With our current global climate and intense pressure from leaders all over our nation recommending individuals stay at home to stop the spread of COVID-19, we are left with candidates up and down the ballot unable to communicate with 2020 General Election voters.
The Republic is in jeopardy and our Nation comes down to the 2020 Election! How can you spread your message, but not your germs with voters? CampaignHQ can help!
CampaignHQ is open and spreading the message for hundreds of candidates across the nation!
We are helping elected officials and candidates have a real-time interactive conversation with thousands of people via telephone townhall.
These telephone townhalls allow constituents to engage by asking their questions, answering polls, and voicing their opinions. By using CampaignHQ for your telephone townhalls you will receive a copy of your recording, data, and executive report shortly after your call.
With this information you have the ability to keep the conversation going even after the event has ended by having CampaignHQ send a 30 second sound file via automated call or developing an mp4 video using the same recording to text out to thousands who missed it!
CampaignHQ can help you to have the effective Voter ID, advocacy, and GOTV you planned for!
ID your voters with a quick automated survey orconTEXT peer to peer text message.Advocate for your candidate with live calls, automated calls, and conTEXT messaging. Get Out The Vote with a telephone townhall, live calls, automated calls, and conTEXT.
Whether you’re battling a global pandemic or a tough opponent, you can count on CampaignHQ to help you devise a strategy to effectively communicate with your audience.
Give me a call at (888) 722-4704, and let’s set up a time to talk.
As the country continues opening up, news headlines tell the story of an ongoing spike in Covid cases. This continues to be a challenge for traditional campaign ground-games and has led many to rethink how door-to-door and in-person events will be received.
Now more than ever, you need a Telephone Townhall strategy.
Put in the work before the event
The most active and involved participants in any telephone townhall are those who proactively dial in to the event, so focus on getting the word to people who will be interested.
Send peer-to-peer text messages, including your toll-free phone number that participants can click to join. Consider an MMS, using an image or GIF to draw focus and attention.
Email your list 48 hours in advance, and again the morning of the event.
Post on social media several times in advance and 10 minutes before the event begins. Ask followers to post and share.
Send an automated call to the people who will be receiving your outbound dial to join the event. Let them know all they need to do is simply wait by the phone and answer when you call.
Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
Approaching a telephone townhall with the same level of preparation as any in-person event will ensure it’s successful and worth the effort. CampaignHQ are the experts when it comes to:
Planning the flow and structure of questions as well as laying out the rules for the discussion and notifying the participants ahead of time are all key.
Producing quality line-by-lines and including notes for opening remarks will help guide the conversation and cover important topics.
Acting as a moderator to open the call, instruct people on how to participate, call on members of the audience for you and keeping the conversation moving forward.
Have an interesting conversation
We can help you to ensure you hold your audience with a conversation WORTH having:
Keep the conversation fast and lively.
Have responses ready for questions that are likely to come up.
Responses to each question or comment should be no longer than 2-3 minutes.
Give the audience several ways to participate. You can ask the audience their opinion with a poll question and gather email addresses.
Speak with thousands of constituents, share valuable information, and make your telephone townhall interactive and memorable.
Keep it going after the event
After your successful event, CampaignHQ can help you take it to the next level.
Now is the time to take the most valuable segments of your interactive conversation and share them with an even larger audience. Here’s how:
Use the recording of your event and a static image to create MP4 videos that you can post to your YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages. Encourage your followers to post, share, and ReTweet.
Send peer-to-peer text messages of your video, along with a link to listen to the entire event. Ask people to reply to your text to let you know what they think.
Email supporters a synopsis along with a link to listen to the entire event or pertinent clips.
In the uncharted waters of campaigning during a pandemic, spiking case numbers and open/closed communities, now more than ever telephone townhalls are a powerful, effective way to communicate your message to an audience of thousands, over the phone and online.
This strategy allows for a meaningful connection regardless of who you are: a candidate, an incumbent, an advocacy group – or what goal you have in mind: reaching voters or hosting a forum.
I was so honored to share some “expert” advice with my friends at the Prosper Group a few weeks ago.
If you don’t know them – you need to!
From their blog: “The Prosper Group is an internationally-recognized, award-winning digital marketing agency headquartered in Indianapolis, specializing in online media, strategy, and fundraising for Republican political candidates, advocacy organizations, associations, and non-profits. The Prosper Group’s best-in-industry work has been recognized for awards dozens of times by prestigious organizations such as the American Association of Political Consultants and Campaigns & Elections.
The firm has worked in tandem with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, Senator Ted Cruz, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, Congressman Will Hurd, the National Association of Manufacturers, Fox News, and many other candidates and organizations.”
As PG was discussing different opportunities to overcome voter contact challenges in the run up to Election Day, they featured a blog post from me regarding Telephone Townhalls. Here’s a sample:
Getting your audience on the line is just the first step.
Your telephone townhall is only successful if it results in actionable data on which you can follow up and drive turnout. To be successful, determine what actions you want this audience to take and inspire them to do so.
Call to action examples:
Plan to vote
Press 1 if you plan to request a mail-in ballot
Press 2 if you plan to vote in person
Press 3 if you aren’t sure
Pledge to vote
Press 1 to pledge your vote to Donald Trump + the GOP Ticket
Press 2 if you aren’t sure
Press 3 if you are voting for Joe Biden
Based on your goals, your townhall provider should create and distribute a detailed line by line agenda for the telephone townhall.
