## Targeting
Phone programs enable refined message targeting. Call scripts can be customized by age, race, gender, voter history, geography and other factors to highlight the most persuasive arguments for each voter subgroup.
> When you have a starkly divided electorate and a narrow band of people who are undecided, every targeted campaign becomes important. That’s true for pro-choice groups like Planned Parenthood or NARAL, and it’s just as true for evangelical Christians and gun owners.
>> Phil Trounstine, Director, San Jose State University Survey and Policy Research Institute
## Scripting and Messaging
To identify voters, to persuade them, to get them to the polls, you must interact with them. The script must spark the target’s interest and the caller must deliver the message with energy and enthusiasm.
> In order to engage the voter, it is critical that the caller deliver a targeted, well-crafted message that tells the voter how the election outcome could affect his or her financial security, health care, educational system or another matter of self-interest.
>> Janet Grenzke, Ph.D. and Mark Watts, Ph.D, Campaigns & Elections, Dec. 2004
Short one-way calls don’t work. Two-way conversations do.
> A chatty, lengthy call where the caller develops a certain rapport with the respondent - that can have a profound effect. That can raise turnout by 3, 4, or 5 percentage points; whereas a perfunctory, mechanical call of 20-seconds duration has no detectible effect or a trivial effect.
>> Donald Green, Yale professor of political science and
co-author of Get Out the Vote! How to Increase Voter Turnout
## Breakthrough Communications
Phone calls also can enhance other media. Carefully tailored scripts use language and imagery that can reinforce and amplify television and radio ads. In addition, phones can break through the clutter. In a crowded political environment, live phone calls guarantee a one-on-one experience with the targeted voter, while TV, radio and direct mail can more easily be tuned out. That conclusion was borne out in research commissioned by Winning Connections and conducted by leading pollster Celinda Lake of Lake, Snell, Perry & Associates. Survey participants consistently “talked about phones as being uniquely engaging and distinct from other media.” The research also found that voters “make clear distinctions between commercial and political calls” and “appreciate receiving political calls, describing them as useful and informative.”
## Quick Response
Unlike other media, well-managed phone programs are capable of very rapid response. Because there are no long production or ad placement timelines, phone messages can be modified daily or even within hours to adjust to the dynamics of a campaign.
## Cost-Effectiveness
In an ideal world, a campaign would have a face-to-face conversation with each and every voter. In the real world, it simply isn’t possible.
> The overhead for canvassing for a campaign or consulting firm is huge compared to that for paid phones. Canvassing involves recruiting and training canvassers for each campaign, getting paper lists and maps into their hands, obtaining insurance coverage, transporting all these individuals to appropriate locations, and tracking the results from people scattered all over a large geographic area.
>> Janet Grenzke, Ph.D. and Mark Watts, Ph.D, Campaigns & Elections, Dec. 2004
> “Given that making a phone call costs much less than visiting a home, get-out-the-vote calls may be the most cost-effective mobilization strategy.”
>> Kosuke Imai, Department of Politics, Princeton University