connection point to stay in contact about your candidate.
- Get out the vote – intended to increase voter turnout and motivate voters to go to the polls.
How Are You Contacting Voters?
Identifying the voters you would like to reach is an essential step in developing your political dialing campaign. Before calling potential voters to gather information, gauge support, and begin fundraising, it is important to understand who you are targeting.
Your call list should consider factors such as election type, political party affiliation, and demographics. Demographic elements might include income, education level, marital status, and occupation.
Determining how to contact your voters is another key consideration to your political dialing campaign. Whether manual or automated, the method by which you deliver your campaign message may depend on the election type, your list, and available resources.
- Manual dialing allows calls to cell phones, while volunteers can utilize printed scripts to follow. However, the manual calling process is slow and tedious. In addition, data collection becomes a manual process through this type of dialing.
- Automated calling allows for many calls to be made in a short amount of time. There is no need to coordinate any data collection as it is automated through a CRM tool. However, automated dialing campaigns cannot call cell phones, and it is costlier than manual calling.
Candidates benefit from outreach to the right voters at the right time. As such, political dialing campaigns have the potential to be a beneficial outreach technique. Understanding how political dialing campaigns can reach the right voters with the right message will help set your candidate up for success. Establishing a well-defined plan, including identified goals, at the outset of your political dialing campaign is likely to yield great outcomes.