Prior to the event, make sure you conduct a thorough training on how to use the townhall platform, watch your real-time results, and communicate during the event.
I stumbled upon an article the other day that illustrates how candidates are having to really take a fresh look at how they are campaigning…
Now, like many of his colleagues, he is listening to the people online. The Republican is among growing number of the lawmakers now hosting Facebook Live town halls with constituents. His town hall and question-and-answer session lasted nearly a half-hour.
“We’re using all tools of technology,” he said. “The worst thing we can do today, in my opinion, is to not embrace that technology and to isolate ourselves.”
The past 60 days have certainly changed the way lawmakers are interacting with constituents, how first-time candidates are reaching voters and how advocacy groups are able to fortify their issue messaging.
CampaignHQ recently had the privilege of working with an advocacy group, Iowans for Tax Relief (ITR), to replace their traditional “in person” candidate forums with a telephone townhall Iowa’s HD60, a competitive open seat race in the June 2nd primary.
This telephone townhall gave two first-time candidates the opportunity to express their views and for Iowans for Tax Relief to make sure voters know where these candidates stand on state taxpayer issues.
For this event, the organization dialed out to landline phones and reached those with cellphones who opt-ed in. They also promoted the event through email and their social media, offering voters a toll-free number to dial in and listen. The most active and involved participants in any Telephone Townhall are those who proactively dial in to your event getting the word to people who will be interested is well worth your time and effort. Here are a few ideas that you might find helpful:
Send peer-to-peer text messages, including your toll-free phone number that participants can click to join. Consider an MMS, using an image or GIF to draw focus and attention.
Email your list 48 hours in advance, and again the morning of your event.
Post on social media several times in advance and 10 minutes before the event begins. Ask your followers to post and share.
Send an automated call to the people who will be receiving your outbound dial to join your event. Let them know all they need to do is simply wait by the phone and answer when you call.
ITR’s event was successful because they approached their telephone townhall with the same level of preparation as they would any in-person event. They planned the flow and structure of questions, laid out the rules for the discussion and notified the participants ahead of time. CampaignHQ can help you hold your audience with a conversation WORTH having. We’ll work with your team to develop tools such as:
A line-by-line, including notes for your opening remarks, will help guide the conversation and cover important topics. It helps to have a moderator open the call, who can instruct people on how to participate, and call on members of the audience for you.
Keep the conversation fast and lively. Have responses ready for questions you think are likely to come up. Your responses to each question or comment should be no longer than 2-3 minutes.
Give your audience several ways to participate. You can ask your audience their opinion with a poll question and gather email addresses.
At CampaignHQ, we specialize in turning communication into action through training, scripting, and real-time feedback. Once the event is over, we’ll help you make the best use of your valuable data. For example, CampaignHQ provided ITR with valuable data about their Telephone Townahll, including breakdowns on who was reached and how long they stayed on the call.
We are used to helping campaigns and organizations take it to the next level after a Telephone Townhall. Now is the time to take the most valuable segments of your interactive conversation and share them with an even larger audience. Here’s how:
Use the recording of your event and a static image to create 60 second MP4 videos that you can post to your YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter pages. Encourage your followers to post, share, and ReTweet.
Send peer-to-peer text messages of your video, along with a link to listen to the entire event. Ask people to reply to your text to let you know what they think.
Email your supporters a synopsis along with a link to listen to the entire event or pertinent clips.
Telephone Townhalls are a powerful, effective way to communicate your message to an audience of thousands, over the phone and online. They allow for a meaningful connection regardless of who you are: a candidate, an incumbent, an advocacy group – or what goal you have in mind: reaching voters, raising money, hosting a forum.
Let us help you put your goals in motion with a Telephone Townhall.
Nicole Schlinger, President of Campaign Headquarters
The team at CHQ recently hosted a webinar – How to Effectively Communicate During a Pandemic. I wanted to share some of the information with you, hopefully it’s useful for you and your team.
We have posted the full Webinar on YouTube, in case you missed it or want to go back and reference a few points. But I also posted a few short clips below to check out.
I wanted to provide you with a brief recap, starting with the Four Ways to Make the Most of the Opportunity.
1. Build a grassroots army now that you can mobilize later. Telephone petition drives are great for this – call voters, ask them to add their name to a petition. For those who agree, we collect their email address and ask them to volunteer. Right now, you have people’s attention and you can capture their information to build your supporters. (Watch short webinar clip here).
2. Introduce yourself. The best way to do this is through is peer to peer text, where you can have a two-way conversation with a voter at their convenience. You can also push a 20 second TV commercial directly to the voter’s phone, giving them a better glimpse of who you are. (Watch short webinar clip here).
Peer-to-Peer texting can help you safely collect enough signatures to get your name on the ballot.
3. Survey your audience. Use automated surveys (which are inexpensive and fast) to gather critical data on your audience. You can weed out disconnected phones and make the most of your volunteers’ time when it’s time to start doing campaign calls.
4. Have a Conversation. Telephone Townhalls create a large audience and are always a great resource when trying to update your voters on quickly changing information.
Give me a call or drop me a line if you have any questions or we can get to work on a project for you today. 1-888-722-4704 or nicole@chq.us.
