Is phone banking effective? Successful strategies and software options
In today’s increasingly digital world, traditional methods of outreach like phone banking are still remarkably effective for political campaigns and causes. Whether you’re trying to mobilize voters, raise awareness for a cause, or connect with supporters, phone banking offers a unique, personal way to engage with your audience.
In this article, we will explore the effectiveness of phone banking, share key strategies for success, and highlight some of the best software tools available, including NGP VAN’s OpenVPB and VPB Connect, a standout option for campaigns and advocacy groups alike.
The effectiveness of phone banking
Phone banking has been an integral part of voter and supporter outreach programs for decades. Next to canvassing, it’s often hailed as the next best voter outreach tactic, but it’s not without its challenges. Before we dive into those, let’s talk about why virtual phone banking is an effective outreach tactic.
- Direct, personal communication — Phone banking allows staff and volunteers to have one-on-one conversations with voters and supporters to gather and share information. It also creates two-way communication to address unique or important issues or situations in ways that some other campaign outreach or advertising doesn’t.
- Affordability — It’s pretty inexpensive to start phone banking. All you need is a phone or phone banking software along with contact information and a database to store valuable information.
- Flexibility — Phone banking also allows volunteers to help from wherever they are. Many campaigns host in-person phone banks, others host virtual phone banks to increase accessibility to their events and allow volunteers to join from home.
- Valuable data gathering — Phone banking makes it easy to gather valuable data from voters and supporters usually faster than canvassing. While contact rates are usually lower, you can usually attempt to contact more voters in the same amount of time compared to canvassing.
On the other hand, phone banking comes with challenges, too.
- Declining answer rates — Do you pick up your phone if you don’t know the number? Many people don’t. While phone banking is still effective, declining answer rates make it more necessary to increase the number of calls you need to make in the first place and implement multichannel outreach to contact voters and supporters through their preferred communication channels.
- Voter or supporter fatigue — Fatigue can easily set in for voters and supporters who are constantly asked how they plan to vote or when they can donate. As channels are continually bombarded, they sometimes become less effective which is why it’s important to reach people through their preferred communication channels.
Why strategies and tools are critical for overcoming challenges and enhancing results
Implementing effective phone banking strategies and using industry-leading tools make it easier to optimize outreach, run more efficient phone banking operations, and provide meaningful insights to make your phone banks even more effective.
Success strategies for effective phone banking
While it’s simple in theory, phone banking requires planning and strategies to set your campaign or cause up for success.
Set clear goals
One of the first tasks you should complete is defining goals and choosing metrics to measure your success. You may have different goals depending on what you’re calling for and who you’re calling, but oftentimes, there is a set goal of the total number of calls or connections that campaigns set to help achieve their voter contact goals. By setting these goals and measuring progress toward them, you can better understand if you’re projected to meet your goals and adjust your strategies if needed.
Segment your audience
It’s also important to segment your audience to tailor your scripts and inform your volunteers or staff as to who they’re calling. By targeting specific groups of people, you can create more relevant scripts and personalize calls to help increase engagement with voters or supporters and hopefully get them to take the action you’re asking them to take.
Train volunteers and staff
Before anyone makes calls, they should go through a brief training that shares how to use the phone banking software, who they’re calling, a quick review of the script, and what they’re encouraging contacts to do. Make sure to emphasize the importance of empathy, active listening, and adaptability in your training sessions to help conduct effective phone banking. By running through a quick training at the beginning of a phone bank, you decrease the likelihood of additional questions arising during it, making it easier to make more calls with fewer interruptions.
Optimize call timing
When you’re planning your phone banks, try to anticipate when your contacts will be most likely to pick up the phone. Most of the time, this means hosting phone banks during the evenings and on the weekends (except during GOTV when we call until voters cast their ballots). However, if you’re calling people in different time zones, make sure to adapt your phone banks accordingly to maximize the number of live conversations you have.
Focus on quality over quantity
When you’re making calls, you want to make sure that you prioritize having quality conversations over quantity. Quality conversations tend to drive better persuasion and mobilization conversations than trying to contact more voters. Some campaigns and causes choose to leave voicemails. If you do, make sure to keep them short and to the point so voters or supporters can quickly understand what you’re asking them to do.
Follow up
If you don’t connect with people through a call, try to reach out to them through text or email if you can. These additional channels can provide another opportunity for you to connect with supporters through another contact method. And for those you do chat with, you can follow up with them over text and email to complement your phone banking efforts and reinforce your message.
Choosing the right phone banking solution for your political campaign or organization
Effective phone banking software can help you improve your volunteers’ or staff’s phone banking experiences, reach more supporters, and gather more data to help advance your campaign or cause. While there are several phone banking solutions available, here are a few factors you’ll want to consider before making your decision.
- How many phone bankers do you expect to have using the tool?
- Who can you contact through the software?
- What integrations exist with the other tools in your tech stack (like your political CRM)?
- How easy is it for volunteers and staff to use?
- What’s the cost?
Ultimately, it’s up to you to determine what phone banking software is best for your campaign or cause, but VPB Connect is the premiere phone banking solution to help take your outreach to the next level.
Why OpenVPB and VPB Connect stand out for political campaigns and organizations
OpenVPB is our gold-standard phone banking software within VAN. It’s helped power the work of thousands of Democratic and progressive campaigns and organizations for decades. With the addition of VPB Connect, our add-on tool that adds click-to-dial functionality, you can unlock the full potential of OpenVPB. Using VPB Connect, you can quickly and seamlessly dial cell phones and landlines from a phone number with a local area code from any browser or smartphone — helping you reach more people when you need it most. Once it’s enabled in your account, you can click a button to use VPB Connect with OpenVPB. Plus, with pay-as-you-go pricing, you only pay for what you use — helping you save money and reach more voters.
Use phone banking software to drive more impact
Phone banking, when combined with targeted strategies and the right tools, remains one of the most effective ways to engage voters and drive impactful results. As you evaluate your goals, it’s crucial to select software that aligns with your efforts and empowers your team to succeed. Schedule a demo today to chat with our team and see our phone banking software in action.
