True North

I spent some time on the phone last night, mostly leaving messages to tell people in my district the details of our upcoming caucus at SD45 February 2nd. Making calls is one way to promote attendance, but far from the most effective or efficient. I think we have a very good website at SD45 and do frequent updates, thanks to our indefatigable webjockey Nancy. I know it can be a challenge to find a Nancy in your district, but it needs to be a very high priority, in some ways as important as finding your actual candidate.  But even with a good website, people won't always think to check it.

I want to share something that I just got in the e-mail form my friend Mary LeClaire from SD47. They have put together a very simple but effective video they will be sending it out to approx. 400-600 email addresses from their 2008 record caucus night attendees to. The e-letter is brief with links and a donation button. More on that later. Here's the video...

Dim lights Embed Embed this video on your site

The Reagan video runs a bit long in the first part of the video, but I'm an antsy guy, and digest far too many videos and articles in a day. Still something to think about—keep your messages brief. That said, the message is very well delivered, clear and motivating. Kudos.

The reason I  wanted to show this is to motivate other BPOUs to think of ways to bring people in. Or you can just rip this one off. No need to re-invent the wheel. This works. Good job Mary, and now that you have this model set up, you can just record a new video and bang one of these out quarterly or whenever an event is coming up.

Think about it from the guy at home after work's perspective, would you rather get a phone call from some ape like me, or get a video in your inbox? Or let's flip it around from the BPOU's perspective. How many poor apes like me do you have to convince to make phone calls to cover your 2,000 person list—80% of which will be answering machines. Land lines fading out fast, caller ID, it's a tough world.

Oh, and about the recurring revenue. If you don't have a monthly payment plan set up, it's about time and it's now easier than ever. PayPal can set you up fast and easy and believe me, you will get more people willing to give 5 bucks a month than $50 a year, even though $5 a month is more. This is especially important since people have been conditioned over the last many years by the PCR refund. And if you still don't have a website, check out BPOU builders, they'll make it easy.

Get busy folks, caucus is just around the corner.

Cross-posted at Freedom Dogs. Comments welcome.