Want to stop the campaign robocalls? Just vote

If you don’t want all those political campaign phone calls interrupting dinner, there’s a simple solution: just vote.

With campaigns leveraging an ever increasing amount of data available, political consultants have become far more savvy in how they target their telemarketing outreach. For example, unlike the old days, they can determine quickly when someone has turned in their ballot, and stop calling them once they’ve voted.

The use of data has been a game-changer, says veteran political consultant Cathy Allen, president of Seattle-based Connections Group.

“Voter trends tell us who to talk to, when, and and how to best focus our resources on the one’s who are actually going to vote,” says Allen.

Campaigns can now easily determine whether a likely voter tends to cast their ballot early or later in an election cycle, and target them accordingly.

“If we know who’s voting early, we know who to send the robocalls to first,” says Allen.

The data can also now help campaigns determine what kind of call to make to voters, whether it be an effort to sway their decision or simply get them to actually cast their ballot.

Allen says campaigns can even use the data to determine whether someone will actually answer a call, or ignore it.

“The data will tell you who to call and who not to call. In most cases, older voters that still have a landline, they still do answer the phone and they tend to be home more often,” she says.

But that doesn’t mean campaigns are entirely giving up on reaching younger voters who are unlikely to answer their call. Savvy operatives are increasingly supplementing traditional telemarketing and other tactics by leveraging mobile technology.

A recent report says campaigns are reaching tech-savvy voters with text messages, social media and mobile web ads based on location, age, party affiliation and other factors.