Running For Office? Learn The Pros And Cons Of Telephone Town Halls

Before deciding who to vote for, many voters want to learn about a candidate and get any questions they have about the candidate answered. Having town halls allows voters the opportunity to interact with you, listen to you and ask you questions. However, traditional town halls can be pricey and the number of voters who actually attend can be limited. Telephone town hall meetings allow you to interact with many voters, including those who otherwise may not be able to attend, at one time. Learning the pros and cons of this method will allow you to determine if it is the right move for your campaign.

Cons of Telephone Town Halls

• Voters Can't Put a Face to a Name. One of the biggest downsides to a telephone town hall meeting is that voters can't put a face to a name. Voters may feel more personally connected to someone when they can see their face and facial expressions as they speak. As such, there are still benefits to traditional town hall meetings, election debates, door-to-door campaigning and other efforts that allow you to interact with voters in person.

Pros of Telephone Town Halls

• You Can Quickly Reach Out to Thousands of Voters. One of the biggest advantages to telephone town halls is that you can quickly get your message across to 35,000 households at one time. This allows these households to learn about you, ask you questions and hear what you can do for them. Town hall teleconferences are an effective way to reach multiple households at one time, without expending a large amount of money on traditional town hall meetings, commercials or other marketing methods.
• You Can Reach Voters Who May Not Always Be Targeted With Other Efforts. The other benefit to telephone town halls is that you are able to reach out to voters who may not always be targeted with other election marketing efforts. For example, it may be hard for the elderly or the disabled to attend in-person town hall meetings. However, they likely have questions about issues that affect them. Having an telephone town hall meeting makes it easy for these voters to interact with you and get answers to the questions they have. They may feel included in the process and may get the answers they need to make a decision on whether to vote for you or not.

For more information, contact a telephone town hall specialist.

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