Door hangers go high tech during the pandemic with QR Codes and chatbots to get more responses, conduct surveys and engage more people.
How can canvassers make the most of house visits when no one answers the door? How can canvassing quickly build opt-in contact lists? How can grassroots campaigns with few funds canvass and easily conduct community surveys? Three trends during the pandemic have transformed printed door hangers into a better solution for canvassing, conducting surveys and building opt-in lists.
- People are used to getting information and taking action by scanning QR Codes
- More phones have built in QR Code readers
- Chatbot technology has improved and become more affordable
Canvassers leave door hangers which include a QR Code that residents can read or scan the QR Code to learn more, get incentives for responding and opt-in for updates. A text message is sent automatically when the QR Code is scanned. A chatbots replies, asks questions and saves the responses in a database. Even grassroots groups can afford the solution which cost about $2 per day to make door hangers more effective.
Better canvassing with 'smart' door hangers
Door hangers work
- Affordable - Door hangers can be printed quickly for very little money. Distributing door hangers through volunteers while they canvass helps keep costs low.
- Tangible - Touchable marketing materials stimulate senses and prompt the recipients to respond to your message.
- Long lasting - Unlike online ads or billboards that have a short-lived, fleeting impact on viewers, door hangers will leave a more lasting impression.
- Noticed - Door hangers get noticed and are less likely to get mistaken for junk mail.
- Shared - Residents often take door hangers inside where others are likely to see it.
QR Codes and chatbots
- A text is sent automatically when the QR Code is scanned.
- Each canvassing campaign has its own keyword(s). In this demo the keyword texted to the chatbot is 'Pedro'.
- The chatbot recognizes the keyword and knows what to do next.
- It starts by sending a greeting with a privacy policy and how to opt out from getting future messages.
- People can choose to proceed and complete the survey.
- The chatbot engages in a dialog with the resident and asks survey questions that the canvassing campaign created.
- It saves the survey answers along with the respondent's phone number to create an opt-in contact list.
- The chatbot can easily handle several incoming messages at the same time.
Adding a QR Code to door hangers to ask survey questions, provide information costs about $60/month. Learn more about how high tech door hangers here.
Creating a QR Code with survey questions
Leave behind literature restrictions. Check local regulations, but usually canvassers can leave behind literature like door hangers, but canvassers cannot place materials in mailboxes. Canvassers will often slot door hangers into cracks in doors, close them in screen doors, or roll them up and stick them in nooks and crannies of door handles.
QR Code, Door Hanger and Chatbot Resources
- Free app to create QR Codes
- One of many services that print door hangers
- Target groups with QR-coded messages to improve response rates
- Service helps mothers released from jail using text bots to first survey their needs
- Infobots help the needy find food banks and clinics while building contact lists at the same time
- Provide Eviction Protection and other forms while building contact lists automatically with MailBots
- MailBots fight voter suppression by helping the disabled and seniors find voting info
TakeAway: Boost door hangers with QR Codes linked to chatbots for better canvassing during the pandemic.
Deepak
DemLabs
Image credit: Napoleon Dynamite