Robo-calls

We have been talking with a company that does Robo calls, the machines that make automated phone calls from candidates or incumbents asking for votes, or money or money or money… or money.

Why? Because reaching hundreds of thousands of voters in a district is not easy, nor cheap. That’s why every avenue is worth exploring – mailers, signage, media buys, Robo calls, even kissing babies and so on.

Our problem is that we don’t like to get these calls. No one does. The general problem associated with running for office is becoming known. That’s the secret… name recognition. Period.

And Robo calls made just before an election can help a lot.

The Robo Callers are clever enough so they give a different message depending on if someone answers or an answering machine does. And now they let the voter press a number on their phone to give a specific response – asking for a yard sign, offering financial support and so on.

Robo calls are not cheap to use, but apparently, when someone answers 1/3 listens for under 15 seconds, 1/3 for more than half of the message and amazingly 1/3 for the entire message. They can get a message out very quickly like Twitter messages to the followers.

The problem that challengers have is that they don’t have (in my instance) 400,000 followers. If I did, I wouldn’t need Robo calls.

I understand that Senator Grassley does monthly Robo Calls asking for money. Yes, you guessed it; it’s about money, money, money. So they must work.

We haven’t decided if we should use the automated phone calling system, but it may be necessary.

Do you think that Robo calls work?

Vote for Allan Levene for Congress.