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Best Practices for Actions

Overview

With ActBlue Field Tools, there are a variety of action types you can create to engage with your volunteers. Here we'll walk through a brief explanation of all these types, as well as some best practices and pro tips for each.

Peer to Peer Texting

Peer to Peer texting allows you and your staff or volunteers to send one-on-one messages to thousands of campaign contacts and manage replies in real-time. Check out our Peer-to-Peer Actions (for Admins) page for a comprehensive guide on P2P actions.

Use Scripts

  • It’s worth your time to write multiple scripted replies so your volunteers know what to say in different situations.

  • When writing scripts, make them engaging and not transactional.

  • We don’t recommend using links in initial scripts, but if you do, consider getting a shortened custom domain such as Bitly.

Fill Reports

Train your volunteers to fill reports on all their conversations. Most importantly, Field Tools will remove contacts that have been tagged as "Opt-Out" from receiving messages in the future, so you can automatically avoid repeatedly messaging people who no longer wish to be contacted.

Multimedia Messages

Multimedia messages (MMS) are different from regular text messages in that they have a small image attached. We recommend only using MMS strategically since they often have higher impressions, but lower response rates.

Friend to Friend Texting

Multiply volunteer impact by taking advantage of friend and family networks. With Field Tools, volunteers can easily match their phone contacts to the National Voter File and see if their contacts are:

  • Registered to vote

  • Affiliated with a political party

    • Important Note: If you do not want party affiliation to appear for users' contacts reach out to us here.

  • A frequent or infrequent voter

Read more about F2F texting on our help page Friend to Friend Overview.

Build Your Network

Promote your campaign on social media and through your website, then send out your campaign link or join code to your supporters to grow your network.

Using Scripts

  • Make sure to write scripts for each contact type (Text, Email, Phone Call, Social Media Messages) in case your volunteers choose to use them.

  • Write scripts in a casual voice because your volunteers will be sending these messages to folks they personally know.

  • Teach your volunteers how to edit the scripts inside the action so they can customize a more personal message to their own contacts.

Filters

Train and encourage your volunteers to use filters in the app to distinguish their friends’ political affiliation, voting frequency, and more.

Batch Tagging

Your volunteers can “batch tag” multiple contacts in the app and use the filter icon to later locate those contacts using the same tag. Just enable the “Filterable” toggle in a tag’s settings.

  1. Go to the DATA section in your dashboard menu

  2. Click on the “Tags” sub-section

  3. Find your tag and click on the “...” to select “Edit”

  4. Check the “Filterable” box and Save

Canvassing

Canvassing actions allow volunteers to report and outreach to a list of contacts shared or assigned to them by the campaign, using a contact list similar to peer-to-peer, and outreach methods like friend-to-friend. To learn more about Canvassing actions, visit Assigned/Shared List Canvassing.

Choosing Lists

We recommend using lists of people who are likely to support your cause, but would be most swayed by a personal touch. Think about it like the second ring outside of your personal contacts.

Use Filters

Teach your volunteers to use filters for their contact list! Soon volunteers will also be able to look through a list and filter it by various fields, allowing them to comb through a large list much more easily.

Canvassing

Train your volunteers on canvassing through the Field Tools app. If a volunteer would like to share information about a friend or family member to your campaign, they can log that person through the canvassing action, even if their contact is not in the VAN.

Broadcast

Broadcast messaging allows campaigns to send mass text messages to your volunteers and/or a list of contacts who have opted in. To learn more, visit our help page Broadcast SMS: Getting Started Guide.

Trainings & Events

  • We recommend using Broadcast actions to engage your volunteers and organize them for trainings and events.

  • If you’re hosting a Zoom meeting or other online event, include the link in your message.

Create Engaging Content

We recommend using the video stories you receive in your email newsletters, digital content, and to shout out supporters on social media.

Social Sharing

Social Share actions allow you to ask your supporters to share a pre-written post across their social networks. To learn more, visit our help page Social Share: Overview.

Pro Tip:

Include a push notification and a broadcast message to your users when you send out a social share action to remind your users to share your message to social media right away.

Open A Webpage

Open A Webpage actions allow your supporters to send external links to their contacts. Some common uses include links to RSVP to events or sign a petition; as long the ask is on the webpage, we can support deep-linking to a site from Field Tools.

Pro Tips:

  • Include only one link per action.

  • Link directly to the page the ask is on.

  • Concisely explain where the link goes.

  • Link to your donation page.

Custom Voter Registration

Field Tools' custom voter registration feature allows campaigns to motivate their volunteers to register voters by leveraging a branded voter registration page.

Whether you’re a political campaign, or non-profit looking to increase voter registration, use the new custom voter registration page to create engaging, gamified and thoughtful registration actions this campaign season. To learn more, visit our Help Center article, Custom Voter Registration.