Your Tools for Creating The Perfect Virtual Campaign Event
The COVID-19 pandemic swept our entire world and changed it in a matter of only a few weeks. Restaurants, bars and gyms closed down. Schools decided students and teachers were better off not convening together. Stay at home orders were issued. People were no longer allowed to go to work. Pretty much everything moved to an online platform. Zoom and Google Meet had their use numbers skyrocket. Meetings and happy hours are now being held via videoconferencing. Real estate companies began using things like Facebook Live and Zoom to do virtual house showings. Business had to figure out a way to make sure they could keep going even though everyone in the office had to work from home. With everyone moving over to solely online work, it seems like your political campaign should follow suit.
How does all of this affect your political campaign?
Across the nations, politicians have begun conducting virtual town hall-style events and overall virtual campaigning. Presidential candidate Joe Biden and former Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders have both used this style of campaigning. State candidates across the nation have also adopted this style of campaigning. Bernie Sanders held his typical campaign rally. He invited young musicians and notable names that his younger demographic would be attracted to, as he normally does. The only difference...it was all held online. Supporters could watch from the comfort of their own home and still show up to show their loyalty to Sanders.
Joe Biden has also tried his hand at virtual town halls. While Sanders approached the online platform with finesse and grace, Biden seems to have had some hiccups. Biden’s team has had full intention to create an intimate platform via Zoom but technically difficulties made the approach slow going.
The only difference here is experience vs. inexperience. It would seem that Sanders’ team had more experience with online presence than Biden’s team did. If you are looking to venture into online campaigning, don’t fear the platforms. By spending time becoming familiar with them and surrounding yourself with a team of people that is also experienced in online platforms, you will be able to go into virtual campaigning with no trouble.
What Does A Virtual Campaign Event Look Like?
The scope of politics has to change entirely...at least for right now. Right now is probably not the time for backbiting, fighting between candidates, attack politics if you will. Instead people want to see campaigns that are here to serve. What are candidates and incumbents doing to keep constituents safe? Instead of going forth with your “need”, look for the needs of constituents. A big win that supporters like to see is candidates becoming involved at food banks (especially right now) or having their staffers involved at these places. It shows that you, as the candidate, care more about the pressing issues at hand rather than just your political campaign. Constituents want to see real people in office not just groomed politicians of the past.
Door to door canvassing is not a viable option right now and we are unsure if it even will be this election cycle. While this had become one of the best ways to reach people, things have to shift for a moment. The front porch is now virtual. Text messages, emails, robocalls and ringless voicemail messages are becoming increasingly used. Add that to Zoom happy hours for donors, virtual town halls, tele-town halls,and digital trainings for volunteers, and you’ve got a plethora of campaigning going on. It doesn’t stop there though! Technology provides so many different services to help give your campaign a much-needed boost.
Robocalls, Text Messages, Ringless Voicemail Drops
So now that you have all the information and what it will look like; the next question to answer is: how do you execute it? That’s where we come in. Here at Robocent our team of experts has a handle on the best way to get people engaged.
Robocalls: Robocalls have been proven as effective voter contact for every political organization.Our service takes a unique recording and sends the message to everyone in your specific target voter universe. When the automated call dials the phone and the callee answers, the recording will play for them to hear. Our AutoDials use VoIP (voice over internet protocol) technology to deliver the message with crystal clear audio quality.
Text Messaging: instead of relying on an Opt-In list of voters to contact with an automated text, we manually target voters in your district via SMS. RoboCent uses a real human to send messages to your list. We will work with your campaign to craft the optimal message to get the highest response rate from voters in your district. The real difference in our manual SMS Connect vs an automated text campaign comes in the back and forth dialogue. When a voter texts you back to say thanks, our staff will manually and individually respond to that voter with a unique message. We also don’t have to have prior consent from the voter to text them, it’s just like having a volunteer at the campaign headquarters manually phone banking!
Ringless Voicemail Drops: Ringless Voicemail Drops are the newest technology in the industry and used to directly target cell phones, without ever ringing the phone. When provided with a call list, RoboCent will remove all the landline numbers, keeping just the cell phones. It works by establishing a server-to-server communication directly with the callees voicemail platform, circumventing the need to dial the recipient. A telephone call is never made to the cell phone, instead, using a drop delivery system.
Each of these can be utilized for virtual campaigning in so many different ways. For example, let’s say you had a digital training followed by a day of action coming up for campaign volunteers. You could start out by sending a text message to your list of contacts. Let them know the details: what’s happening, which online platform and ask if you will see them there. As you receive replies, your staffers can manually respond with replies and engage volunteers in conversation.
A week to a few days before the event set up a robocall to give a holler to all the volunteers that have RSVP’d to come. We are sure they would love a message from you, the candidate, to really get them motivated to attend.
A day or two before the event try a Ringless Voicemail Drop. Since it is now very close to your event, no need to robocall the folks attending again. Simply send a RVM that will find itself nicely in their voicemail box. It’s a quick and easy reminder for them to join on with you and find out the next steps for the campaign.
There are so many different ways that you can incorporate our services at Robocent. Let our experts help you mix and match the best way to reach out to your supporters and show them that you’re with them through every single issue that could arise.
To Recap
To understand the state of politics today, you have to simply look right outside your day. Traditional ground game has gone out the window - there are no house meetings to attend, no fundraisers to appear at and although doors might be there door knocking has all but died down. Simple terms, campaigning has pretty much stopped. But it may only look like that; it truly has not. When candidates continue to work via virtual platforms, they are continuing to have their voice and name put out there. Take a look at our Presidential hopefuls and follow their lead. They have taken the time to find the best way to reach their supporters and stay connected with them. It would benefit your campaign greatly to do the same.
There are so many options for virtual campaigning. Technology has made so much possible and we are grateful we have these means during these crazy times. By utilizing robocalls, text messaging and ringless voicemail drops, your campaign can continue to reach constituents and win their vote. You can use these tools to invite supporters to Zoom happy hour or to attend a virtual town hall where you can discuss the state of your district. Digital trainings are a great way to get volunteers involved and this method will allow them to stay connected to your campaign. Just because the world “stopped” doesn’t mean your political career has to suffer.
*Contact us today and we can show you how Robocent will be there for your campaign through anything! *