Hustle’s Best Practices for GOTV Messaging!
The foundation of any relationship is trust. However, over time, many voters have lost trust in the intentions of those in public office. As a candidate running for office, it’s crucial to rebuild that trust with voters and strengthen your relationships within the community. One way to do this is with real one-to-one conversations via Hustle.
Hustle, a peer-to-peer text messaging platform that scales and personalizes the way that organizations are able to communicate with people, is helping candidates, their campaign staff, and volunteers become more accessible to their community. With Hustle, candidates are able to build relationships with their voters via one-to-one text messaging, thoughtfully connect with their constituents, and maintain an open line of communication about the issues that matter most. It’s these personal and authentic conversations that can lead to increased voter participation and help strengthen the fabric of our democracy.
And while Hustle’s platform has proven to be a valuable tool for elections, to experience the best results, it’s important for candidates, staff and volunteers to use Hustle’s GOTV best practices!
Here are our top tips for candidates using Hustle to communicate with voters via text message:
Do: Introduce yourself! When you’re texting with voters for the first time you should always assume that your contacts are unfamiliar with who you are. So if you’re running for State assembly, make sure to include that information in your introduction text:
Candidate: Hi there! My name is Angelica Weaver and I’m running for State Assembly in California! Is this Hillary?
Voter: Yeah, this is Hillary. How’d you get my number?
Candidate: Great! Glad I have the right number, I got it from a list of registered voters and sometimes those list aren’t always up to date! Have you heard about the upcoming election?
Do: Connect on the issues that matter most. If you’re running on a specific platform, make sure you connect with the community on those issues. Try asking your constituents what they think about the issue! This can help you begin to build a relationship and understand what matters most to them:
— “Hi Hillary, Angelica Weaver again! It’s really important to me that folks have access to affordable housing. What are your thoughts on our current housing crisis in San Francisco?”
Don’t: Only text them for hard asks like fundraising and/or turning them out to events. While fundraising via Hustle is incredibly effective, it’s important to build up relationships before a hard ask!
Do: Use scripts that identify the contact as a voter, mention the public nature of voting, and plant seeds of making a voting plan, all while maintaining a gracious tone. These types of scripts can result in a higher in turnout:
— “Hi Hillary! I’m Jessica a volunteer w/ Angelica Weaver for State Assembly. I’m Going thru a list of folks who may vote 4 Angelica.😀 You can early vote at the <location name>. Think you can vote early? ✅
Don’t: Try to fit all of the information in one text message. It’s best to keep your messages short and sweet. The longer the message, the less likely folks are to read it.
Do: Include personalized information such as the street address of the contact’s polling location! By including the polling location as a custom field in Hustle the address will appear as a clickable link that can populate in their preferred GPS map app, making it easier to plan their vote:
— “Hi <contact name> I’m <agent name> in <town> texting neighbors about voting this Tuesday. I have that you vote at <custom field: polling location>. That sound right to you?”
Don’t: Text voters after 8pm. We want to respect when people are trying to unwind from their busy days.
Do: Text voters about issues that matter. Genuine conversations spoken with an authentic human voice around important issues will allow agents to connect and perform better than texts that immediately ask “can <candidate> count on your support?”
— “Hi <Contact Name> I’m <Agent Name> from town. I’m voting this election to defend our healthcare from congress. Hbu?”
Remember, speaking to voters is a privilege.
Connecting with them is important, not just to gain their vote, but to also learn how to best work for them once elected. At the end of the day and throughout Hustling, it’s important to communicate in a way that reflects this. Hustle is not a blast tool, but rather a way to open personal channels of communication between you and your constituents. Yes, you want to share your thoughts and what you need in order to be elected, but it’s also an incredible opportunity to listen. As civic engagement declines on the whole, it’s more important that we are creating opportunities for people to share their voice in our electoral process.
So what are you waiting for? Get Hustlin’!
