Thursday, October 11, 2012
By Carl Foster
If ever there was a year where technology was going to move democracy, 2012 is it. With an unprecedented amount of money being spent to sway the outcome of the election, the side that utilizes new technologies will position themselves for success in November.
It seems since the election season for 2012 is heading into the home stretch in the next couple of months that it would be fitting to examine all the uses that a political campaign might get out of CallFire’s various services. These best practice tips will help you leverage technology trends to get more of your supporters to the polls:
Voice & SMS Broadcasts
Text marketing tactics are not just for businesses. These services are both relatively simple to set up and to fun, so it’s no wonder that these are the ones that most campaigns make the most out of. Not only can the candidates use them to articulate their platform and policy stances, but these services are especially effective during the time critical GOTV period of the campaign to get their supporters to the polls. In fact, campaigns can send out blasts reminding voters that the date to vote is drawing closer and then provide the location of, directions to, and hours of operations for the polling places.
Getting setup with text messaging is as easy getting a keyword on the CallFire short code and having voters and supporters text the short code to opt in. A campaign can purchase the keyword phrase “GOTV Ride,” which their supporters can text in to be connected to a field organizer to organize a ride to the polls.
Cloud Call Center
This autodialer service is perfect for those seeking office and wanting to put a more personal touch on their broadcasts. Since most campaigns have office workers or volunteers who put major time in on the phones, our power dialer service can effectively turn a team of 4 into a group of 40 as far as call volume is concerned. This substantially increases the likelihood of being able to contact likely voters for conducting live questionnaires or conducting voter outreach calls. CallFire has the capability to expand this service to include hundreds of agents
IVRs
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems are a very handy tool to build navigable surveys and candidate introductions. CallFire offers tools to make building IVRs for automated surveys or virtual receptionists that are very easy and user-friendly to utilize. If your campaign needs a more complex IVR or if you find that you have more creativity than time, CallFire does take requests to build users’ IVRs for them. There is no charge for this amenity, but it is also first come first serve…so do make sure you allow sufficient time for the phone tree to be built to your specifications. We can also integrate your own messages into your phone tree as well so the candidate has the option of articulating their platform stances in his or her own voice.
The key to any successful campaign for public office is the ability to deliver a clear and consistent message. With CallFire, the services are available to get that message out to the public as effectively and as economically as possible.