Including P2P texting in a campaign is becoming increasingly important because it can delivery personalized messages to voters and other target audiences.
P2P texting is one of our core services here at Monarch Broadcast Messaging. If you are interested in learning more about how P2P can assist in your campaign, be sure to check out our P2P texting page here.
Texting is one of the most widely used means of communication. Nowadays people talk on the phone less and email is often ignored but texting remains fast, easy and convenient. Previously texting was known to be more popular among the younger generation, however, 85% of all adults in the United States currently have text capable mobile phones, with a majority of those being smartphones.
For these reasons, texting is now an extremely efficient way to reach a large number of people in a short amount of time. Many campaigns are beginning to see the benefits of texting when it comes to promoting their campaigns and reaching out to their target audiences in an effective and cost-efficient way.
As campaigns adapt to technology and changing times, P2P will no doubt become an important tactic used by candidates and organizations to engage voters and members. The following will give you a good rundown on what peer-to-peer texting is all about, the benefits of using peer-to-peer texting as a campaign strategy, and the ins and outs of how it works.
So what is peer-to-peer texting?
Peer-to-peer texting allows campaigns to have personal text conversations with people through the help of volunteers. Peer-to-peer texts are personal messages sent by volunteers to initiate organic one-to-one interactions between campaign volunteers and the target audience.
It provides an opportunity to reach audiences who haven’t opted in without breaking regulations. It remains compliant with texting regulations/laws since each message is sent manually from a 10 digit phone number.
Peer-to-peer texting has been successfully used as a political campaign strategy for nationwide candidates, however, it can be used by a variety of organizations for many different purposes.
Some uses of peer-to-peer texting include gauging public interest, spreading awareness, informing the public, providing assistance, general question and answer, collecting data, signing petitions, and gathering support.
Who is it good for?
Many different kinds of organizations can benefit from implementing peer-to-peer texting strategies in their campaigns. This strategy includes many tools that can be used in different ways to help you reach your specific campaign goals.
Examples of who can benefit from peer-to-peer texting:
● Political campaigns
● Colleges and Universities
● Nonprofits
● Social awareness campaigns
● Petitioners
Why is it so effective?
Peer-to-peer texting is unique in that it uses personal messages to initiate a natural conversation with potential voters or supporters. In addition, it’s less intrusive than other campaign strategies. When a recipient receives a message they can read it on their own time and respond only if and when they wish.
These organic interactions give peer-to-peer texting a competitive edge compared to campaign strategies such as text blasting, robocalls, door-to-door knocking and email campaigns. However, there are many benefits to peer-to-peer texting beyond its genuineness.
It’s Engaging
Peer-to-peer texting has a 90% open rate within the first 5 minutes of receiving the message and an impressive 32% response rate. This visibility is simply unmatched by other campaign strategies. To put things in perspective, emails have a 20% open rate and are responded to only 6% of the time.
The reason behind these statistics could be that people are more likely to respond when the content is interesting or engaging and when they know that they are speaking to a real person, not a robot or automated message.
How do peer-to-peer texts grab attention? One feature that makes peer-to-peer texting hook the reader is through the use of MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). MMS show 6 times more engagement than messages without the use of MMS. Peer-to-peer texting allows campaigns to include a variety of MMS attachments to their messages such as photos, links, and videos. Visuals are proven to be the most effective way to grab the attention of readers.
It’s Productive
Volunteers can send out up to 1,500 personal text messages in one hour. No other campaign strategy has the ability to reach this amount of people one-on-one in such a short amount of time. Texting is fast, and volunteers can send multiple texts and host many conversations at the same time, as opposed to phone calling or door-to-door knocking where agents can only hold one conversation at a time.
In addition, peer-to-peer texting allows campaigns to target their most important audiences with the most potential of campaign loyalty. With a single assessment as simple as sending out a survey to gauge support, campaigns will know who is interested in their campaign and who is not.
For example, someone who is already a loyal Donald Trump supporter may immediately delete a text message received from a Bernie campaign volunteer. However, a Bernie supporter or an undecided voter would be more likely to open the message and even respond. This allows campaigns to zone in on the audiences with the most potential and weed out the audiences with very little potential, ultimately keeping their focus and increasing their outreach productivity.
