So I’ve got a new favourite digital campaigning and fundraising channel! Peer 2 Peer texting.
And no it’s not using AI and pre-programmed conversations – it’s actual people having a text conversation – en mass!
Adam Knobel, who worked on the YES! Marriage Equality campaign in 2017 said “If you have the right plan, people and script, peer-to-peer texting is a game changer. Way more effective than email, cheaper and faster than phone banking and volunteers (while nervous at first) end up finding it really fun!”
Sounds old school and time consuming, I know, but you’re wrong.
It’s authentic and fast and enables real and meaningful conversations and is proving to have much higher conversion rates!
Click here if you want to see a Peer to Peer Texting (P2P SMS) presentation with case studies.
So the three best tools are Hustle, CallHub and Relay.
I know that all are beginning to be used in Australia, I’ve only seen them used for Campaigning so far, but I see opportunities for Fundraising too – especially in peer to peer events.
I’ve finally got some case studies together so I’m going to hit up some environmental orgs to see if they want to give it a go? I know it’ll allow us to have more meaningful conversations and truly use this “climate election” to make change happen.
So how can your org use P2P texting?
- Have conversations with supporters to encourage voting for policies that are positive/ intended to halt climate change
- Contact and support fundraisers in their community fundraising efforts and events
- Get more people to attend meetings, rally’s and information & training sessions
- Increase ticket sales for gala dinners and registrations for events and fun runs
- Engage & communicate with volunteers and activists and have a higher degree of confidence that they got the information & understand it
- Warm donors up before an appeal ask, therefore increase donations and income.
Just to suggest a few 🙂
How are CallHub, Relay and Hustle different?
Each have a great desktop interface that allows staff and volunteers to answer hundreds of texts per hour.
Most texts are answered within 1 hour of being received so it’s pretty easy to manage all replies in a timely fashion – only having to schedule a few hours of staff/ volunteer time to engage with supporters after you hit “send”.
They essentially offer the same service but there are a couple of important differences:
⁃ Hustle Text Messaging has a great app that makes it easier for staff and volunteers to manage the text conversations from anywhere
Hustle has been used to drive ticket sales for Fundraising Events and Gala Dinners – one charity said “In one day we sold as many individual tickets [to the gala dinner] as we did combined [across all channels] last year thanks to Hustle. I would recommend using Hustle to anyone that is trying to reach new donors.”
⁃ Relay, now GetThru, has an open API which allows you to integrate the data/ supporter records with other databases and systems
⁃ CallHub P2P SMS is the cheapest for Aussie orgs as it’s only $8 to set up a campaign and then $0.08 to send an SMS
⁃ Hustle is an American product, where they can’t send bulk unsolicited SMS/ text messages (where we can in Australia) so a human has to actually hit the “send” button to each supporter you’re initiating a conversation with
⁃ CallHub integrates really well with NationBuilder, which a lot of Aussie charities are using for your campaigns and interactive web pages.
Of CallHub, Brad Smith from the Nature Conservancy said “it is easy to set up a campaign, and the support team have been responsive to feature requests and bug reports. It’s intuitive to use, so our regular office volunteers have quickly become CallHub P2P maestros.”
So if you’re campaigning in the upcoming Federal Election or for any cause, especially environment and refugee orgs (as that’s my passion areas), and you want to try P2P texting – get in touch!
And if you want to read more, here is a great article about Peer to Peer SMS http://thechatbubble.com/2017/08/the-different-types-of-sms-campaigns/