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Voice Broadcasting Auto Dialers
Using our PACER and WIZARD phone systems, we can broadcast voice messages and service announcements to your clients and community. Phone call messages can be automatically generated using our XML Push technology.
Our phone message service can place one call or millions of calls. Pre-recorded messages can be played to either individuals and answering machines or just to individuals. Different messages can be played to an answering machine versus an individual.
Contact DSC today. to learn more about our voice broadcasting service and auto dialer phone systems.
Does Voice Broadcasting Work?
The following is an extract from the article "Using telephones: does broadcast voice messaging work?" by Mary Norwood, President of One Call Systems Inc.
"When first-time candidate Julia Emmons was running for an Atlanta City Council At-Large seat, she used a cross between a radio spot and a telephone call to gain name recognition among her constituents. She won the election. When the City of Atlanta faced a tough referendum for a one percent local option sales tax, the city used the same communications tool to reach voters. The city's sales tax passed.
What voters were hearing and acting upon were brief, action-oriented recorded messages. Early in the campaign neighbors got calls from their friends inviting them to meet Ms. Emmons; during the get-out-the-vote effort, voters heard prominent community leaders support her. Called broadcast voice messaging, it delivers the message - and the vote - for pennies.
Broadcast voice messaging (BVM) delivers a personally recorded telephone message to hundreds or thousands of voters. Used correctly, it is the ultimate targeting tool. With broadcast voice messages, you are able to send exactly the right message to exactly the right people at exactly the right time by exactly the right person. You control:
- 1) The content of the message
- 2) The delivery of the message
- 3) The quality of the message
There are two key elements to successful BVM: First, good technical equipment, and second, a good understanding of how to use it in your campaign. It gives you the power to get your message out quickly, reliably and inexpensively. BVM is a hybrid between a radio announcement and a live telephone call. It is a hand-delivered radio announcement with guaranteed reach, With traditional broadcast media, you must be sure your message can pass a universal litmus test. With BVM, you can reach and impact a particular demographic with a potent message that only they hear.
BVM gives you the frequency to penetrate the voters' consciousness. As John Davies says, "People retain only 20 percent of the 20,000 messages they receive each week." BVM is the way for yours to be one of them. It is most effective when used in tandem with direct mail. It is not intended to replace phonebanking or your mailings. BVM gives you the frequency and repetition of impressions to penetrate your voters, particularly in down ballot races. It's the "ah-ha" factor: "I've heard that before."
There are four key factors to successful BVM
- 1) Who records your message: The most successful messages use endorsers/celebrities. People respond to celebrities, well-known personalities. In a campaign, a "celebrity" is the most highly recognized, influential, trusted leader of a community or affinity group. Your "celebrities" can't, or won't, make hundreds or thousands of phone calls for you, but they will record a single message from their telephone following a script you give them. You know the power of having celebrities write personal notes on postcards for GOTV. You can get them to do 50 or 100 now you can have that same personal touch go to hundreds of thousands of voters who know them simply by having them record one telephone message.
- 2) How you construct your message: Your message needs to "hook the listener." Broadcast voice messages are similar to radio commercials. You must grab the listener's attention in the first few seconds and hold it. Your message must pass the WIIFT test: What's In It For Them. Your call must be relevant to them. To be most effective: a) Identify yourself immediately and give the purpose of the call in the first few seconds; b) Engage them by inviting them or asking for their help; c) If using an endorser, give information on the candidate's value to them; d) Repetition is important. You want the candidate's name repeated at least twice or as many times as possible in the flow of script and e) You want to thank them at the end - thank them for their support and/or for listening.
- 3) The delivery of your message: a) High energy: Speak with enthusiasm; b) Simplicity: Word selection: easy to understand; c) Appeal: Give purpose of call in first few seconds; d) Brevity: 15-40 seconds; Candidates: 15-25 seconds; Endorsers: 30-40 seconds; e) Quality: Make sure the technical equipment you are using has excellent answering machine detection and good audio quality. Good BVM messages should sound like the person is actually on the telephone.
- 4) When you send your message: Daytime delivery is preferable, so that your message is delivered to a voter's answering machine or voice mail. Then they listen to it at their convenience. Nighttime delivery can be used for GOTV or when your candidate needs to respond immediately to a specific constituency.
FAQs
- 1) Don't people hang up? Daytime delivery has shown 81 percent listen to the entire message.
- 2) Don't people get mad? Not many. Twenty complaints received out of 390,000 phone messages delivered.
- 3) When should BVM be used? Incumbents have used it in pre-qualifying toward off challengers. During campaigns, they have used it to reconnect with constituents, respond to attacks, provide new information and for GOTV. Challengers have used it with "celebrity" endorsers for early name recognition and in conjunction with events, to respond to attacks, provide new information and for GOTV.
- 4) What kinds of endorsers are effective? Community leaders, current or former elected officials, neighborhood leaders, CEO's of major corporations.
- 5) What elected officials have made broadcast voice message endorsements? U.S. Senators, U.S. Congressmen, Mayors, Governors, State Senators, State Representatives, County Commissioners, City Council members.
- 6) How large should a BVM callout be? It depends. If using an endorser, it should be targeted to a geographic area or an affinity group where they are well known and highly respected. You should be selective and target carefully. Five to 10 spokespersons each directed toward a targeted audience can be better than one large massive calling.
To view the entire article, please contact Mary Norwood. Mary Norwood is president of One Call Systems Inc., a telephone messaging firm located in Atlanta, GA.
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