It’s Cost-Efficient
Peer-to-peer texting services are affordable. Many campaigns find it to be entirely worth the investment in the service provider. Texts can be entirely carried out by unpaid volunteers who are passionate about getting involved with the campaign. This provides volunteers an opportunity to become a part of the campaign efforts, giving a voice to normal everyday people with an interest in making a difference in their communities.
Recruiting volunteers for peer-to-peer texting is also far easier than recruiting volunteers for door-to-door knocking, telemarketing or attending campaign events. Reason being that this assignment is a lot less tasking for volunteers since they are able to send text messages from the comfort of their own home in their free time.
Peer-to-peer texting also cuts costs of other frequently used campaign materials such as flyers, posters, and mailed materials which include paper, printing, envelopes and postage costs.
How can it be utilized in my campaign?
There are many ways peer-to-peer texting can be utilized in order to enhance your campaign’s specific outreach strategies. It is ultimately up to the campaign to decide how they would like to utilize the many features of peer-to-peer texting in order to creatively execute their specific campaign goals. Below are just a few examples.
Collect Data
Peer-to-peer texting can be used to distribute surveys in order to gauge public support of a campaign’s candidate or message. Since peer-to-peer texting legally allows outreach to audiences who haven’t opted-in it allows campaigns to identify leads and zone in on the target audiences with the most potential of being won over or loyal to the campaign. Texts can collect data from these audiences which can then be reported back to the campaign managers.
Personalized messages make it easy to receive useful feedback from the public. Volunteers may interact with the public to understand why they are in opposition or not supportive of the campaign and report the feedback in order to improve the campaign’s strategies. Once the campaign is finished, organizations can use the data collected in order to create reports, analyze the campaign’s success and access opportunities for improvement in the future.
Inform the Public
MMS can be used to easily inform the public via infographics, links and videos. These tools increase engagement and are proven effective in generating more responses. Recipients then have the opportunity to respond with any questions they may have and receive answers from real people in real-time.
Political campaigns have utilized peer-to-peer texting to provide voter registration assistance as well as voting/polling information. One campaign used peer-to-peer texting to immediately inform voters on how they could cast their votes during Hurricane Michael in 2018. They assigned volunteers to reach out to demographics in the affected areas by providing live updates on polling location changes and informing them about how they could still cast their votes if the hurricane prevented them from being able to do so.
Events and Reminders
Organizations can use peer-to-peer texting to inform the public of upcoming events, send out event reminders and gather RSVPs. Volunteers can easily send out hundreds of texts to a list of contacts with a personal event invitation such as, “Hey! This is Marlie from the Bernie campaign. There will be a rally in your area this Saturday at 4 p.m. You can check out this link for more details or respond with any questions you have. I hope you can make it!” including an option for recipients to RSVP by responding.
Gather Support
Volunteers can use texts to ask the public to sign petitions or send specific links to help spread awareness for the campaign. Peer-to-peer texting provides a fast, and efficient way to get in touch with the campaign’s supporters. This is especially beneficial in enhancing the engagement of supporters and providing them with easy ways to get more involved in the campaign if they wish.
How does it work?
First, a campaign chooses a peer-to-peer texting service provider. Next, the campaign must recruit volunteers to carry out the process. A contact list can then be shared with the volunteers via a web app.. Volunteers are assigned a list of specific contacts to reach out to and can begin sending out texts via the web app. Responses from recipients are received through the web app as well. In most cases, volunteers are expected to watch a few informational videos regarding the campaign and pass a campaign quiz before being eligible to begin sending texts.
To speed up the process most peer-to-peer texting services allow volunteers to save frequently used language in the form of templates that can be inserted into text messages. Popular responses to questions and other useful information can also be saved within the database and sent out by volunteers quickly.
Eager to see how peer-to-peer texting can enhance your campaign? It’s easy to get started and our customer service is excellent. Click here to learn more about our peer-to-peer texting services.